Marmalade

Fukushima caesium leaks 'equal 168 Hiroshimas'

2011-08-28T09:30:00.000-07:00

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The Fukushima nuclear plant Photo: AP

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Officials in protective gear check for signs of radiation on children who are from the evacuation area near the Fukushima nuclear plant Photo: REUTERS

Government nuclear experts, however, said the World War II bomb blast and the accidental reactor meltdowns at Fukushima, which has seen ongoing radiation leaks but no deaths so far, were beyond comparison.

The amount of caesium-137 released since the three reactors were crippled by the March 11 quake and tsunami has been estimated at 15,000 tera becquerels, the Tokyo Shimbun reported, quoting a government calculation.

That compares with the 89 tera becquerels released by "Little Boy", the uranium bomb the United States dropped on the western Japanese city in the final days of World War II, the report said.

The estimate was submitted by Prime Minister Naoto Kan's cabinet to a lower house committee on promotion of technology and innovation, the daily said.

The government, however, argued that the comparison was not valid.

While the Hiroshima bomb claimed most of its victims in the intense heatwave of a mid-air nuclear explosion and the highly radioactive fallout from its mushroom cloud, no such nuclear explosions hit Fukushima.

There, the radiation has seeped from molten fuel inside reactors damaged by hydrogen explosions.

"An atomic bomb is designed to enable mass-killing and mass-destruction by causing blast waves and heat rays and releasing neutron radiation," the Tokyo Shimbun daily quoted a government official as saying. "It is not rational to make a simple comparison only based on the amount of isotopes released."

Government officials were not immediately available to confirm the report.

The blinding blast of the Hiroshima bomb and its fallout killed some 140,000 people, either instantly or in the days and weeks that followed as high radiation or horrific burns took their toll.

At Fukushima, Japan declared a 20-kilometre (12 mile) evacuation and no-go zone around the plant after the March 11 quake and tsunami triggered the world's worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl 25 years ago.

A recent government survey showed that some areas within the 20-kilometre zone are contaminated with radiation equivalent to more than 500 millisieverts per year – 25 times more than the government's annual limit.

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/8722400/Fukushima-caesium-leaks-equal-168-Hiroshimas.html

Suspect leads police on chase after shooting

2010-09-25T01:07:00.000-07:00

Suspect leads police on chase after shooting

By Andy Paras

aparas@postandcourier.com

Originally published 01:52 p.m., September 22, 2010
Updated 03:25 p.m., September 22, 2010

North Charleston police say a man led authorities on a short police chase this afternoon after he shot a man in the hand during a fight at the Walmart parking lot on Rivers Avenue.

The shooting happened about noon today.

Officers responded to the parking lot at 7400 Rivers Ave. and found the victim, Asante King of Goose Creek, with a gunshot wound to his hand, according to Spencer Pryor, public information officer with the North Charleston police department.

King told police he was arguing with George Sherrod of Goose Creek when Sherrod pulled out a handgun and fired at him. The suspect fled in sport utility vehicle, Pryor said.

He was later arrested after leading Berkeley and Charleston county deputies on a short chase, Pryor said.

Sherrod is charged with attempted murder, Pryor said.

King was treated at Trident Hospital.

Reach Andy Paras at 937-5589 or on twitter at @andyparas.

Mom: Autopsy Finds Corey Haim Suffered Pulmonary Congestion

2010-03-11T15:05:00.000-08:00

Mom: Autopsy Finds Corey Haim Suffered Pulmonary Congestion

By Brian Orloff

Thursday March 11, 2010 05:00 PM EST

The official autopsy results for Corey Haim have not been released publicly, but his mother says the coroner called her to disclose the actor suffered pulmonary congestion.

In an interview with Access Hollywood, Judy Haim says an autopsy conducted Thursday also found he had an enlarged heart along with the water in the lungs.

Shortly before his death Wednesday at age 38, Haim complained of flu-like symptoms and had a high fever. His former fiancée, Tiffany Shepis, also tells PEOPLE the actor had long suffered from heart problems.

"Every time he would go to a doctor they'd tell him he had really bad arrhythmia, probably due to clogged arteries," she says. "They all said he should have it taken care of. But, being from Canada, his insurance was there, so he never went and got it done."

Shepis, who was engaged to Haim briefly between 2008 and 2009, says he also struggled with addiction. "His problem was with prescription drugs – painkillers and Valium," she says. "His addictions are common knowledge. And the longer [you] are addicted to something, the harder it is for you to quit. And that's what he was facing."

Firefighters pull woman, child from Ladson mobile home fire

2010-02-27T22:43:00.000-08:00

Posted: Feb 25, 2010 7:10 AM EST Updated: Feb 25, 2010 11:37 AM EST

By Live 5 News Staff email | Twitter

LADSON, SC (WCSC) - An unconscious woman and child were pulled from a mobile home in Ladson during a fire there Wednesday night.

Firefighters responded to the home at Plantation Acres Mobile Home Park where they saw smoke coming from the structure. Inside, firefighters found the woman and child and rushed them to Trident Medical Center for medical evaluation.

Officials said the fire started in the kitchen about 11 p.m.and firefighters quickly put out the blaze. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

No word has been released on the status of the two victims.

Rising Death Toll, Tsunami Watch After 8.8-Magnitude Quake Rocks Chile

2010-02-27T06:12:00.000-08:00

Rising Death Toll, Tsunami Watch After 8.8-Magnitude Quake Rocks Chile

The debris of a collapsed wall on a street is shown in central Santiago, early Saturday, Feb. 27,...

Dozens Dead, Buildings Toppled, Officials Say, in Quake Dozens of Times More Intense Than Haiti's
By EMILY FRIEDMAN
Feb. 27, 2010

A massive 8.8-magnitude earthquake rocked Chile early this morning, killing at least 78 and prompting tsunami warnings in areas as far away as the western coast of the United States.

The earthquake, which hit just after 3 a.m. local time, was 64 times stronger than the one that devestated Haiti last month but was much deeper, likely making the number of casualities far fewer than those in the Caribbean nation.
The minute-and-a-half-long quake was less than 100 miles north from the southwest coastal city of Concepcion, the second-largest city in Chile, but caused damage as far away as the capital Santiago nearly 200 miles away.
Hospitals in the area have been evacuated and the airport in Santiago has been shut down as the country braces to cope with at least 13 aftershocks measuring 5.0 magnitude or stronger. Phone lines and power also are out of service.

Ronald Scott, an American who was staying at a hostel in Santiago when the earthquake hit, told ABC News that while he was terrified, the damage he has witnessed was far less extensive than what he saw reported from Haiti. "It was very scary," Scott said. "The first thing I did was jump underneath the first table I could find and even that was about to collapse on me."
"Everything just started jumping up and down, the lights went out and everything sounded like a railroad train," he said. "The buildings were shaking, but they're still standing because of the construction."
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The buildings in Chile are constructed to earthquake standards and therefore can sustain more of a jolt than those in other places.
"Everything is still standing," said Scott. "The only things that are not broken were not nailed down in the house."
Elliot Yamin, a former contestant on "American Idol," had just finished performing at a music festival in Vina Del Mar, Chile, when he said the "rumbling started."
"At first, it was more of a kind of swaying back and forth and then it was a really fast kind of shaking," said Yamin.
In a sixth-floor hotel room, Yamin said he quickly moved to a doorway and then the hallway, and eventually got out of the building safely. Still, Yamin said he feared for his life.

"I thought it was a [6.0-magnitude or a 7.0-magnitude]; I had no idea it was an 8.8," he said. "The shaking and rumbling was just so-- I didn't know if I would make it down the stairs."

"It was surreal. People were panicking and a couple of pregnant women in the hospital were crying," Yamin said. "I shed a few tears. I was pretty emotional."

Yamin saidthe chaos has mostly died down now and that the aftershocks became far less frequent.

Photos of Haiti Before and After the Earthquake

2010-02-27T06:01:00.000-08:00

Photos of Haiti Before and After the Earthquake

Aerial shots and ground photos show earthquake's devastation.

Artie Lange's suicide attempt was off-limits for Howard 100 News

2010-02-26T15:04:00.000-08:00

Howard Stern said that the Artie Lange
suicide attempt was too private for his news team to expose.

www.sirius.com

Examiner Bio

Artie Lange's suicide attempt was off-limits for Howard 100 News

Artie Lange's suicide attempt was never going to be a scoop for Howard 100 News, Howard Stern told Rosie O'Donnell on Thursday's Howard Stern Show-Rosie Radio crossover broadcast.

Stern said that his own personal news team had knowledge of Artie Lange's suicide attempt shortly after it happened, but decided to sit on the story out of respect for Lange's family.

"It was so startling," said Howard Stern. "And I said to the news department, and I rarely--maybe 2 or 3 times since we've been on the air have I ever made a request--for some reason I felt that this was such a private matter...We happened to hear about Artie's suicide attempt and it hadn't hit the paper and the family was trying to keep it quiet. They were desperate for some sort of peace, and I said I don't think we should go on the air with it"

The decision to muzzle Howard 100 News kept the Artie Lange suicide attempt under wraps for four days--unheard of in the age of ruthless internet bloggers and potential pay-offs from big name sources like TMZ. The New York Post's Page Six finally broke the story with graphic details about Lange's 9 self-inflicted abdominal stab wounds on the Thursday after the attempt. The Howard 100 News team began filing reports about the Artie Lange suicide attempt after the story went public.

Howard Stern added the "Howard 100 News Team" to the cast of the Howard Stern Show when the band of gypsies moved to Sirius XM in 2006. The team of reporters covers any and all news related to the Howard Stern Show. Recent Howard 100 News stories have focused on allegations that Jay Leno and his writers are regularly stealing material from the Howard Stern Show and rumors of a new romance for Howard Stern Show co-host Robin Quivers.

Stern, who has made a career out of telling the truth when others were afraid to, couldn't bring himself to shine a light on Artie Lange's wounds."It was so sensitive and Artie is such a good friend and Artie is such a dear sweet guy and I hope he's okay," Stern told Rosie O'Donnell.

Artie Lange is currently receiving treatment at an unnamed 'facility,' and whether he will ever return to the Howard Stern Show remains uncertain.

Listen to a clip from the Artie Lange discussion below

Stern sidekick in suicide try

2010-02-26T14:50:00.000-08:00

Stern sidekick in suicide try

Comments: 436

Last Updated: 8:37 AM, January 16, 2010

Posted: 12:19 AM, January 7, 2010

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/pagesix/stern_sidekick_in_suicide_try_5m9Hwhn1OvpONlzbsiW3oJ#ixzz0ggXwzFWu

Troubled comic Artie Lange landed in the hospital after stabbing himself nine times in an apparent suicide attempt, sources told The Post. Lange's frantic mom called 911 Saturday morning after she entered his Hoboken apartment and found the bloodied funnyman, a law-enforcement source said. Lange sustained six "hesitation wounds" and three deep plunges. A source close to Lange's management team confirmed that the Howard Stern sidekick stabbed himself, adding that his mother had come to visit him that day to drop off food. Surgeons managed to save Lange despite heavy bleeding. "We all have our demons," Stern said on-air this week, referring to Lange's past battles with addiction. "Artie has given this show tremendous moments of great comedy. He's a tremendous contributor. He is a good man. Don't forget how great he is."

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/pagesix/stern_sidekick_in_suicide_try_5m9Hwhn1OvpONlzbsiW3oJ#ixzz0ggY2GcPM

Artie Lange Suicide Try

2010-02-26T14:32:00.000-08:00

January 8, 2010 12:17 PM
Artie Lange Suicide Try: Howard Stern Says "Too Much To Bear" After News Artie Lange Stabs Himself

NEW YORK (CBS) As Howard Stern sidekick Artie Lang remains in the hospital after stabbing himself nine times in an apparent suicide attempt, according to the New York Post, Stern has taken to the airwaves defending his friend and bashing the press.

Photo: Radio host Howard Stern.

(AP Photo/Stuart Ramson)

"I'm pissed off at the sh*thead who got paid $10 bucks to talk to Page Six," Stern said of the Post, who first published details of Lang's alleged medical condition.

Stern said that he was actually hoping the news "wouldn't come out" and that the story would "go away."

"I don't know what to think. I'm angry about it. I'm sad about it. I'm all over the place emotionally," Stern said Thursday on his radio show.

"I work with Artie, I love Artie. Everyone has their demons, including myself, but he's wrestling with some serious stuff. When I heard the news it was too much to bear."

The 42-year-old Lange has been absent from Stern's Sirius radio program for a month. On Monday's show, Stern said Lange isn't leaving the program and called him "a tremendous contributor."

Photo: Artie Lange.

(AP)

Lange's publicist confirmed that the radio sidekick was hospitalized. The Post says surgeons were able to save him despite heavy bleeding.

Lange's mother called police Saturday morning after entering his Hoboken, N.J. apartment and found the bloodied comedian, a law enforcement source told the New York paper. "Lange sustained six 'hesitation wounds' and three deep plunges," the paper wrote.

"This is a family matter. I don't know what to do," Stern said. "I don't know what to say...just remember who Artie is and what a wonderful guy he is...he's wrestling with some serious stuff...I only wish him well."

Stern attempted to read the Page Six item, but stopped almost immediately. "I just feel sick about this. I don't even wanna read it," he said.

Lange is a New Jersey native who lives in Hoboken and has battled drug addiction. In September, a New Jersey judge revoked his driving privileges for seven months after he admitted he was under the influence of prescribed sleeping pills in a minor traffic accident.

'Growing Pains' Actor Andrew Koenig Found Dead

2010-02-26T14:03:00.000-08:00

'Growing Pains' Actor Andrew Koenig Found Dead
By Hollie McKay

- FOXNews.com

The cause of death is currently being investigated by the coroner and there was no indication of any foul play

Andrew Koenig when he was on "Growing Pains" and now.

The body of Andrew Koenig, the actor best known for his role as Richard "Boner" Stabone in the ABC sitcom "Growing Pains" and son of original "Star Trek" star Walter Koenig, was discovered by police in Vancouver almost two weeks after he was reported missing. He was 41.

In a press conference on Thursday afternoon, a spokeswoman from the Vancouver Police Department confirmed that Koenig's body was discovered by a search team on "bridal path" in Stanley Park, which is over 1,000 acres and one of the largest urban parks in North America.

The family was close by when the discovery was made.

The cause of death is currently being investigated by the coroner and there was no indication of any foul play, but due to the sensitivity of the subject the police declined to release any further details.

Walter Koenig also spoke at the conference and said that his son "took his own life" and "was in a lot of pain." Koening's mother asked everyone to respect their family.

In addition to starring in "Growing Pains" from 1985-1989, Koenig also appeared as The Joker in the fan film “Batman: Dead End," starred as the M.C. in the 2007 interactive theater play "The Boomerang Kid," and performed with the improv group "Charles Whitman Reilly and Friends."

SLIDESHOW: "Growing Pains: Now/Then"

His most recent project, “DaZe: Vol. Too (sic) – NonSeNse” with Gary Busey is currently in post-production and slated for release later this year.

And although the Los Angeles-born child star stepped away from a full-time career in front of the lens after "Growing Pains" wrapped in 1989, he continued to pursue various passions in the arts industry.

"Koenig is an inward person, but he is smart, bright, creative, artistic," Walter Koenig's long-time agent and family friend David Moss told FoxNews.com earlier this week. “He enjoys directing and cinematography, he's very introspective.”

Those close to Koenig will always remember him for his ability to make others laugh, as he was a regular participant with the Los Angeles "Fake Radio" comedy troupe.

"He was exceptional, did the most amazing improv acts and was just so funny," friend Tony Williams said.

Koenig was also a prominent activist with a vested interest in array of different causes. According to his father's Web site, Koenig was arrested at the Rose Bowl in 2008 while protesting the United States involvement in the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in China.

The actor/activist resided in Venice Beach, Calif., but recently cleared out his apartment for unknown reasons. According to family and friends, he suffered with depression and around the time of his disappearance sent a letter to his parents that had a "despondent" tone.

Fellow child star Alyssa Milano was one of the first to “tweet” her respects.

“RIP Andrew Koenig, missing since Valentine's Day, was found dead in Vancouver, Canada,” Milano tweeted.

Georgetown man charged, mother killed by sword

2010-02-23T15:03:00.001-08:00

News - Local
Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2010
Georgetown man charged, mother killed by sword
By Tonya Root - troot@thesunnews.com

Georgetown County police charged a 29-year-old man in the death of his mother, who was found slain with a sword, according to officials.

Jonathan Maurice White was charged Monday with murder in the death of Laura Ferrante, 51, said Lt. Neil Johnson, with the Georgetown County Sheriff's Office.

Police found Ferrante in the home she shared with White and a mentally challenged adult at 531 Prior Drive, said Georgetown County Coroner Kenny Johnson.

Police found Ferrante's body on the floor of the home with a large "cutting injury to her left head and neck," Kenny Johnson said.

An autopsy is set for later today at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston.

The other adult in the home went to a neighbor's house, who notified police that something had occurred at the home and gave officers a description of the 2000 Ford Taurus that White left in, according to police.

A deputy responding to the incident saw White driving north on U.S. 17 about a mile north of the city limits of Georgetown and stopped him just after midnight Monday morning, Neil Johnson said.

The incident began around midnight when Ferrante and White argued, Johnson said. At some point the argument became physical, which led to Ferrante's death by her being cut multiple times with a sword.

"It was an argument between him and his mother," Neil Johnson said, but did not elaborate on the motive.

White is being held at the Georgetown County Detention Center.

A criminal history from the State Law Enforcement Division showed White was arrested in March 1999, September 2003 and April 2006 on various misdemeanor violations that included traffic offenses, trespassing and first-offense criminal domestic violence.

White was arrested in August 2006 and charged with misdemeanor trespassing and a felony charge of assaulting a police officer while resisting arrest, according to SLED records.

For the felony, he was sentenced to four years in prison, which was suspended for time served and two years on probation.

White was sentenced to 30 days in jail for a misdemeanor trespassing charge that was filed at the same time.
Contact TONYA ROOT at 843-444-1723

Google Links To Fort Jackson Incident

2010-02-23T12:04:00.000-08:00

Army Investigates Alleged Attempt by Soldiers to Poison Food at Fort Jackson

2010-02-23T12:02:00.000-08:00

Army Investigates Alleged Attempt by Soldiers to Poison Food at Fort Jackson

Monday, February 22, 2010

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The U.S. Army is investigating allegations that soldiers were attempting to poison the food supply at Fort Jackson in South Carolina.

The ongoing probe began two months ago, Chris Grey, a spokesman for the Army’s Criminal Investigation Division, told Fox News.

The Army is taking the allegations “extremely seriously,” Grey said, but so far, "there is no credible information to support the allegations."

Five suspects, detained in December, were part of an Arabic translation program called "09 Lima" and use Arabic as their first language, two sources told Fox News. Another military source said they were Muslim. It wasn't clear whether they were still being held.

Grey would not confirm or deny the sources’ information.

Fox News' Catherine Herridge contributed to this report.

Luke Air Force Base, AZ: Car Runs Security Gate, One Dead

2010-02-23T12:00:00.000-08:00

February 23, 2010 12:08 PM EST (Updated: February 23, 2010 12:54 PM EST)
views: 104 | comments: 1

An incident at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona has left one dead, after a car ran a security gate. The car had previously been reported stolen.

Luke Air Force Base is located located seven miles west of the central business district of Glendale, in Maricopa County, AZ. The base is named after World War I Medal of Honor recipient and former Phoenix, AZ native, Lieutenant Frank Luke, Jr. Luke was also the first U.S. aviator to receive the Medal of Honor.

The mission statement of Luke Air Force Base, from its website, is "Train the world's greatest F-16 fighter pilots and maintainers, while deploying mission ready warfighters."

The incident happened at about 11 p.m. Monday. The driver and another occupant drove the stolen car through the entrance to Luke Air Force Base in Arizona without stopping as required. Security forces set up a roadblock on a bridge leading to the operational side of the base. When the car drove directly at a security officer, he opened fire, fearing for his life.

The car then crashed. One of the suspects was pronounced dead at the scene. It is unclear if he died as a result of shooting by Luke Air Force Base personnel, or if he died in the crash.

The other suspect was air-lifted to St. Joseph's Hospital. That man reportedly is in serious condition.

Authorities currently believe the Luke Air Force Base incident is not an act of terrorism, simply a car theft gone bad. In the wake of last week's crash of a private plane by Joe Stack into an office building, it's hard to see this without wondering if there is some government fallout involved, however.

Hey

2010-02-19T01:29:00.000-08:00

Hey there I know I have not been keeping up with the blog since before this.....but on Thanksgiving night this past November my computer died and I finally got a new one a few days ago. Anyways,sorry for the delay and more to come more frequently from now on!

Amsterdam Craze: Smart Car Tipping

2009-08-19T14:42:00.001-07:00

Amsterdam Craze: Smart Car Tipping

If you’ve ever been to a rural area you’ve probably heard of cow tipping. Now the latest craze in Amsterdam is tipping those tiny Smart cars into the canals.

Smart cars are small enough to be parked perpendicularly, which means that either its head or tail is often pointing to the water. What’s a young vandal to do? Throw that sucker into the drink, of course!

The so-called ‘Smart tossing’ usually
takes place on the weekends when young folks are roaming the streets at night. Most canals have a low guard rail that prevents cars from falling into the water, but the Smart car is light enough to be lifted and tossed over.

Once a Smart car hits the water, it’s usually a total loss for the unlucky owner.

Police in Amsterdam have not wanted to publicize Smart car tipping for fear of encouraging copy-cats. However, officers are now paying close attention to the city’s canals.

photo credit: tinou bao

Tipping over tiny Smart cars is a dumb idea, pranksters told

2009-08-19T14:40:00.000-07:00

LISA ARROWSMITH

EDMONTON — The Canadian Press Last updated on Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2009 02:58AM EDT

Owners of pint-sized Smart cars aren't laughing about reports that vandals may be targeting the tiny vehicles in a 21st-century take on tipping over cows.

The Internet and blogosphere are abuzz with media reports that pranksters may have pushed several of the tiny vehicles into canals in Amsterdam.

And now a man in his 40s is charged with mischief for allegedly tipping a Smart car onto its side along Edmonton's Whyte Avenue, a trendy bar-and-boutique strip that sometimes attracts rowdy drinkers.

The car's windows, exterior mirrors and panelling were damaged, and despite the outrage of owner Kevin Spaans, amused bystanders posed with the flipped car and snapped photos with their cellphone cameras.

Police are seeking other suspects, but one official said it appears to have been an isolated occurrence.

Ken Lust, sales manager at David Morris Fine Cars, which sells the popular car, said goofing around with it isn't a harmless prank but rather a brazen act of property damage.

Mr. Lust has himself been a victim. Three years ago, he went outside one morning on a property he owns northeast of Edmonton to find that somebody had tipped his Smart car over during the night.

"The first reaction is shock and disbelief. The second reaction is anger because your car has been vandalized. It's the same feeling, I guess, if you walked out and saw your paint all scratched up or your windows smashed in," he said.

No one was ever arrested. Mr. Lust believes it was the work of several fellows who probably had too much to drink that night.

The sales manager spent several hundred dollars repairing smashed windows and a bent gas cap.

"It's an act of vandalism, pure and simple, and I think if caught, [the perpetrators] should be punished severely."

Smart cars, which have become popular with commuters for superior gas mileage and cute looks, weigh about 725 kilograms.

The average cow tips the scales at about 600 kg. Some zoologists suggest stories of hooligans butting over bovines are "udder" nonsense because the animals would resist, making it next to impossible. But cyberspace is filled with such reports.

Some Smart car customers shell out up to $20,000 for a loaded model and use the vehicle's unique look to gain attention for their business.

"We sell a lot of Smart cars [to businesses] that want to use it as an advertising vehicle so they put their company name on it because it attracts attention," Mr. Lust said.

All that attention could also make the vehicle a target for vandals, he suggested.

Photos and grainy videos have popped up on the Internet and YouTube of people using brute strength and long poles to tip small cars and outraged owners have vented their anger on blogs.

The Alberta owner of a so-called "Smartie," who found it tipped on its side, was so furious he posted photos on the Internet and offered a reward of $1,000 for information leading to an arrest.

Another man whose three-year-old Smart car was reportedly flipped outside a home in west Seattle in June, causing thousands of dollars in damage, attracted digs from SUV owners and sympathy from others when he wrote about it on a blog.

"I'm sorry, too, but it's funny. They'll be able to laugh about it in a day or so. SUV hybrids are looking better all the time, ya think?" wrote someone using the name Looniebomber.

"To all that found humour in this story/picture, I can't help but to hope that karma comes a knockin' when you're three shades of furious, because someone else damages your property and you have to foot the bill," wrote Bruce W.

Some may think tipping over cars is harmless fun, but under the Criminal Code of Canada, mischief is a potentially serious offence, said Sanjeev Anand, a law professor at the University of Alberta.

"I think it's important for the public to understand that when you interfere with someone's property and you damage someone's property, it's not a simple prank. It is a criminal offence."

A conviction carries a variety of potential punishments, including a maximum sentence of between two and 10 years in jail, although such sentences are rare, Prof. Anand said.

Michael Vick And Brett Favre Return To Madden

2009-08-19T14:37:00.000-07:00

Michael Vick is coming home! Arguably the most fun Madden player in game history is coming back to his roots. After a two year hiatus, Michael Vick will be available in Madden 2010 today with an update. Brett Favre also returns to the game after a brief retirement. Let the crazy Madden Online Franchise Mode trades for Vick and Favre begin!

Brett Favre also returns to Madden today after a much shorter absence. Last year’s cover boy is giving headaches to the EA crew once again. Last year, Favre joined the Jets just days after Madden 09 was released with him on the cover in a Packers jersey. The time table is ironically similar to last year’s announcement for Favre.

As a lifelong Madden player and an ant-Vick guy, I will say this about Michael Vick. He was a hell of a lot of fun to play in Madden. I will happily admit that he was a top draft pick for me when I would play a fantasy draft in the franchise mode. I will hate the player but I won’t hate his Madden game. I for one am excited about Vick’s return.

Vick was a lot of fun for one reason and that was his speed. I also liked to through fades to Alge Crumpler with Vick, but running was his game. The game has changed a lot in two years and is more Vick friendly than ever. Michael Vick couldn’t have come back at a better time for Madden gamers like me.

Some things will change for Michael Vick in Madden 10. For one, he isn’t an elite quarterback anymore and won’t be treated like one. Vick’s player rating will be a 74. This is a 17-point drop from Vick’s last appearance in Madden. You can’t expect Vick to walk back in at a 91. The great thing about Madden is that they constantly update throughout the season and chances are that Vick’s rating will increase with each update.

Vick’s re-emergence comes right in the middle of the Wildcat frenzy. Madden 2010 includes the Wildcat formation. This is where most players will be plugging Vick into right off of the bat. The current Eagles Wildcat has DeSean Jackson taking the snap with Donovan McNabb at wide receiver. Players can change the depth chart around and plug Vick into the formation and have a blast.

I will say this about the Wildcat in Madden 10. It is really a hit and miss play. I have played and practiced it about two dozen times. In games (and practice), it works about 40% of the time. When it works, it is a thing of absolute beauty and receivers definitely get open. The problem is that thrower has such a poor qb accuracy rating that I miss open receivers most of the time. Vick can solve this if you can get him back there.

Madden 10 also boasts a robust Online Franchise Mode. In this mode, you can make all kinds of crazy trades with guys in your league. Obviously anyone with the Eagles has a huge bargaining chip here. The mode also offers a fantasy draft where every player is available and you can start from scratch. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him go high in each and every fantasy draft.

Brett Favre’s return isn’t as exciting as Vick’s return to the game. Favre was in last year’s game, but retired in the franchise mode. Favre will get a little more respect than Vick with an overall 82 rating. Madden Online Franchise owners can have a little fun and trade Favre back to the Packers if they so desire. The gunslinger has always been a fun player, yet I would expect a much slower version of Favre this year.

Michael Vick fans can also put their money where their mouths are. Players can start Vick over McNabb at their leisure. Franchise owners could probably get a nice trade for McNabb if they wish to go that way in either the online or the cpu franchise mode. The Eagles do have a few plays which allow McNabb to scramble if the player desires. The Eagles offense is probably the perfect playbook to run with Vick.

How do you get the update? I don’t have a PS3, so I can only speak on getting the update for the Xbox 360. For Xbox users, go to the Xbox Live option and choose play a game. Once you choose that option, Xbox will notify you that your roster is out of date and offer you the newest one with Vick and Favre. Make sure you save it to your hard drive and you are good to go. Double check once you sign out of Xbox Live and go to the roster option. Look around and make sure Favre and Vick are in there. If not, repeat the Xbox Live steps and you will be ready to play with Vick or Favre.

I may be a hypocrite today because as disappointed as I am to see Michael Vick on the Eagles, I am happy to see him back in Madden. Nobody will ever deny the fun they have had if they ever played Madden using Vick. Favre and Vick are available today for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 users. The same update will be available shortly to other consoles.

Michael Vick signs with Eagles: huge Madden '10 implications to follow

2009-08-15T22:50:00.000-07:00

Examiner Bio
Michael Vick signs with Eagles: huge Madden '10 implications to follow
August 14, 12:56 PMNY PS3 ExaminerMario Mergola

You can say whatever you want about Vick’s actions or his ability on the football field, but one thing is undeniable: Michael Vick is the best virtual football player in the history of Madden football games.

Regardless of how you feel about the situation, Michael Vick has signed a one-year contract (with a team option for a second year) with the Philadelphia Eagles. At the time of Vick’s signing, Madden NFL ’10 was already shipped to stores, without Michael Vick.

Coinciding with the release of Madden NFL ’10, EA Sports’ Donny Moore preemptively stated on Twitter, “Michael Vick NOT in Madden NFL 10 Roster Update #1…once he signs with a team, we will work to get him in there ASAP.”

Time to get to work. ASAP.

Luckily, EA Sports agrees, and no more than 24 hours after the announcement of Vick's signing, Kotaku is reporting that as long as the NFL and the NFL Players' Association approves, Vick will be added to the game via the next roster update, currently slated for August 19. The evident addition of Vick to the virtual Eagles does pose a few problems.

No one really knows the playing ability of Vick after two years in prison. EA probably already has a basic set of attributes predetermined for Vick, but they might go the safe route and wait until he actually plays a few games before settling on the final numbers.

Also, the NFL’s commissioner, Roger Goodell has not yet announced if there will be a suspension for Vick. The most we know of Vick’s playing status is that a decision will be announced by week six of the NFL season. This basically means that Vick could still be suspended (or not) for any amount of time, but with the announcement of a suspension (coupled with a newfound home for the troubled star), the best estimate is that Goodell will reinstate Vick around week four of the NFL season (Philadelphia’s bye week).

The NFL may force EA to wait until Vick is fully reinstated to add him to the game for realism purposes. Hopefully, public pressure forces their hand earlier, since people that want to start a franchise right now get to play in a league including Michael Vick for seasons to come. If he gets reinstated after your franchise begins, Vick will never exist in your league.

Once Vick dons a green jersey on someone’s HDTV, the landscape of Madden football will be drastically changed. Think back to Madden 2004, when cover athlete Michael Vick was basically unstoppable. Everybody used Michael Vick in Madden ’04. Online, franchise, exhibition. Any game you played, one team was the Falcons.

The irony of this is, the best way to pester someone who continuously tortured you with the elusive Vick was to counter with a) a stellar, fast defense, or b) the second best running quarterback who actually had some throwing accuracy. Both these answers typically led to the Philadelphia Eagles.

Now Philly will be the team with which to play in Madden 2010. In every Madden game for the next year, this play could be a distinct possibility: Vick, the backup for Donovan McNabb, faking a handoff to Brian Westbrook, then throwing a deep pass to DeSean Jackson, who burnt his receiver for a long touchdown. It might actually be scarier on your Playstation 3 than on Sundays at Lincoln Financial Field.

Michael Vick being back in a Madden game is truly a unique situation. If EA lowers his overall ratings enough, every team could easily trade for Vick in their franchise. If he is rated too highly, he will be, once again, unstoppable. The balance is tricky, but most of us (myself included) just want Madden’s most exciting football player ever in the game now.

Get ready to run some QB contain plays. Or corner blitzes. Or Cover 2’s. Just get ready to be frustrated.

Michael Vick Madden 2010

2009-08-15T22:48:00.000-07:00

Michael Vick coming to Madden 2010 August 19th

Was just on Twitter and Rob Semsey PR Guy for EA just posted that Michael Vick will making an appearance in Madden 2010 with a roster update Aug. 19. Recently Mich Vick was signed to the Philadelphia Eagles on a two year contract.

Report: WB Seeks Online Features For Mortal Kombat

2009-08-13T19:40:00.000-07:00

August 11, 2009

Report: WB Seeks Online Features For Mortal Kombat
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Now that it's acquired Midway and with it the Mortal Kombat franchise, Warner Bros. is looking to take the classic fighting brand online.

It's been revealed the company is seeking a senior software engineer in networking to 'push the boundaries' of online interaction, according to UK trade paper MCV, citing a job listing discovered by fansite TRMK.

"You will work closely with architects and designers on both the Mortal Kombat team and the advanced technology group to help design and implement functionality ranging from the core network transport layer all the way to owning the final implementation of brand-new features that will revolutionize online play," reads the listing.

Recent crossover Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe featured online play, and prior handheld incarnations of the series have had local multiplayer capabilities, among other ethernet-based initiatives in the last generation.

But the pursuit of a full next-gen Mortal Kombat with online play would help place the series in more direct competition with fellow legacy fighting brand Street Fighter as well as newer entrants like Soul Calibur, and Warner Bros. is apparently wasting no time getting the franchise at the core of its $33 million Midway purchase up to speed.

Mortal Kombat team sheds Midway skin for 'WB Games Chicago'

2009-08-13T19:35:00.001-07:00

by Ben Gilbert { Jul 27th 2009 at 4:30PM }

Picked up by Warner Bros. in the auctioning off of Midway Games' assets, the development studio behind the Mortal Kombat franchise has seemingly been re-branded by its new corporate overlords. Superannuation spotted the info in the LinkedIn profile of Connie Gabelein, a human resources employee currently with Warner Bros. and formerly with Midway (and apparently never part of the management that was recently let go from the failed publisher). Ms. Gabelein lists her position as a "recruiter/HR generalist for the WB Game family of studios, which includes Monolith Productions, Surreal Software, Snowblind Studios and WB Games Chicago."

Furthermore, former Midway CTO/now "head of WB Games Chicago" Michael Weilbacher's LinkedIn profile seems to corroborate our suspicions. We've contacted Warner Bros. and Midway for comment and will update this post with more information as we get it.

Mortal Kombat Team Reportedly Considering Split from Midway

2009-08-13T19:30:00.000-07:00

Unnamed sources say the development team is in "active talks" with other publishers.
By Kris Pigna, 04/04/2009
Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe

For the long-suffering Midway, a critical blow to what remains their biggest-selling franchise must be the last thing they need right now, but it seems that may be happening all the same. According to Kotaku, unnamed sources say the development team behind the Mortal Kombat franchise is in "active talks" with other publishers to split from Midway and form their own studio.

According to the report, the Mortal Kombat team -- which is made of about 50 developers -- is angered over the lack of bonus payments guaranteed to them for Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe reaching previously-agreed-to sales targets. These unnamed sources also say there's general frustration over how Midway has handled their bankruptcy filing.

The MK team is not under contract at Midway, although there is one catch: if they do leave, they probably can't take the MK license with them, and would have to abandon work on the follow-up to MK vs. DC Universe -- a prospect that, evidently, one source said would be "tough."

A Midway PR rep commented to Kotaku, saying only that the MK team was in "good shape," and that the bonus payment scuffle wasn't Midway's doing. "Midway is not refusing to pay out those bonuses," the PR rep said. "It's the unsecured creditors committee that is refusing to allow us to pay them. They're the ones holding that up."

Midway filed for bankruptcy back in February, after facing a number of financial problems following Sumner Redstone's sale of his majority stake in the company back in December of 2008.

WANTED: Have you seen this beer-throwing Cubs fan

2009-08-13T09:46:00.000-07:00

August 13, 2009
BY KEVIN ALLEN and DAN CAHILL STAFF REPORTERS

During the fifth inning of Wednesday night's Cubs-Phillies game, one Wrigley Field bleacher dweller took out his frustration with the Cubs' poor performance on Shane Victorino.

With the bases loaded, Jake Fox lofted a fly ball to the warning track.
» Click to enlarge image
The real beer-throwing culprit is on the left, the fall guy is to the right. (Deadspin)

PHOTO GALLERY

Wrigley Field beer-throwing incident

Just as the ball was about to fall in Victorino' glove, the contents of one fan's beverage was projected onto the center fielder's head.

Victorino made the catch, and Sean Marshall tagged and scored on the play.

Sun-Times photographer Tom Cruze immortalized the moment—for better or worse—in the accompanying photo.

Wrigley Field security moved in quickly to escort the fan from his seat, but upon further review, they targeted the wrong fan.

The real culprit was quietly sitting a few seats away as the "fall guy" was hauled away.

The Cubs are working with the Chicago Police to find the real "beer chucker" and to prosecute accordingly.

Read THE Healthcare Bill For Yourself

2009-08-11T02:28:00.000-07:00

http://waysandmeans.house.gov/media/pdf/111/AAHCA09001xml.pdf

Un-American' attacks can't derail health care debate

2009-08-11T02:22:00.000-07:00

By Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer

Americans have been waiting for nearly a century for quality, affordable health care.

Health coverage for all was on the national agenda as early as 1912, thanks to Teddy Roosevelt's Bull Moose presidential run. Months after World War II came to an end in 1945, President Harry Truman called on Congress to guarantee all Americans the "right to adequate medical care and protection from the economic fears of sickness." From President Lyndon Johnson to President Bill Clinton, to President Obama's winning campaign on the promise of reform, there hasn't been a more debated domestic issue than the promise of affordable health care for all.

(Steny Hoyer)

(Nancy Pelosi/USA TODAY)

We believe it is healthy for such a historic effort to be subject to so much scrutiny and debate. The failure of past attempts is a reminder that health insurance reform is a defining moment in our nation's history — it is well worth the time it takes to get it right. We are confident that we will get this right.

Already, three House committees have passed this critical legislation and over August, the two of us will work closely with those three committees to produce one strong piece of legislation that the House will approve in September.

In the meantime, as members of Congress spend time at home during August, they are talking with their constituents about reform. The dialogue between elected representatives and constituents is at the heart of our democracy and plays an integral role in assuring that the legislation we write reflects the genuine needs and concerns of the people we represent.

However, it is now evident that an ugly campaign is underway not merely to misrepresent the health insurance reform legislation, but to disrupt public meetings and prevent members of Congress and constituents from conducting a civil dialogue. These tactics have included hanging in effigy one Democratic member of Congress in Maryland and protesters holding a sign displaying a tombstone with the name of another congressman in Texas, where protesters also shouted "Just say no!" drowning out those who wanted to hold a substantive discussion.

Let the facts be heard

These disruptions are occurring because opponents are afraid not just of differing views — but of the facts themselves. Drowning out opposing views is simply un-American. Drowning out the facts is how we failed at this task for decades.

Health care is complex. It touches every American life. It drives our economy. People must be allowed to learn the facts.

The first fact is that health insurance reform will mean more patient choice. It will allow every American who likes his or her current plan to keep it. And it will free doctors and patients to make the health decisions that make the most sense, not the most profits for insurance companies.

Reform will mean stability and peace of mind for the middle class. Never again will medical bills drive Americans into bankruptcy; never again will Americans be in danger of losing coverage if they lose their jobs or if they become sick; never again will insurance companies be allowed to deny patients coverage because of pre-existing conditions.

Lower costs, better care

Reform will mean affordable coverage for all Americans. Our plan's cost-lowering measures include a public health insurance option to bring competitive pressure to bear on rapidly consolidating private insurers, research on health outcomes to better inform the decisions of patients and doctors, and electronic medical records to help doctors save money by working together. For seniors, the plan closes the notorious Medicare Part D "doughnut hole" that denies drug coverage to those with between $2,700 and $6,100 per year in prescriptions.

Reform will also mean higher-quality care by promoting preventive care so health problems can be addressed before they become crises. This, too, will save money. We'll be a much healthier country if all patients can receive regular checkups and tests, such as mammograms and diabetes exams, without paying a dime out-of-pocket.

This month, despite the disruptions, members of Congress will listen to their constituents back home and explain reform legislation. We are confident that our principles of affordable, quality health care will stand up to any and all critics.

Now — with Americans strongly supporting health insurance reform, with Congress reaching consensus on a plan, and with a president who ran and won on this specific promise of change — America is closer than ever to this century-deferred goal.

This fall, at long last, we must reach it.

Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is speaker of the House and

Steny Hoyer, D-Md., is House majority leader.

Posted at 12:15 AM/ET, August 10, 2009 in Forum commentary, Health care/Insurance - Forum, Politics, Government - Forum | Permalink

...............wow,so just because you disagree with the Healthcare Proposal....you disagree with the facts? Bullshit. I say Pelosi is full of shit,she is from San Fransicko after all right?

I'll speak with your Moma Outside

2009-07-24T09:25:00.000-07:00

http://www.examiner.com/x-3747-Louisville-City-Hall-Examiner~y2009m7d23-Prof-Gates-to-policeman--Ill-speak-with-your-mama

I'll speak with your mama outside
Current mood: working
Category: News and Politics
Prof. Gates to policeman: “I’ll speak with your mama..”
July 23, 10:51 PM
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Prof. Henry Louis "Skip" Gates
Harvard professor Henry Louis “Skip” Gates got busted the other day, for shooting his mouth off to a cop, and our post-racial, bipartisan president has put his two cents in to fan the flames of this racial tempest in a teapot. If President Obama can mix his metaphors, so can we.
Returning from a trip to China, Gates was having trouble with the stuck front door to his rental house in trendy Cambridge, Mass. Apparently, a neighbor (all the press reports make sure to mention that she was “a white lady”) saw the Harvard don and his chauffer trying to force the door open, and called the cops. The comedy which followed is something out of the 1970’s Sanford and Son.
Giving a police officer a hard time is never a smart thing to do, no matter how many honorary degrees one has (Gates claims over 50). The surest way to get oneself arrested is to act arrogantly and aggressively when questioned. The Cambridge police report paints such a ridiculous picture of Prof. Gates that an embarrassed Boston Globe felt it had to scrub it from its website after initially posting the report. (We have posted a copy at the end of this article.)

Veritas
According to the arresting officer, Gates yelled at the police and initially refused to show any identification. Gates allegedly yelled “this is what happens to a black man in America” and “you don’t know who you’re messing with” before he was arrested, and police said he was uncooperative.
Naturally, Skip demanded the investigating officer’s name, and repeatedly called him a racist. When the policeman asked Gates to step out onto the porch to continue the discussion, the Harvard professor’s reply was: “Ya, I’ll speak with your mama outside”. Ol’ Skip’s got a lot of class, don’t he?
President Obama, in his Wednesday night prime-time commercial for socialized medicine, took time out to admit that he was ignorant of the facts, but that that, in his opinion, the cops “acted stupidly.” This intellectual breach should surprise no one, since he has previously admitted that he hasn’t read the health care legislation he was hawking to the country. Opined Obama:

I don’t know, not having been there and not seeing all the facts, what role race played in that. But I think it’s fair to say, No. 1, any of us would be pretty angry; No. 2, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they [sic] were in their own home; and, No. 3, what I think we know separate and apart from this incident is that there’s a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately. That’s just a fact.
Later, of course, Prof. Gates and the Cambridge cops kissed and made up. The police agreed to drop the (apparently well-deserved) disorderly conduct charges, and Skip can now assume the long-awaited mantle of “victim of racist police,” so valued in Harvard’s African-American Studies Department, where he teaches students preparing to enter our post-racial society.
This just in: The bulk of President Obama’s presentation Wednesday evening was, of course, a vague disquisition on the need to hurry up and pass the health care reform bill, before anyone gets a chance to read it. Short on detail, but long on metaphor, Obama’s recitation was reviewed by James Taranto in Thursday’s Wall Street Journal, with this interesting juxtaposition:
Life Imitates the Movies
• Morpheus: “This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill--the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill--you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.”--dialogue from “The Matrix,” 1999

• “If there’s a blue pill and a red pill, and the blue pill is half the price of the red pill and works just as well, why not pay half price for the thing that’s going to make you well?”--President Obama, July 22, 2009
This booking photo released by the Cambridge, Mass., Police Dept., shows Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr., who was arrested while trying to force open the locked front door of his home near Harvard University Thursday, July 16, 2009. Gates, a pre-eminent African-American scholar, is accusing Cambridge police of racism after he was arrested on a disorderly conduct charge after police said he "exhibited loud and tumultuous behavior." He was released later that day on his own recognizance and arraignment was scheduled for Aug. 26. (AP Photo/Cambridge Police Dept.)
Read the Henry Louis Gates arrest report: Gates Police Report

http://www.scribd.com/doc/17512830/Gates-Police-Report

http://www.examiner.com/x-3747-Louisville-City-Hall-Examiner~y2009m7d23-Prof-Gates-to-policeman--Ill-speak-with-your-mama

KFC BATH.....hmmmmmmmmmm

2009-05-20T20:10:00.000-07:00

KFC Workers In Trouble for Taking Bird Bath in Sink Used to Wash Dishes
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
By Staff, Associated Press

Anderson, Calif. (AP) - Three employees of a Kentucky Fried Chicken have been suspended for bathing in a deep sink used to clean dishes. The prank was discovered after one of the young women posted photos on a social networking site of the trio posing and cavorting in the steaming water in their underwear and swim wear.

The photos were filed in a gallery called "KFC moments." Captions included "haha KFC showers!" and "haha we turned on the jets."

A manager of the fast-food restaurant said the three were reprimanded and suspended Tuesday. She said no manager was on duty when the photos were taken as the three had closed the restaurant for the night.

(Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

Oprah Must Calm America's Furious Chicken Riots

2009-05-07T15:24:00.000-07:00

The breadth of Oprah's Free KFC Giveaway Disaster yesterday is just starting to become clear. Reports now indicate that the desperate—and dangerous—Oprah-induced public rush for free chicken and biscuits was a nationwide phenomenon:

In the breathtaking and blurry pic above, a line stretches outside the Penn Station KFC yesterday—a line that would soon morph into a full-blown public protest, in favor of free chicken. The manager of the store now says that the coupons will be honored today, as well, so rush right down there, everyone! But the KFC panic was widespread; look at this violent report from North Carolina:

Greensboro Police were forced to block off the entrance to the KFC on Bessemer Avenue during the dinner rush Wednesday night.

The Fire Marshal shutdown the restaurant when too many people packed inside, and many customers left empty handed.

And what is Oprah's response to this public chicken mania that she has sparked? To deny the very real danger of RACE RIOTS:

A spokewoman for Oprah's Harpo Productions in Chicago said they are not aware of any problems with the coupons.

We'd all love to pretend that we weren't "aware" of the problem, Oprah, but we've passed that point now. What we need now are solutions—real solutions, involving large sums of money from you, funneled to the angry public, via certain online media outlets who will take only a nominal percentage fee for their cooperation. Otherwise the Chicken Riots of '09 may, indeed, become your greatest legacy. Of shame.

KFC's Refusal to Give Away Grilled Chicken Sparks Sit-In?

2009-05-07T15:17:00.000-07:00

The scene outside a crowded KFC just moments ago, where a manager had barred entry to the establishment, leaving what appears to be a dejected Wally Shawn stuck outside muttering, "Inconceivable."

UPDATE BELOW] Yesterday Oprah Winfrey thought she'd be nice and arrange for free KFC grilled chicken for everybody. Big mistake. The demand for free fowl has been so overwhelming that many people are having a dickens of a time getting their chickens because the website can't handle all the coupon downloads. This morning Grub Street compiled some of the more "heart wrenching" comments from thwarted KFC consumers on Oprah's site, such as "I'M MELTING CAN'T GET THE COUPONS PLEASE IS THERE ANOTHER WAY OF GETTING THEM ???? HUNGRY FOR THE CHIICKEN" and "Nice gesture since I am unemployed and a free dinner would have been nice. I could not download the coupon."

And now this harrowing report from the scene of a KFC on 42nd Street between Madison and Park has landed in our inbox:

I went over to our nearest KFC a few minutes ago...and chaos ensued. Despite the very visible grilled chicken behind the register, the manager told everyone with coupons to leave and that the promotion was over for the day. The people there are currently holding a sit-in and refusing to leave until they get their free chicken...or the cops are called. Racial epithets were being spewed, people who actually wanted to pay for chicken were facing a potential beatdown, and the manager ran from the screaming horde. Oprah, what have ye wrought?

More than a dozen calls placed to the KFC in question have been met with an ominous busy signal. We can only assume a riot squad is currently cracking skulls to save that last defenseless grilled chicken from the freeloading mob. Developing...

UPDATE: The photo seen here was just sent to us from our source, who returned to the KFC in question but was unable to get inside to assess the situation. We're told that "unfortunately the manager is now standing in the entrance and all of the patrons are inside since it's post-lunch rush." We can only assume it's a bloodbath in there. Still developing...

FURIOUS GEORGE,the furious little monkey!!!!!!!!!!

2009-02-20T22:08:00.000-08:00

Chimp attack 911 call: 'He's ripping her apart'

(CNN) -- A Connecticut woman pleaded for police to "please hurry" to save a friend from an attack by a pet chimpanzee, according to emotional 911 recordings released Tuesday by Stamford police.
Police say Travis, seen here as a younger chimp, was like a child to his owner, Sandra Herold.

Police say Travis, seen here as a younger chimp, was like a child to his owner, Sandra Herold.

"He's ripping her apart," Sandra Herold, 70, tells dispatchers about her pet, Travis.

With the chimp squealing in the background, Herold cries out, "He's killed my friend!"

The victim, Charla Nash, 55, remains hospitalized with life-threatening injuries after the chimp, once featured in television commercials for Coca-Cola and Old Navy, attacked her Monday afternoon, police said.

Nash had just arrived at Herold's house when Travis jumped on her and began biting and mauling her, causing serious injuries to her face, neck and hands, according to Stamford Police Capt. Rich Conklin. Conklin said the attack was unprovoked, but he described it as "brutal and lengthy." Video Watch how owner made frantic call to police »

Herold had called Nash to her house to help get 14-year-old Travis back inside after he used a key to escape.

While her friend was being attacked, Herold was unable to pull the primate off. She then called 911 before stabbing the chimp with a butcher knife and hitting him with a shovel. Neither fazed Travis, who police said had been like a child to Herold.
Don't Miss

* WFSB: Chilling chimp attack 911 call released
* Woman's life in danger after chimp attack

A Stamford police officer later shot the chimp multiple times after the primate went after him inside a police cruiser, Conklin said. Travis returned to the house, where police found him dead. Conklin estimated that Travis weighed close to 200 pounds.

Conklin couldn't confirm media reports that the chimp had Lyme disease, though he did say investigators were taking their time with the case to determine what may have provoked Travis to attack Nash. Animals often do not exhibit symptoms of Lyme disease, caused by the bite of certain types of ticks, although aggression is a possible symptom, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Conklin said Nash had recently gotten a haircut that changed her appearance significantly. Conklin said the chimp had been acting "rambunctious" earlier, prompting Herold to put Xanax in a cup of tea for him to drink. He did not know if the animal had been prescribed the medicine or if Herold had ever given her pet such a mixture before. Video Watch wildlife biologist Jeff Corwin talk about the dangers of chimps »

Conklin added that his department is not used to dealing with cases such as this, and they were trying to familiarize themselves with laws and regulations before deciding if charges will be filed.

Conklin said this isn't the first interaction his officers have had with Travis. The chimp, who was well known and liked in the community, escaped in 2003 and "wreaked havoc" on the streets of Stamford for a couple of hours, Conklin said.
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Travis' body was removed from the home and taken to two locations: His head was taken to the state lab for a rabies test and the body was taken to the University of Connecticut for an animal autopsy. Conklin said this is standard procedure.

The chimp, who was known to walk around town, sometimes without a leash, also liked to surf on the Internet and was able to change the TV channel with a remote, according to a Stamford Advocate article. The paper also reported that Travis watered plants, was able to feed hay to his owner's horses, ate at a table with the rest of the family and sometimes drank wine from a stemmed glass.
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Glue bandits put Black Friday on hold for some S. Carolina stores

2008-11-29T15:52:00.000-08:00

CHARLESTON, SC (WCSC) - Vandals armed with tubes of super glue targeted as many as 60 high end stores and businesses on fashionable King Street Friday morning, squirting glue into the locks of stores.

Managers couldn't unlock their stores for early morning sales on Black Friday. Locksmiths swarmed the shopping area while frustrated shoppers waited on the sidewalk for stores to open.

At Dumas and Sons, frustrated employeees broke through a glass window instead of waiting on beseiged locksmiths. They cleaned up the glass inside the store and opened for businesses.

Witnesses said every store from Saks Fifth Avenue, to Aldo, including stores like Lacoste, Banana Republic, and J Crew were targeted by the vandals.

Port of L.A. buys Chinese X-ray scanning system with U.S. taxpayer money

2008-10-30T21:28:00.000-07:00

By Jacob Goodwin, Editor-in-Chief

Published October 16th, 2008
Color X-ray Image

For the first time, a major U.S. port has purchased a sophisticated high-energy X-ray scanning system from a Chinese manufacturer, and it is paying for it with a $1.7 million port security grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

The Port of Los Angeles, the nation’s largest, has procured a mobile X-ray scanning system, mounted on a Mack truck chassis, which was manufactured by a Chinese company called Nuctech Company Limited, headquartered in Beijing, whose president happens to be the son of the President of the People’s Republic of China. The Nuctech equipment will be used by the port police to inspect trucks delivering food, groceries and other supplies to cruise ships that are scheduled to depart from the busy West Coast port.

The bid that included the Nuctech scanner, which was cheaper than rival bids submitted by Smiths Detection, a British company with offices in New Jersey, and Rapiscan Systems, of Torrance, CA, was formally submitted to the port by a small U.S.-based business headquartered in Rancho Palos Verdes, CA, known as DULY Research Inc.

DULY Research was awarded a $1,880,000 contract in September 2007, according to a memo issued by the port’s homeland security division. Smiths Detection bid just over $2.7 million and Rapiscan’s price was about $2.9 million, sources told GSN.

"We were cognizant of the fact that we were the first port to acquire this Chinese system," said George Cummings, the port’s director of homeland security. "They were the low bidder and they complied with all the technical requirements," he added.

Some observers of the transaction have raised questions about the wisdom of U.S. tax dollars being handed to a Chinese manufacturer, the degree to which Nuctech may have "reverse engineered" the X-ray technology originally developed by Western companies, the possibility that Nuctech may have had its price subsidized by the government of the People’s Republic of China, and the notion that Nuctech may have engaged in illegal "dumping" by offering its product below its own manufacturing costs.

Cummings, the homeland security director at the port, told GSN he is not troubled by any of those possibilities.

He explained that the purchase of the Model MT1213LH mobile X-ray scanning unit was done in accordance with the procurement rules and regulations of the City of Los Angeles, which does not include any "Buy America" provisions or clauses that would prohibit the purchase of Chinese-built equipment.

He also explained that U.S. Government officials at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which administers the department’s grant programs, knew about the equipment’s origin in China and had no objection to authorizing a cost reimbursement to the California port. "The equipment will be purchased by grant funding awarded in Round 3 of the Federal Port Security Grant Program and is budgeted in the Engineering Division budget for the current fiscal year," said the port’s contract award memorandum, dated Sept. 10, 2007.

Some industry observers have speculated that Nuctech based its product’s design on technology developed years earlier by other Western X-ray manufacturers, but GSN could not identify any patent infringement lawsuits initiated or threatened by any of Nuctech’s competitors. The Chinese firm has ridden its technical expertise – and its remarkably low prices – to victory after victory in numerous European tenders during the past 18 months or so, sources say. Its scanning equipment is currently installed in more than 60 countries.

It is never easy to determine whether a company is submitting formal bids at prices below its own production costs, actions which could lead to charges of illegal dumping, but few observers doubt that Nuctech has an extremely close relationship with the Chinese government. The fact that the president of Nuctech, 37-year-old Hu Haifeng, is the son of Hu Jintao, the President of the People’s Republic of China and the General Secretary of the Communist Party in China, only fuels such suspicions.

The Port of Los Angeles seems to have taken appropriate steps to select the winning bidder. Detailed proposals from Nuctech, Smiths Detection and Rapiscan were closely examined to determine if the products offered would conform to the technical requirements.

In addition, the bid information was provided to Dr. Charles Massey, formerly of Sandia National Laboratories and currently under contract to the Department of Energy to evaluate scanning systems as part of Uncle Sam’s Secure Freight Initiative, for his independent evaluation.

"We don’t have any heartburn about this," explained Cummings, the port’s homeland security director. "We did all the due diligence we had to do. We took it to our board. We’re comfortable with this decision."

Critics of the transaction, who requested anonymity, raised the specter of sensitive X-ray images and cargo manifests being archived on the X-ray scanning system and, perhaps, transmitted via the Internet back to Nuctech in China, or to the Chinese government. Indeed, the mobile system was required to offer that technical capability.

"Automatic digital image archiving with image review of 25,000 images or greater with a flatbed scanner to record, save and associate related documents and notes including system operators, recipient, date and time," was listed as one required capability in the port’s official specification document.

"Nuctech will supply the wireless devices for transmission of images to remote inspection location, and for uploading data via internet," promised Nuctech, in its formal proposal to the port.

Cummings acknowledged that the system theoretically could capture, store and transmit such X-ray images -- and transmit them to China or elsewhere -- but wondered who might have any interest in meaningless images of meat and groceries.

The high-energy X-ray system has now arrived at the port and is undergoing testing, said Cummings. Port officials need to develop an operational health and safety program which can win the port’s approval, and make some site improvements, before the equipment can begin full-time operation.

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Md. Mother Jailed After Bodies Of 2 Children Found in Freezer

2008-10-01T07:03:00.000-07:00

By Matt Zapotosky, Petula Dvorak and Paul Duggan
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, September 30, 2008; Page A01

Phillip Garrett was passing time outside a neighbor's Calvert County home, smoking a cigarette, when he noticed a girl in pigtails wandering on the street. Her pink nightgown was caked with mud, her small body covered in bruises.

"Where's your mother?" he asked. "Where are you from?"

The girl said her mother had locked her out of their home, Garrett said yesterday, recalling Friday afternoon's encounter. She said she hadn't eaten in three days. And there was more: "She let us know that she had two sisters and that 'my mother beat them to death.' "

Early Saturday, Calvert authorities made a gruesome discovery: the bodies of two children encased in ice in a freezer in the home of Renee D. Bowman, 43. Bowman has been receiving a monthly government subsidy of $2,400 to care for her three adopted children: the 7-year-old girl on the street and two others who are now officially missing.

"You think you've seen it all," Sheriff Mike Evans said yesterday in announcing the discovery, "but you haven't."

With Bowman in jail, charged with child abuse, and investigators working to piece together what happened, the case again shined a spotlight on the D.C. Child and Family Services Agency, which recommended Bowman to a D.C. Superior Court judge as a suitable adoptive parent in 2001 and 2004. The girls had been wards of the D.C. government.

The child welfare agency came under fire in January after social workers failed to investigate reports of alleged child neglect by Banita Jacks, a Southeast Washington woman now charged with killing her four daughters in their home.

Yesterday, myriad questions about Bowman's adoptions went unanswered as city and court officials in the District, citing confidentiality laws, declined to reveal details of a background check of Bowman that was performed by a private contractor. They said they were unaware of her 1999 misdemeanor conviction in the District for threatening to hurt someone.

"It would be too premature, too irresponsible, to say someone along the chain messed up," Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) said at a news conference. He called the case "harrowing" and "a blow to everyone's heart and psyche that we could lose two more young people."

Not until today, after the ice has thawed, will authorities be able to conduct autopsies and formally identify the victims.

The missing children would be 9 and 11, officials said. They said the 7-year-old girl is a biological sister of the 9-year-old. All three were foster children of Bowman's before she adopted the oldest child in 2001 and the other two in 2004, officials said.

The sheriff's office said in a statement that Bowman told investigators the remains in the freezer were those of her older two adopted daughters. She told them she wrapped one of the children in a plastic garbage bag and the other in a rug, officials said. She said the remains had been in the freezer since February, when she moved to Lusby from Rockville, the sheriff's office said.

Six men carried the freezer out of the house, and it was transported to the state medical examiner's office in Baltimore.

Many neighbors near Bowman's beige ranch-style home in Lusby and at her former residence in Rockville said they had never seen children at her home and were unaware that she had any. Authorities in Calvert and Montgomery County -- and in Prince George's County, where she lived for a time -- said they could find no record of the children being enrolled in public schools.

Neighbor John Baroniak, 59, said Bowman told him that she had moved to Lusby to escape an abusive husband. He said she rented the house and seemed happy. He said it seemed to him that a man was staying with her recently.

"When I talked to her and everything, I thought at least I got a nice neighbor," Baroniak said. "I'm just kind of shocked and blown away."

Bowman was being held yesterday on charges of child abuse in connection with injuries to the 7-year-old. The girl escaped from her locked bedroom Thursday by jumping out a window, police said.

Bowman admitted beating the girl with a "hard-heeled shoe," the sheriff's office said. The girl told police her mother beat her with a white shoe to the point that it was covered in blood, officials said.

The child had "extensive open infected sores and open lesions," several injuries to her feet and knees, and ligature marks and extensive scarring on her neck, according to charging documents filed in court.

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Investigators said they believe the other girls died in Rockville. Any criminal charges related to their deaths would probably be filed in Montgomery, not Calvert, they said.

Montgomery police yesterday searched the small house where Bowman lived in Rockville, in the 13100 block of Vandalia Drive.

Neighbors said she lived with a man named Joe who often lifted barbells in the back yard, near a child's red plastic toy car. They did not recall seeing children.

"During the day, it was like no one was there," said Rivelino Valdiva, 29.

Neighbors said they think that Joe worked as a pressure washer and did odd maintenance jobs and that Bowman worked as a secretary. A few months before moving out, Bowman complained of back pain and said she had cancer, according to neighbor Shirley Knapp.

After Bowman moved to Calvert, the landlord complained to Howard Knapp, Shirley's husband, about the mess that had been left behind. "They were pigs," he recalled the landlord saying. "They trashed the house, and there was at least one dead cat in there."

The Maryland Department of Human Resources will file a petition in court today to gain custody of the 7-year-old.

Staff writers Aaron C. Davis, Hamil R. Harris, Nelson Hernandez, Philip Rucker and Paul Schwartzman and staff researcher Meg Smith contributed to this report.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/09/29/ST2008092900858.html?sid=ST2008092900858&s_pos=list

Fortis turmoil comes at worst time for Belgium

2008-09-27T13:55:00.000-07:00

By Tony Barber in Brussels

Published: September 26 2008 19:19 | Last updated: September 26 2008 19:19

The turbulence at Fortis, the Belgo-Dutch banking and insurance group, could hardly have erupted at a worse time for Belgium, whose linguistic rivalries and disputes over regional autonomy are so intractable that the country has been in almost total political deadlock for 15 months.

Fortis is the leading provider of retail financial services in the three Benelux countries, holding about €94bn in customer deposits as of June. It is also a pillar of the Belgian establishment, with a history stretching beyond the country’s creation in 1831.
EDITOR’S CHOICE
Belgium acts to reassure Fortis depositors - Sep-26
Fortis suffers amid liquidity speculation - Sep-25
Fortis closes three hedge funds - Sep-16
Fortis says sale to Ping An will proceed - Aug-07
The Big Freeze: Part 4 - policy response - Aug-06
In depth: European bank results - Jun-26

Yet the ability of the political classes to respond to a crisis at Fortis is in question because of the atmosphere of crisis that has hung over Belgium since a general election in June 2007.

Politicians representing Belgium’s Flemish north and Francophone south are at such loggerheads that the government of Prime Minister Yves Leterme has been brought to its knees six months after he took office. More and more Belgians wonder aloud if their country will have no alternative to peaceful self-dissolution.

Although that prospect is remote, the divisions are making themselves felt in financial markets, where the spread between Belgian and German 10-year government bonds rose last week to its highest level since the euro’s launch in 1999.

Specialists on Belgium’s public finances and welfare state fear that the inability to reach agreement will make it hard to meet the challenges confronting the national pensions and healthcare systems.

But the troubles at Fortis have broader implications. Even before it joined the consortium to break up ABN Amro, it already had substantial retail and commercial banking operations in the Netherlands. With assets of €871bn at the end of 2007, Fortis’s balance sheet is larger than the GDP of either Belgium or the Netherlands. This has prompted some to question the ability of national governments to mount a state rescue, should one be necessary.

However, ABN Amro bankers stress that the Dutch bank is still owned by an acquisition vehicle, controlled by Royal Bank of Scotland of the UK, in which Fortis is a minority shareholder. Fortis is not due to take full control of the ABN Amro operations until the third quarter of 2009, though the Dutch central bank has the power to veto the move if it is sufficiently concerned about Fortis’ stability.

Mr Leterme’s inability to broker a regional autonomy deal prompted him to tender his resignation in July, but King Albert II declined to accept it and instead appointed three mediators to present fresh proposals.

No sooner had they done so last weekend than the NVA, a centre-right Flemish nationalist party, withdrew its support from Mr Leterme’s government.

“After 15 months of hard slog,” said Bart De Wever, the NVA’s president, “we’re back where we started and perhaps even further back than that.”

Additional reporting by Peter Thal Larsen in London

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008

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First pictures of two sisters found 'hacked to pieces' in luxury 'party' flat

2008-09-18T02:06:00.001-07:00

First pictures of two sisters found 'hacked to pieces' in luxury 'party' flat

By Andy Dolan and Colin Fernandez
Last updated at 8:27 AM on 18th September 2008

* Add to My Stories Add to My Stories

Two sisters who were brutally killed in their luxury Birmingham flat were found face down with their bodies 'chopped' into several pieces, a source close to the investigation has revealed.

The brother of the two girls named them tonight as sisters Yasmine and Sabrina Larbi-Cherif, aged 22 and 19 respectively. They are understood to have only moved to the two-bedroom flat a few months before their deaths and both held office jobs.

Residents suggested one of the sisters, who were Algerian, may have recently split from a boyfriend and told of a series of rows between one of the women and a mystery man shortly before the killings.

Sisters: Yasmine, left, and Sabrina Larbi-Cherif were brutally killed in their luxury flat in Birmingham

They had overheard a succession of arguments coming from the £240,000 flat in central Birmingham.

A 22-year-old woman who lived in the flat directly below the sisters, said: 'They both had dark hair, were olive skinned and very pretty.

'Whenever I passed they would nod their head and say hello.

'From time to time I would hear raised voices coming from upstairs, a man and a woman were clearly arguing over something, although I don't know what about.

'Over the last couple of weeks, however, the arguing was getting more and more intense.

'The rows were happening more regularly and the shouting was getting louder. There were also bangs and crashes against the floor.

'It's terrible to think they have been murdered in such a brutal way.'

Neighbours described Yasmine and Sabrina as 'very decent people'

The victims, described by fellow residents in the block as 'very decent people', were discovered by the building's concierge on Monday afternoon.

He told residents he had encountered a 'gruesome bloodbath' after forcing his way into the apartment at the request of relatives concerned the women had not been in touch for several days.

Yasmine, the older sister, was a keen dancer, leading classes in belly dancing in Birmingham, and her MySpace website features a YouTube video of her performing a belly dance.

Today a fellow dance teacher paid tribute to the 'extremely decent' woman she knew.

Maria Credali, of Lichfield, said: 'Yasmine was very kind, vibrant and very enthusiastic.

'She was really into the idea of sharing her culture with other ladies. She wanted to celebrate her background.'

Yasmine was a student, she said, but took a sabbatical to do voluntary work with women's groups.

She also taught dancing to adults, until she stopped teaching around a year ago, but was also 'fantastic with kids'.

Ms Credali added: 'I just remember her with a big smile on her face. She was very gentle.'

The whole family was 'very close', she added.

The victims, described by fellow residents in the block as 'very decent people', were discovered by the building's concierge on Monday afternoon.

He told residents he had encountered a 'gruesome bloodbath' after forcing his way into the apartment at the request of relatives concerned the women had not been in touch for several days.

Yasmine used to study biochemistry and the family had been in the UK for around nine years, according to an article she wrote on the internet, in which she described her love of dance and the importance of her cultural heritage.

Sabrina is listed on her social network page as being a member of a University of Birmingham group, of which you have to be a student to join. She is thought to have been about to begin a course in French studies there.

A spokesman for the university refused to comment on reports of Sabrina's death until police had officially named the victims.

The complex, called Jupiter Apartments, was built three years ago. Big Brother 3 winner and local radio DJ Kate Lawler rents a flat in the same block as the murder scene.

Police believe the women were killed in their fourth floor flat sometime over the weekend.

Neighbours told of a 'wild party' on that floor on Saturday night.

Some said they regularly heard neighbours' arguments and speculated that the killer may have turned up music to mask the sound of the women's screams during the attack.

Crime scene: A police officer guards Jupiter Apartments in central Birmingham where the bodies of the two sisters were discovered by the concierge

Carpenter Neil Deakin, 23, who lives on the floor above the apartment, said he had gone out to the shops on Saturday night and encountered revellers on the fourth-floor landing.

He said: 'They were in their 20s and 30s and did not look or sound British because they were speaking in a foreign language.

'One of the girls seemed very drunk and she was slumped against the side of the wall in the corridor.

'As it got later people started to drift away and everything went quiet at about 3am.'

The girl's father is believed to be travelling from Algiers to identify their bodies.

A source at the Algerian Consulate in London said the victims' mother lived in Birmingham. She is being comforted by police family liaison officers.

West Midlands Police said they had no evidence the sisters had staged a party in the hours before their murders and strenuously denied suggestions that they may have been prostitutes.

A 28-year-old man from the city, who is understood to be known to the women but not related, was arrested early Tuesday morning following an all ports alert as he attempted to board a ferry in Dover, Kent, 12 hours after the bodies were discovered.

Detective Chief Superintendent Dave Mirfield, head of West Midland Police's major investigation unit, said the sisters had died in a 'chaotic and sustained attack', with the killer leaving a 'disturbed scene with a huge amount of forensic opportunities.'

Friends have paid tribute to the sisters in a group set up on social networking website Facebook.

One, Faraz Sayed, wrote: 'No-one should have gone through the fate they did. It's something you wouldn't wish to your worst enemy.

'Sabrina was a good friend, she was incredibly talented, she could sing well and play the guitar, and she was good at any sport imaginable.'

Lul Hassan wrote: 'It's deeply saddening to hear of this loss - two very beautiful people, one particularly close to my heart, and no words can describe what you meant to us.'

Daniela Duarte asked: 'Why? I just can't believe it's happening, I don't want to believe it's happening.

'Gotta wipe away the tears and keep smiling like Sab did.'

Another of Sabrina's friends, Rebecca Ramsamooj, told how the teenager would 'brighten a room'.

She added: 'Personally for me she was a role model, I looked up to her because she was a bright girl and always gave me the advice I needed to hear.

'I will miss her so much, her singing, playing the guitar is my fondest memory and most of all her presence.'

© 2008 Associated Newspapers Ltd

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1057271/First-pictures-sisters-hacked-pieces-luxury-party-flat.html

Two young Brit women found battered to death after 'sex party'

2008-09-18T02:06:00.000-07:00

Two young Brit women found battered to death after 'sex party'

London, Sept 17: Two young women were found hacked to death in a 'sustained and violent' attack at a luxury apartment block in Birmingham.

The women, in their early twenties, were discovered by the concierge who forced his way into the 200,000-pound flat.

He had been alerted by worried relatives who had failed to make contact with the pair.

Residents have claimed that the women had been working as prostitutes and were possibly killed after a 'sex party'.

However, police said they were unaware of any vice link 'at this stage' but admit that they there was no sign of a forced entry.

Cops said the victims, thought to be Iranian, suffered 'horrendous' injuries in a frenzied attack that involved knives and blunt objects.

Detective Chief Superintendent Dave Mirfield, head of West Midland Police's major investigation unit, said: 'It was a sustained and violent attack.'

Forensic teams found blood spatters in nearly every room of the murder flat. It could mean the victims were chased around as they were attacked.

"The inside was like something out of a horror movie. There was blood up the walls and over the furniture," the Sun quoted a source, as saying.

"Blood was also found on the landing and in the car park of the apartment block - where the killer presumably drove away.

"The frenzied nature of the attacks could point to the killer being on drugs," the source added.

The bodies had not been removed from the flat as forensics officers worked inside.

A 28-year-old man from the city, who is understood to be known to the women but not related, was arrested following an all-ports alert as he attempted to board a ferry in Dover, Kent, 12 hours after the bodies were discovered.

The flat is on the top floor of the five-storey Jupiter block, close to the city's Broad Street clubland.

--- ANI

http://www.newkerala.com/topstory-fullnews-23452.html

Where did Obama's money come from? Please take time and read this.

2008-09-10T07:32:00.001-07:00

Where did Obama's money come from? Please take time and read this.

Maureen Dowd, winner of the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for distinguished commentary, became a columnist on The New York Times Op-Ed page in 1995 after having served as a correspondent in the paper's Washington bureau since 1986. She has covered four presidential campaigns and served as a White House correspondent. She also wrote a column, "On Washington," for The New York Times Magazine.

Ms. Dowd joined The New York Times as a metropolitan reporter in 1983. She began her career in 1974 as an editorial assistant for The Washington Star, where she later became a sports columnist, metropolitan reporter and feature writer. When the Star closed in 1981, she went to Time magazine. Born in Washington D.C., Ms. Dowd received a B.A. degree in English literature from Catholic University (Washington, D.C.) in 1973.

WHERE DID OBAMA'S MONEY COME FROM???????

Certainly the most interesting and potentially devastating OBAMA'S TROUBLING INTERNET FUND RAISING Certainly the most interesting and potentially devastating phone call I have received during this election cycle came this week from one of the Obama's campaign internet geeks. These are the staffers who devised Obama's internet fund raising campaign which raised in the neighborhood of $200 million so far. That is more then twice the total funds raised by any candidate in history – and this was all from the internet campaign. What I learned from this insider was shocking but I guess we

shouldn't be surprised that when it comes to fund raising there simply are no rules that can't be broken and no ethics that prevail. Obama's internet campaign started out innocently enough with basic e-mail networking, lists saved from previous party campaigns and from supporters who visited any of the Obama campaign web sites. Small contributions came in from these sources and the internet campaign staff were more than pleased by the results. Then, about two months into the campaign the daily contribution intake multiplied. Where was it coming from? One of the web site security monitors began to notice the bulk of the contributions were clearly coming in from overseas internet service providers and at the rate and frequency of transmission it was clear these donations were

"programmed" by a very sophisticated user. While the security people were not able to track most of the sources due to firewalls and other blocking devices put on these contributions they were able to collate the number of contributions that were coming in seemingly from individuals but the funds were from only a few credit card accounts and bank electronic funds transfers. The internet service providers (ISP) they were able to trace were from Saudi Arabia, Iran, and other Middle Eastern countries. One of the banks used for fund transfers was also located in Saudi Arabia.

Another concentrated group of donations was traced to a Chinese ISP with a similar pattern of limited credit card charges. It became clear that these donations were very likely coming from sources other than American voters. This was discussed at length within the campaign and the decision was made that none of these donations violated campaign financing laws. It was also decided that it was not the responsibility of the campaign to audit these millions of contributions as to the actual source (specific credit card number or bank transfer account numbers) to insure that none of these internet contributors exceeded the legal maximum donation on a cumulative basis of many small donations. They also found the record keeping was not complete enough to do it anyway.

This is a shocking revelation. We have been concerned about the legality of "bundling" contributions after the recent exposure of illegal bundlers but now it appears we may have an even greater problem. I guess we should have been somewhat suspicious when the numbers started to come out. We were told (no proof offered) that the Obama internet contributions were from $10.00 to $25.00 or so. If the $200,000,000 is right, and the average contribution was $15.00, that would mean over 13 million individuals made contributions? That would also be 13 million contributions would need to be processed. How did all that happen? I believe the Obama campaign's internet fund raising needs a serious, in depth investigation and audit. It also appears the whole question of internet fund raising needs investigation by the legislature and perhaps new laws to insure it complies not only with the letter of these laws but the spirit as well.

IS IT RIGHT FOR FOREIGN COUNTRIES TO HAVE AN INVESTMENT IN WHO BECOMES OUR NEXT PRESIDENT??? IF YOU ARE IN AGREEMENT WITH THIS, PLEASE PASS IT ON.

The fact that the NY Times allowed this to be printed is amazing in itself.

Quentin “Rampage” Jackson Has a Real Life GTA IV Exeperience

2008-09-09T19:05:00.000-07:00

Quentin “Rampage” Jackson Has a Real Life GTA IV Exeperience

Posted by admin on July 21st, 2008 5 Comments Printer-Friendly

TMZ

My take: Quentin “Rampage” Jackson, one of the most well known fighters in the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) was arrested for leading police on a high speed chase through the streets of Southern California. He was then given a psychiatric evaluation and is now in the psych ward. Now for starters, anyone who has the nickname rampage is going to have some issues. Is it really a shock to anyone that a guy who fights for a living and has a middle name “rampage” would have some anger or rage issues?

For me this arrest leads to larger question about MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) and UFC. Both MMA and UFC are growing very quickly. In ESPN magazine this month, there was an article on a ten year old MMA star. For those who don’t know, MMA is like boxing except you can use grabs and kicks as well as punches to pulverize your opponent. The first MMA fight on network television was held last month on CBS and it received outstanding ratings.

MMA is by far the most violent sport accepted and covered by the main stream media. For me, MMA represents a threshold that sport has crossed. In violent sports there is a dichotomy between who you are on the field, on the floor, or in the ring and who you are off floor, field, and ring. When those two personalities cross, that is when there is trouble. I believe that to be successful in this sport you need to be a violent person, a person so violent, that violence and anger are not just part of your sporting life, but your personal life as well. How can you literally be a trained killer and cheered on by millions, and then become docile and “normal” the second the lights go off? As a society we have created Quentin’s rampage. I’m not saying that MMA isn’t fun to watch or entertaining, we just can’t be shocked when something like this happens again with another ultimate fighter.

BILLY MEIER EXPOSED

2008-09-05T22:16:00.000-07:00

The following is a statement from Underground Video Inc. about the alleged photographs and stories of Billy Meier concerning the Pleiadian visitors he encountered.
BILLY MEIER EXPOSED!

http://www.geocities.com/area51/corridor/8148/scam.html

Recently Underground Video began an in-depth inquiry into the most sensational UFO case in history. Our investigation first began as a supportive effort to verify the known fact of the Meier case to present the truth of alien-human contact to skeptics.

With the assistance of members from the Hollywood special effects team of the UltraMatrix Corporation we studied the Meier photographs and claims made by Meier's Talmud Jmmanuel, Genesis III Publishing, Light Years by Gary Kinder, The Pleiadian Connection by Randolf Winters, and the movie Contact. We also spent considerable time tracking the claims of "computer expert" and "Ph.D." Jim Dilettoso, as well as claims made through Michael Hesemann by Guido Moosbrugger from Meier's FIGU cult in Switzerland.

After six months of intense inquiry, with the assistance of cinematographers, physicists, and computer analysts from TotalResearch, we found the claims of the representatives of the Meier case to absolutely untrue. We discovered miniature models, and a variety of deceptive methods used to create this hoax. Additionally, an undercover "hidden camera" investigation penetrated the Meier cult in Switzerland, revealing irrefutable scientific evidence of FRAUD.

Underground Video was one of the foremost defenders of the Meier material. We are DISAPPOINTED to now learn the ENTIRE case is a hoax. Representations of any authenticity with regard to this case made by alleged scientific examination has proved to be totally unreliable and misleads the general public into believing a carefully fabricated lie. The persons who authenitcated the Meier case are not credible scientists nor investigators.

Any previous representations of authenticity of the Meier case in the Underground Video catalog should be ignored. Our findings will be presented to the Attorney General for possible prosecution for a Consumer Class Action Suit for Fraud. Underground Video will continue to make the Meier material available to investigators and the general public who desire to study the hoax and how it had been sold to the public for nearly 20 years.

Anyone who had previously purchased any Meier materials may write Underground Video to be included in a CONSUMER CLASS ACTION SUIT.

Underground Video
Meier Class Action Suit
PO BOX 527
Beverly Hills, CA 90213-0527

Along with Underground Video's statement is a photograph showing one of Billy Meiers alleged Pleiadian beamships taken in 1981. After computer enhancement and careful scrutiny, it has been shown the Beamship is really a miniature model made out of an upside-down cake pan, disconnected copper hose fitting, a bracelet, carpet tacks and various other identifiable objects.

The Meier photograph of the beautiful Pleiadian alien, Semjase, turned out to be a photocopy of a model from a Sears Catalog. Another one of Meier's photographs, where he allegedly traveled into the future aboard a Pleiadian Beamship to photograph the aftermath of a 9.0 earthquake in San Francisco showing the toppled Trans-America building, turned out to be a realistic looking painting from a geology magazine article about earthquakes. On top of these damning examples, every single one of Billy Meier's photographs of Pleiadian ships have been shown to be of third, fourth and even fifth generation(photographs of photographs) This means the he likely airbrushed suspension wires and other signs of fraud. There is not one example of an original, first generation Billy Meier photograph. On top of that, it has been shown that the reflections on some of the Pleiadian ships are not consistent with the position of the sun, indicating possible superimposition techniques. To top it off, a reporter found a bunch of miniature models exactly matching many of the Pleiadian ships shown in his photos. His ex-wife has come out to denounce him as a fraud as well. The evidence is overwhelming that whole Billy Meier story is unquestionably, absolutely, completely and totally 100% BOGUS. Case Closed!

Billy Meier and his cohorts, have made a lot of money out of this scam. I applaud Underground Video for seeking the truth about the Billy Meier scam and disassociating itself from any involvement with Meier. Billy Meier has done more to hurt the legitimate field of UFO research than any other person alive today. It's really a shame.
Michael Taylor

SPACESHIPS OF THE PLEIADES - The Billy Meier Story (Kal K. Korff)

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It's Atlantic Coast's turn as Hanna eyes Southeast

2008-09-03T16:35:00.001-07:00

It's Atlantic Coast's turn as Hanna eyes Southeast

By BRUCE SMITH – 1 hour ago

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Officials along the southern Atlantic coast held off ordering evacuations Wednesday amid uncertainty about where Tropical Storm Hanna might come ashore and how strong it will be when it gets there.

Instead, they kept close tabs as Hanna battered the southern Bahamas and Haiti. Forecasters tentatively predicted the storm would return to hurricane strength before hitting somewhere along the South Carolina and North Carolina coasts, probably Saturday.

Some coastal residents booked inland hotel rooms while others gave a collective shrug. Officials contemplated whether to order evacuations, make them voluntary or simply tell people to sit tight, a decision complicated by Hanna's unpredictability.

"It's much more difficult than if it's coming straight at you," said Clayton Scott, emergency management director for the county that includes Savannah, Ga.

Hanna, responsible for at least 26 deaths in Haiti, had state disaster planners considering turning major highways into one-way evacuation routes for the roughly 1 million people who live between Savannah and Wilmington, N.C.

"When the governor decides to issue an evacuation order, we know there is $200 billion of residential real estate along the coast and hundreds of thousands of people at risk," said Derrec Becker, spokesman for the South Carolina Emergency Management Division. "It's not a decision made lightly. We're not going to wait for the last minute."

But no decisions came Wednesday. Forecasts lessened fears of landfall in Savannah, where Scott, the Chatham County emergency management director, said officials didn't plan evacuations unless the projected path changed.

But in a sign that Georgia's oldest city wasn't taking the threat lightly, workers began putting up storm shutters Wednesday over the windows of gold-domed Savannah City Hall.

Hanna spent the last several days meandering between the southern Bahamas and Haiti. The National Hurricane Center forecast called for the storm to turn northwest, gradually curving more toward the U.S.

Hanna comes as New Orleans residents start to return home after fleeing Hurricane Gustav, which did less damage than feared but still caused serious flooding and could leave some in Louisiana without electricity for up to a month.

Plans changed Wednesday as the forecast did, with officials as far north as Washington, D.C., urging residents to prepare for the possibility of heavy winds and rain as forecasters said the storm might hit farther north than first expected.

In North Carolina, Gov. Mike Easley activated the North Carolina National Guard to help respond to the storm, with up to 270 troops expected in place by Friday. He said the storm could bring 10 inches of rain to the state and pleaded with residents to be prepared. Food and other emergency supplies are available at state emergency warehouses — examples of a state accustomed to responding to hurricanes.

"We have in place everything that we need," Easley said.

Cape Lookout National Seashore superintendent Russell Wilson ordered visitors to leave uninhabited islands at the park north of Wilmington, N.C., which will close at 5 p.m. Thursday.

Rangers at the Cape Hatteras National Seashore were pulling out hurricane plans and emergency planners along the state's southern coast were preparing.

"It's going to put our county in hurricane force winds for a while, which we weren't anticipating initially," said Mark Goodman, emergency management director in Onslow County on North Carolina's central coast, home to Camp Lejeune.

In South Carolina, schools planned to stay open and Horry County, closest to the projected path, was to close its emergency center overnight and reopen it Thursday morning.

While no evacuations were ordered Wednesday, Hanna already was disrupting other events. The Marines at Parris Island, S.C., moved their weekly recruit graduation up a day to Thursday. High schools rescheduled football games and the National Guard pushed up weekend exercises by two days in case troops get deployed to help along the coast. South Carolina restricted port operations. In North Carolina, Air Force bases sent planes to Ohio.

In Columbia, some 100 miles from Charleston, resident Gwendolyn Byous, 63, stocked up on supplies at a Wal-Mart.

"We have been so blessed over the past years that you never know," said Byous, who was buying water, canned meat and fruit cocktail. "I told my children drink the water that's in the faucet. That (bottled water) is only for emergencies."

But many were unimpressed by forecasts the storm could bring 80 mph winds as it neared land.

"I'm not evacuating. I don't have any concerns about it. We're going to stay," said Margarita Lynn, 58, as she walked her dogs along a road on Sullivans Island near Charleston.

Lynn said media and people not accustomed to the storms were the ones causing all the ruckus. She said she simply went to the store and bought a new tarp in case her roof was damaged.

Beachfront houses showed few signs a hurricane could be less than three days away. Windows were not boarded up and there was little activity under a blue, cloudless sky.

"We're not hysterical about things like this. We choose to live here," she said. "Every time there is a hurricane, people everywhere get hysterical about it."

___

Associated Press writers Jeffrey Collins, Page Ivey, Susanne M. Schafer and Katrina A. Goggins in Columbia; Russ Bynum in Savannah, Ga.; and Estes Thompson in Raleigh, N.C., contributed to this report.

(This version CORRECTS Onslow County is home to Camp Lejeune, not Fort Bragg.)
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Hanna May Become Hurricane Tomorrow, Aim at U.S. East Coast

2008-09-03T16:33:00.000-07:00

Hanna May Become Hurricane Tomorrow, Aim at U.S. East Coast

By Demian McLean

Sept. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Tropical Storm Hanna may strengthen into a hurricane tomorrow and aim at the southeast coast of the U.S. later this week, after lashing Haiti and the Bahamas with torrential rains.

Farther east in the Atlantic Ocean, Ike strengthened into the season's fifth hurricane, with 80 mph (129 kph) winds.

Hanna was spinning in the Atlantic off Hispaniola's northern coast as of 5 p.m. Miami time, heading to the east of the central Bahamas, the National Hurricane Center said. Destructive winds extended 290 miles from the center, with sustained speeds of about 60 mph.

``Swells from Hanna are expected to increase the risk of dangerous rip currents along portions of the southeastern United States coast during the next couple of days,'' the hurricane center said in its advisory.

As much as 15 inches (38 centimeters) of rain is forecast to fall in Puerto Rico, as well as in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, where they may unleash life-threatening mudslides and flash floods, the advisory said.

Hanna may hit the U.S. East Coast this weekend in the Carolinas, then sweep northeast.

Florida declared an emergency as Hanna approached, and residents of Georgia were advised to monitor the storm's progress.

Hanna killed at least 26 people in Haiti, Agence France- Presse reported. The western hemisphere's poorest nation and neighboring Dominican Republic have been hit by Tropical Storm Fay and Hurricane Gustav in the past three weeks.

Haiti Flooding

Rains from Hanna had completely flooded Gonaives, a city of 300,000 people north of the capital Port-au-Prince, AFP reported.

Ike's winds strengthened from 70 mph a few hours earlier, crossing the threshold of 74 mph at which the system becomes a Category 1 hurricane, the center said.

The system was about 670 miles east-northeast of the Leeward Islands and moving west-northwest at about 18 mph. It is forecast to strengthen further in the next day and be northeast of Hispaniola by the weekend.

Tropical Storm Josephine weakened in the eastern Atlantic Ocean, 375 miles west of the Cape Verde Islands. Its winds slowed to 60 mph from 65 mph.

To contact the reporter on this story: Demian McLean in Washington at dmclean8@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: September 3, 2008 17:18 EDT

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Hurricane Hanna Churns Over Bahamas

2008-09-01T23:32:00.000-07:00

Associated Press
September 2, 2008 12:00 a.m.

PROVIDENCIALES, Turks and Caicos -- Hurricane Hanna stalled for hours over the southeastern Bahamas on Monday, lashing the islands with fierce winds and rain. Forecasters said it could threaten the southeast United States by midweek.

Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Ike emerged as a new threat in the open sea, as the National Hurricane Center in Miami monitored three weaker weather systems moving westward across the Atlantic.

Hanna, with maximum sustained winds near 80 mph, lingered for much of the day near Mayaguana and nearby islands in the southeast Bahamas.

There were no immediate reports of injuries or major damage, but emergency teams were standing by and would begin assessing the situation once the storm has cleared, said Stephen Russell, interim director of the Bahamas National Emergency Management Agency.

"I'm quite certain there is going to be damage, particularly in Mayaguana," he said.

Hanna also was bringing strong winds, heavy rain and pounding surf to nearby islands, including Inagua and Crooked Island, and Turks and Caicos Islands to the south. It was expected to hit the southeastern U.S. later in the week.

"Right now, the uncertainty is such that it could hit anywhere from Miami to the outer banks of North Carolina," said Jessica Schauer Clark, a meteorologist at the U.S. National Hurricane Center. "So people really need to keep an eye on it."

Ike was approaching behind Hanna -- still about 1,400 miles out in the Atlantic Ocean, but expected to become a hurricane in the next 36 hours as it too approaches the Bahamas.

NASA was not taking any chances -- it announced a delay of at least a day in the planned move of the space shuttle Atlantis from an assembly building at Florida's Kennedy Space Center to the launch pad. The move had been scheduled for Tuesday in preparation for an October mission to the Hubble Space Telescope.

Florida state officials also were keeping nervous watch on Hanna and the weather behind it, careful not to overextend the assistance it provides to other Gulf Coast states dealing with Gustav.

Hanna's center was near the Caicos Islands on Monday evening. It was nearly stationary.

"The storm's on top of us right now and it's blowing really hard," said Miguel Campbell, a mechanic with the Bahamas Electricity Corp. on Mayaguana, where some 300 people were hunkered down.

Hanna's winds and rain reached all the way to Haiti, where thousands remain homeless in the wake of Gustav, which was downgraded to a tropical storm as it moved over central Louisiana late Monday.

In Puerto Rico, authorities said one man from Colombia was killed and a woman from Brazil was missing after they were swept away in a river swollen with rain from Hanna. The two were students at the University of Puerto Rico on a trip to the island's east.

Hanna was expected to bring up to 12 inches of rain to the Turks chain, a popular tourist destination with about 22,000 people.

Copyright © 2008 Associated Press

Vice President Sarah Palin

2008-08-29T09:18:00.000-07:00

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Sarah Palin
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Sarah Palin
Sarah Palin

Governor Sarah Palin
11th Governor of Alaska
Incumbent
Assumed office
December 4, 2006
Lieutenant Sean Parnell
Preceded by Frank Murkowski
Born February 11 1964 ( 1964-02-11) (age 44)
Sandpoint, Idaho
Political party Republican
Spouse Todd Palin
Residence Wasilla, Alaska
Alma mater University of Idaho
Profession Journalist
Religion Christian: Assemblies of God

Sarah Louise Heath Palin (IPA: /peɪlɪn/) (born February 11, 1964) is the current Governor of Alaska, and the presumptive 2008 Republican candidate for Vice President of the United States.[1] She will be the first female Vice Presidential candidate representing the Republican Party and the second female Vice Presidential candidate representing a major political party. She will be the first politician from Alaska to be nominated for Vice President.

Palin was born in Idaho and raised in Alaska. In 1984, she was the runner-up in the Miss Alaska pageant, receiving a scholarship that allowed her to attend the University of Idaho, where she received a degree in journalism. After working as a sports reporter at an Anchorage television station, Palin served two terms on the Wasilla, Alaska, City Council from 1992 to 1996, was elected mayor of Wasilla (population 5,470 in 2000) in 1996, and ran unsuccessfully for Lieutenant Governor in 2002. She was elected Governor of Alaska in 2006 by first defeating incumbent governor Frank Murkowski in the Republican primary, then former Democratic Alaskan governor Tony Knowles in the general election. She gained attention for publicizing ethical violations by state Republican Party leaders.[2]
Contents
[hide]

* 1 Early life
* 2 Pre-gubernatorial political experience
* 3 Governorship
o 3.1 Energy policies
o 3.2 Social issues
o 3.3 Matanuska Maid Dairy closure
o 3.4 Budget
o 3.5 Commissioner dismissal
* 4 2008 Vice-presidential candidacy
* 5 Personal life
* 6 Electoral history
o 6.1 Election results
* 7 References
* 8 External links

[edit] Early life

Palin was born in Sandpoint, Idaho, the daughter of Charles and Sally (Sheeran) Heath.[3] Her family moved to Alaska when she was an infant.[4] Charles Heath was a science teacher and track coach.[4] The Heaths were avid outdoors enthusiasts; Sarah and her father would sometimes wake at 3 a.m. to hunt moose before school, and the family regularly ran 5k and 10k races.[4]

Palin was the point guard and captain for the Wasilla High School Warriors, in Wasilla, Alaska, when they won the Alaska small-school basketball championship in 1982; she earned the nickname "Sarah Barracuda" because of her intense play.[4] She played the championship game despite a stress fracture in her ankle, hitting a critical free throw in the last seconds.[4] Palin, who was also the head of the school Fellowship of Christian Athletes, would lead the team in prayer before games.[4]

In 1984, after winning the Miss Wasilla contest][5] earlier that year, Palin finished second in the Miss Alaska beauty pageant which won her a scholarship to help pay her way through college.[4] In the Wasilla pageant, she played the flute and also won Miss Congeniality.

Palin holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Idaho where she also minored in politics.

She briefly worked as a sports reporter for local Anchorage television stations while also working as a commercial fisherman with her husband, Todd, her high school sweetheart.[4] One summer when she was working on Todd's fishing boat, the boat collided with a tender while she was holding onto the railing; Palin broke several fingers.[4]

[edit] Pre-gubernatorial political experience

Palin served two terms on the Wasilla City Council from 1992 to 1996. In 1996, she challenged and defeated the incumbent mayor, criticizing wasteful spending and high taxes.[4] The ex-mayor and sheriff tried to organize a recall campaign, but failed.[4] Palin kept her campaign promises by reducing her own salary, as well as reducing property taxes by 60%.[4] She ran for reelection against the former mayor in 1999, winning by an even larger margin.[4][6] Palin was also elected president of the Alaska Conference of Mayors.[7]

In 2002, Palin made an unsuccessful bid for Lieutenant Governor, coming in second to Loren Leman in a four-way race. After Frank Murkowski resigned from his long-held U.S. Senate seat in mid-term to become governor, Palin interviewed to be his possible successor. Instead, Murkowski appointed his daughter, then-Alaska State Representative Lisa Murkowski.[4]

Governor Murkowski appointed Palin Ethics Commissioner of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission,[8] where she served from 2003 to 2004 until resigning in protest over what she called the "lack of ethics" of fellow Alaskan Republican leaders, who ignored her whistleblowing complaints of legal violations and conflicts of interest.[4] After she resigned, she exposed the state Republican party's chairman, Randy Ruedrich, one of her fellow Oil & Gas commissioners, who was accused of doing work for the party on public time, and supplying a lobbyist with a sensitive e-mail.[9] Palin filed formal complaints against both Ruedrich and former Alaska Attorney General Gregg Renkes, who both resigned; Ruedrich paid a record $12,000 fine.[4]

[edit] Governorship
Governor Palin visits a wounded soldier in Landstuhl, Germany, July 2007
Governor Palin visits a wounded soldier in Landstuhl, Germany, July 2007

In 2006, Palin, running on a clean-government campaign, executed an upset victory over then-Gov. Murkowski in the Republican gubernatorial primary.[4] Despite the lack of support from party leaders and being outspent by her Democratic opponent, she went on to win the general election in November 2006, defeating former Governor Tony Knowles.[4] Palin said in 2006 that education, public safety, and transportation would be three cornerstones of her administration.[10]

When elected, Palin became the first woman to be Alaska's governor, and the youngest governor in Alaskan history at 42 years of age upon taking office. Palin was also the first Alaskan governor born after Alaska achieved U.S. statehood. She was also the first Alaskan governor not to be inaugurated in Juneau, instead choosing to hold her inauguration ceremony in Fairbanks. She took office on December 4, 2006.

Highlights of Governor Palin's tenure include a successful push for an ethics bill, and also shelving pork-barrel projects supported by fellow Republicans. Palin successfully killed the Bridge to Nowhere project that had become a nationwide symbol of wasteful earmark spending.[11][12] "Alaska needs to be self-sufficient, she says, instead of relying heavily on 'federal dollars,' as the state does today."[13]

She has challenged the state's Republican leaders, helping to launch a campaign by Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell to unseat U.S. Congressman Don Young[14] and publicly challenging Senator Ted Stevens to come clean about the federal investigation into his financial dealings.[11]

In 2007, Palin had an approval rating often in the 90s.[13] A poll published by Hays Research on July 28, 2008 showed Palin's approval rating at 80%.[15]

[edit] Energy policies

Palin's tenure is noted for her independence from big oil companies, while still promoting resource development.[13][11] Palin has announced plans to create a new sub-cabinet group of advisors, to address climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions within Alaska.[16]

Shortly after taking office, Palin rescinded thirty-five appointments made by Murkowski in the last hour of his administration, including the appointment by Murkowski of his former chief of staff Jim Clark to the Alaska Natural Gas Development Authority.[17][18] Clark later pled guilty to conspiring with a defunct oil-field-services company to channel money into Frank Murkowski's re-election campaign.[19]

In March 2007, Palin presented the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act (AGIA) as the new legal vehicle for building a natural gas pipeline from the state's North Slope.[20] Only one legislator, Representative Ralph Samuels, voted against the measure,[21] and in June Palin signed it into law.[22][23] On January 5, 2008, Palin announced that a Canadian company, TransCanada Corp., was the sole AGIA-compliant applicant.[24][25]

In response to high oil and gas prices, and in response to the resulting state government budget surplus, Palin proposed giving Alaskans $100-a-month energy debit cards. She also proposed providing grants to electrical utilities so that they would reduce customers' rates.[26] She subsequently dropped the debit card proposal, and in its place she proposed to send Alaskans $1,200 directly and eliminate the gas tax.[27][28]

[edit] Social issues

Palin is strongly pro-life, a supporter of capital punishment,[29] and belongs to Feminists for Life.[10]

She opposes same-sex marriage, but she has stated that she has gay friends and is receptive to gay and lesbian concerns about discrimination.[10] While the previous administration did not implement same-sex benefits, Palin complied with an Alaskan state Supreme Court order and signed them into law.[30] She disagreed with the Supreme Court ruling[31] and supported a democratic advisory vote from the public on whether there should be a constitutional amendment on the matter.[32] Alaska was one of the first U.S. states to pass a constitutional ban on gay marriage, in 1998, along with Hawaii.[33] Palin has stated that she supported the 1998 constitutional amendment.[10]

Palin's first veto was used to block legislation that would have barred the state from granting benefits to the partners of gay state employees. In effect, her veto granted State of Alaska benefits to same-sex couples. The veto occurred after Palin consulted with Alaska's attorney general on the constitutionality of the legislation.[31]

[edit] Matanuska Maid Dairy closure

When the Alaska Creamery Board recommended closing Matanuska Maid Dairy, an unprofitable state-owned business, Palin objected, citing concern for the impact on dairy farmers and the fact that the dairy had just received $600,000 in state money. When Palin learned that only the Board of Agriculture and Conservation could appoint Creamery Board members, she simply replaced the entire membership of the Board of Agriculture and Conservation.[13][34] The new board, led by businesswoman Kristan Cole, reversed the decision to close the dairy.[34] The new board approved milk price increases offered by the dairy in an attempt to control fiscal losses, even though milk from Washington was already offered in Alaskan stores at lower prices.[35] In the end, the dairy was forced to close, and the state tried to sell the assets to pay off its debts but received no bids.[36][37]

[edit] Budget

In the first days of her administration, Palin followed through on a campaign promise to sell the Westwind II jet purchased (on a state government credit account) by the Murkowski administration. The state placed the jet for sale on eBay three times. In August 2007, the jet was sold for $2.1 million.[38]

Shortly after becoming governor, Palin canceled a contract for the construction on an 11-mile (18-kilometer) gravel road outside of Juneau to a mine. This reversed a decision made in the closing days or hours of the Murkowski Administration.[39]

In June 2007, Palin signed into law a $6.6 billion operating budget—the largest in Alaska's history.[40] At the same time, she used her veto power to make the second-largest cuts of the construction budget in state history. The $237 million in cuts represented over 300 local projects, and reduced the construction budget to nearly $1.6 billion.[41]

[edit] Commissioner dismissal

On July 11, 2008, Governor Palin dismissed Walter Monegan as Commissioner of Public Safety and instead offered him a position as executive director of the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, which he subsequently turned down.[42][43] Monegan alleged shortly after his dismissal that it may have been partly due to his reluctance to fire an Alaska State Trooper, Mike Wooten, who had been involved in a divorce and child custody battle with Palin's sister, Molly McCann.[44] In 2006, before Palin was governor, Wooten was briefly suspended for ten days for threatening to kill McCann's (and Palin's) father, tasering his 11-year-old stepson (at the stepson's request), and violating game laws. After a union protest, the suspension was reduced to five days.[45]

Governor Palin asserts that her dismissal of Monegan was unrelated to the fact that he had not fired Wooten, and asserts that Monegan was instead dismissed for not adequately filling state trooper vacancies, and because he "did not turn out to be a team player on budgeting issues."[46] Palin acknowledges that a member of her administration, Frank Bailey, did contact the Department of Public Safety regarding Wooten, but both Palin and Bailey say that happened without her knowledge and was unrelated to her dismissal of Monegan.[46] Bailey was put on leave for two months for acting outside the scope of his authority as the Director of Boards and Commissions.

In response to Palin's statement that she had nothing to hide, in August 2008 the Alaska Legislature hired Steve Branchflower to investigate Palin and her staff for possible abuse of power surrounding the dismissal, though lawmakers acknowledge that "Monegan and other commissioners serve at will, meaning they can be fired by Palin at any time."[47] The investigation is being overseen by Democratic State Senator Hollis French, who says that the Palin administration has been cooperating and thus subpoenas are unnecessary.[48] The Palin administration itself was the first to release an audiotape of Bailey making inquiries about the status of the Wooten investigation.[46][49]

Wooten and the police union alleged that the governor had improperly released his employment files in his divorce case. However, McCann's attorney released a signed waiver from Wooten demonstrating that Wooten had authorized the release of his files through normal discovery procedures.[50][51]

[edit] 2008 Vice-presidential candidacy

Main article: John McCain presidential campaign, 2008
See also: Republican Party (United States) vice presidential candidates, 2008

On August 29, 2008, Palin was announced as John McCain's running mate.[1] Palin's selection surprised many Republican officials who had speculated about other candidates, such as Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, United States Senator Joseph Lieberman, and former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge.[52]

[edit] Personal life

Palin's husband, Todd, is a Yup'ik Alaskan native.[4] Outside the fishing season, Todd works for BP energy corporation at an oil field on Alaska's North Slope[53] and is a champion snowmobiler, winning the 2000-mile "Iron Dog" race four times.[4] The two eloped shortly after Palin graduated from college; when they learned they needed witnesses for the civil ceremony, they recruited two residents from the old-age home down the street.[4] The Palin family lives in Wasilla, about 40 miles (64 km) north of Anchorage.[54]

On September 11, 2007, the Palins' eighteen-year-old son Track, eldest of five, joined the Army.[54] He now serves in an infantry brigade and will be deployed to Iraq in September 2008. She also has three daughters: Bristol, 17; Willow, 13; and Piper, 7.[7]

On April 18, 2008, Palin gave birth to her second son, Trig Paxson Van Palin, who has Down syndrome.[55] She returned to the office three days after giving birth.[11] Palin refused to let the results of prenatal genetic testing change her decision to have the baby. "I'm looking at him right now, and I see perfection," Palin said. "Yeah, he has an extra chromosome. I keep thinking, in our world, what is normal and what is perfect?"[11]

Details of Palin's personal life have contributed to her political image. She hunts, eats moose hamburger, ice fishes, rides snowmobiles, and owns a float plane.[13][56] Palin holds a lifetime membership with the National Rifle Association. She admits that she used marijuana when it was legal in Alaska, but says that she did not like it.[10]

[edit] Electoral history

[edit] Election results
2006 Gubernatorial Election, Alaska
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Republican Sarah Palin 114,697 48.33 -7.6
Democratic Tony Knowles 97,238 40.97 +0.3
Independent Andrew Halcro 22,443 9.46 n/a
Alaskan Independence Don Wright 1,285 0.54 -0.4
Libertarian Billy Toien 682 0.29 -0.2
Green David Massie 593 0.25 -1.0
Write-ins 384 0.16 +0.1
Majority 17,459 7.36
Turnout 238,307 51.1
Republican hold Swing 4.0
Alaska Republican Gubernatorial Primary Election, 2006
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Republican Sarah Palin 51,443 50.59 n/a
Republican John Binkley 30,349 29.84 n/a
Republican Frank Murkowski, Incumbent 19,412 19.09 n/a
Republican Merica Hlatcu 211 0.21 n/a
Republican Gerald Heikes 280 0.28 n/a
Majority 21,094 20.75 n/a
Turnout 101,695 n/a n/a
2002 race for Lieutenant Governor (primary)[57]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Republican Loren Leman 21,076 29% n/a
Republican Sarah Palin 19,114 27% n/a
Republican Robin Taylor 16,053 22% n/a
Republican Gail Phillips 13,804 19% n/a
Republican Paul Wieler 1,777 2% n/a

[edit] References

1. ^ a b "McCain picks Alaska governor as running mate" (2008-08-29). Retrieved on 2008-08-29.
2. ^ Kizzia, Tom (October 24, 2006). "Part 2: Rebel status has fueled front-runner's success". Anchorage Daily News.
3. ^ Ancestry of Sarah Palin by Robert Battle. Accessed 2008-08-26.
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Johnson, Kaylene (2008). "Sarah: How a Hockey Mom Turned Alaska's Political Establishment Upside Down". Epicenter Press.
5. ^ [1]
6. ^ 2006 Campaign Tip Sheets: Alaska Governor
7. ^ a b ""About the Governor"". Biography. State of Alaska. Retrieved on 2007-12-27.
8. ^ Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission - Homepage (Redirect)
9. ^ adn.com | front : Palin explains her actions in Ruedrich case
10. ^ a b c d e Hopkins, Kyle (August 6, 2006). "Same-sex unions, drugs get little play", Anchorage Daily News. Retrieved on 2007-12-27.
11. ^ a b c d e Quinn, Steve (2007-05-10). "Alaska governor balances newborn's needs, official duties". Associated Press.
12. ^ "'Bridge to nowhere' abandoned", Associated Press via CNN 2007-09-22.
13. ^ a b c d e Barnes, Fred (July 16, 2007). "The Most Popular Governor", The Weekly Standard. Retrieved on 2007-12-27.
14. ^ Carlton, Jim. "Alaska's Palin Faces Probe" (2008-07-31).
15. ^ Alaska Statewide 'Opinion Counts' Survey Results, www.haysresearch.com. Retrieved on 2008-07-29
16. ^ Kizzia, Tom (April 12, 2007). "State aims to reduce emissions", Anchorage Daily News. Retrieved on 2007-12-27.
17. ^ "Palin Sacks Murkowski Crony Clark", Alaska Report (December 7, 2006). Retrieved on 2007-12-27.
18. ^ Sutton, Anne (2006-12-06). "Palin to examine last-hour job blitz", Associated Press.
19. ^ Richard, Mauer; Sean Cockerham (2008-03-05). "Murkowski staff chief pleads guilty", Anchorage Daily News, The McClatchy Company. Retrieved on 2008-04-19.
20. ^ ""Governor Palin Unveils the AGIA"". News & Announcements. State of Alaska (March 2, 2007). Retrieved on 2007-12-27.
21. ^ ""Palin to sign gas pipeline plan today"". News & Announcements. Alaska Legislature (June 6, 2007). Retrieved on 2008-02-26.
22. ^ ""Gov. Performs Ceremonial Signing of AGIA"". News & Announcements. State of Alaska (June 7, 2007). Retrieved on 2007-12-27.
23. ^ ""Bill History/Action for 25th Legislature: HB 177"". BASIS. Alaska State Legislature (June 7, 2007). Retrieved on 2007-12-27.
24. ^ Palin picks Canadian company for gas line: Gas Pipeline | adn.com
25. ^ KTUU.com | Alaska's news and information source | Canadian company meets AGIA requirements
26. ^ Cockerham, Sean. “Palin wants to give Alaskans $100 a month to use on energy”, Anchorage Daily News (2008-05-16).
27. ^ Cockerham, Sean.“Palin expected to drop energy debit card plan”, Anchorage Daily News (2008-06-18).
28. ^ http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=300668510518137
29. ^ "PUBLIC SAFETY", Sarah on Issues, Palinforgovernor.com (November 7, 2006).
30. ^ McAllister, Bill (December 20, 2006). "Gay partners of state employees win benefits", KTUU News, KTUU-TV. Retrieved on 2007-12-27.
31. ^ a b "Alaska governor won't block partner benefits", Gay.com (December 29, 2006). Retrieved on 2008-07-31.
32. ^ Demer, Lisa (December 21, 2006). "Palin to comply on same-sex ruling", Anchorage Daily News. Retrieved on 2007-12-27.
33. ^ Vestal, Christine (March 1, 2007 (updateSeptember d 20, 2007)). "Gay marriage decisions ripe in 2 courts", Stateline.org. Retrieved on 2007-12-27.
34. ^ a b Komarnitsky, S. J. (July 4, 2007). "State board votes to replace Mat Maid CEO", Anchorage Daily News. Retrieved on 2008-01-06.
35. ^ Komarnitsky, S. J. (July 10, 2007). "Creamery Board approves milk price increase for dairy farmers", Anchorage Daily News. Retrieved on 2008-01-06.
36. ^ Komarnitsky, S. J. (August 30, 2007). "State to put Mat Maid dairy up for sale", Anchorage Daily News.
37. ^ "State gets no bids for Matanuska Maid", Anchorage Daily News (December 8, 2007). Retrieved on 2008-01-06.
38. ^ ""Jet That Helped Defeat an Alaska Governor Is Sold"". The New York Times (August 25, 2007). Retrieved on 2008-08-06.
39. ^ KTUU.com | Alaska's news and information source | Palin cancels contracts for pioneer road to Juneau
40. ^ Shinohara, Rosemary (July 16, 2007). "No vetoes here", Anchorage Daily News. Retrieved on 2007-12-27.
41. ^ http://www.alaskajournal.com/stories/070807/hom_20070708005.shtml
42. ^ Resources from Anchorage Daily News regarding the Monegan affair.
43. ^ Hopkins, Kyle (2008-07-12). "Governor offered Monegan a different job", Anchorage Daily News, The McClatchy Company. Retrieved on 2008-08-21.
44. ^ Hollan, Megan (2008-07-19). "Monegan says he was pressured to fire cop", Anchorage Daily News, The McClatchy Company. Retrieved on 2008-07-22. : "Monegan said he still isn't sure why he was fired but thought that Wooten could be part of it."
45. ^ Demer, Lisa. Is Wooten a good trooper?, Anchorage Daily News (2008-07-27).
46. ^ a b c Cockerham, Sean. “Palin staff pushed to have trooper fired”, Anchorage Daily News (2008-08-14). Retrieved 2008-08-24.
47. ^ Quinn, Steve. "Lawmakers formally call for investigation into Palin's Public Safety firing", Associated Press via Daily News-Miner (2008-07-28). Retrieved 2008-08-24.
48. ^ “Subpoenas uncalled for in Wooten matter”, Anchorage Daily News (2008-08-16). Retrieved 2008-08-24.
49. ^ Palin press release with audio of Bailey call
50. ^ http://gov.state.ak.us/pdf/pr_08122_doc1.pdf
51. ^ http://gov.state.ak.us/pdf/pr_08122_doc_2.pdf
52. ^ http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/30/us/politics/29palin.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
53. ^ Ross, Mike (August 21, 2007). "Mr. Palin goes back to Prudhoe", KTUU-TV. Retrieved on 2008-07-19.
54. ^ a b Associated Press (September 13, 2007). "Alaska Gov.'s Son Enlists in Army", WTOPNews.com, WTOP-FM. Retrieved on 2007-12-27.
55. ^ Alaska Superstation
56. ^ Arnold, Elizabeth. "Alaska's Governor Is Tough, Young — and a Woman", NPR.org, National Public Radio. Retrieved on 2007-12-27.
57. ^ ""State of Alaska Primary Election - August 27, 2002: Official Results"". Division of Elections. The Office of Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell (September 18, 2002). Retrieved on 2007-12-27.

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Tropical Storm Gustav nears hurricane strength Meanwhile, Hanna becomes the eighth named storm of the season

2008-08-28T22:29:00.000-07:00

By MarketWatch
Last update: 5:09 p.m. EDT Aug. 28, 2008Comments: 49SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Tropical Storm Gustav neared hurricane strength early Thursday evening as it moved across Jamaica, and Tropical Storm Hanna became the eighth tropical storm of the Atlantic hurricane season.
Energy traders are keeping a watchful eye on Gustav's projected path, as the Gulf of Mexico is home to about a quarter of U.S. oil production, according to Reuters.
October crude fell $2.56 to close at $115.59 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, retreating from a high of $119.30 after climbing 3% during a three-session winning streak. See Futures Movers.
In an advisory posted at 5 p.m. EDT, the National Hurricane Center reported that Gustav's center was about 15 miles east-northeast of Kingston, Jamaica.
The NHC expected Gustav to strengthen on Friday and Saturday and said it may become a hurricane again by Friday.
Gustav's maximum sustained winds remained near 70 miles an hour, compared with the 45 mph winds reported Wednesday night. A Category 1 hurricane has wind speeds of 74 to 95 mph.
Forecasters warned of potential flash floods and mudslides with Gustav expected to produce 6 to 12 inches of rain across Jamaica and the Cayman Islands.
A hurricane warning remains in effect for Jamaica, while a hurricane watch was in effect for the Cayman Islands and parts of Cuba.
Tropical Storm Hanna, with winds near 40 mph, was officially named Thursday morning and will likely see little change in strength over the next 24 hours, according to the hurricane center. It's currently about 260 miles northeast of the Northern Leeward Islands.
Hanna is expected to turn toward the northwest later Thursday or Friday and to be centered well to the northeast of the Bahamas during the next couple of days, the NHC said.
Flooding caused by Gustav killed 14 people on Haiti's southern peninsula and triggered landslides in the Dominican Republic that buried eight people, the Associated Press reported.
Gustav could become the first major hurricane in the Gulf since Wilma during the historic 2005 hurricane season, according to AccuWeather.com.
"There is nothing in Gustav's path that will hinder development," said John Kocet, senior meteorologist with AccuWeather.com. "There is a strong probability that it will be a Category 3 storm by the time it enters the Gulf, and it has the potential to strengthen into a Category 4 or 5 storm over the Gulf."
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal declared a state of emergency on Wednesday ahead of the storm and urged residents to prepare for the worst.
"We are continuing to monitor this storm as state government agencies, including the State Police and the Louisiana National Guard, have been put on standby so we are ready to quickly respond if the storm heads our direction," he said.
Meanwhile, the Republican Party may hold off on its national convention next week if Tropical Storm Gustav turns into a hurricane and strikes the Gulf Coast, a spokesman for presumptive presidential nominee John McCain said Thursday. See full story.
Friday marks the three-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's landfall along the Gulf Coast.

Glow-in-the-Dark Cats Could Make For a Unique Home Lighting Solution

2008-08-21T23:03:00.000-07:00

screwing with nature, cat, glow in the dark, light
Glow-in-the-Dark Cats Could Make For a Unique Home Lighting Solution

Scientists at the Gyeongsang National University in South Korea have cloned cats that have the ability to glow-in-the dark when exposed to ultraviolet light. By inserting a virus into the skin cells of a mother cat and placing those contaminated cells into the womb, scientists were able to prove that it was possible to clone an animal with a manipulated gene. Apparently, this development could allow for a better understanding of human genetic diseases in the future. But what about the benefits of glowing cats?

If you ask me, cats that could truly glow-in-the-dark would make for an unique and styilsh night-light. And, much like the new Litrospheres, they last for about 12 years. The only downside is that the latter requires no power source while cats require a steady diet. Still, the crazy cat lady down the street could have the most power efficient house in town. [InventorSpot]

8:00 PM on Wed Dec 12 2007
By Sean Fallon

Updated: Mysterious Crash Near Needles, California

2008-08-20T12:22:00.001-07:00

“When it came down, that’s how I saw the shape of it –
by the turquoise-blue fire that was in front of it
that showed the oval shape.” - R. B.

KTOX 1340 AM Radio, Needles, California.
Owner and General Manager is David Hayes. Frank Costigan,
who is retired from airport police and operations management, does special
news reports for KTOX. David Hayes has known “R. B.,” the Colorado River
houseboat residence, for some time. Image courtesy KTOX Radio.

Needles, California, is the larger red circle;
Topock, Arizona, is the smaller red circle.

Copyright © 1999 - 2008 by Linda Moulton Howe.
All Rights Reserved.
www.earthfiles.com
earthfiles@earthfiles.com

Republication and redissemination of the contents of this screen or any part of this website are expressly prohibited without prior Earthfiles.com written consent.

Updated: Mysterious Crash Near Needles, California

© 2008 by Linda Moulton Howe

“When it came down, that’s how I saw the shape of it –
by the turquoise-blue fire that was in front of it
that showed the oval shape.” - R. B.

Needles, California, is the larger red circle;
Topock, Arizona, is the smaller red circle.

KTOX 1340 AM Radio, Needles, California.
Owner and General Manager is David Hayes. Frank Costigan,
who is retired from airport police and operations management, does special
news reports for KTOX. David Hayes has known “R. B.,” the Colorado River
houseboat residence, for some time. Image courtesy KTOX Radio.

Updates June 8, 2008:

National UFO Reporting Center Sighting Report
Occurred : 4/17/2002 03:30 (Entered as : 04/17/02 03:30)
Reported: 4/28/2002 6:29:44 PM
Posted: 3/11/2003
Location: Needles, CA
Shape: Circle
Duration: 10 seconds

“I was driving west on -I40, west of Needles, CA. about 3:30 am. There were many semi- trucks on the road who probably saw this, too. It is a very desolate desert area.

“Suddenly a bright blue light illuminated my whole car from above. Even though I was alone, I said, ‘What the hell is that?’ and had to lean forward to look up through my windshield. I saw a huge blue light streak from above my car off to the right side of the road. It stopped in mid air and appeared to be a extremely bright, icy blue colored ball. It then flashed even brighter and vanished. It did not hit the ground as say a meteor might. The only visible color was blue. I had no way to determine the real size or distance from me. A grapefruit held at arm's length was about the size of the ball as I could see it from my car. I am a professional artist and have never seen a UFO or anything like this before.”

Subject: Turquoise colored object I photographed
Date: June 6, 2008
To: earthfiles@earthfiles.com

“Hi Linda,
Your posting June 6, 2008 - Mysterious Crash Near Needles, California - immediately brought to my mind a series of pictures I had taken from the roof of my studio in Ohio when gathering cloud pictures for a project. The turquoise color mentioned in your report seems to fit the color in my photos. Feel free to ask Frank Costigan if this is what it looked like?

Notes about the 1997 photos:

1) The lens I used in the pictures was a Nikkor 28 mm 1:2.8.

2) The complex with a tall smoke stack that I was photographing is part of Battelle Memorial Institute (Battelle is an international science and technology enterprise). I find the close proximity to Battelle worthy of note.”

Early November 1997, Ohio: turquoise blue object caught while artist photographed clouds. Photographer: “(Turquoise object) moved up through 4 or 5 frames as I was doing a vertical panorama of the sky. There were several frames before the sequence without the turquoise object and after as well. I did not see it with my eyes through the view finder. It may have been there at the time. The size was pretty small so I could have missed it or it was not visible to the human eye. I only saw the object upon looking at the processed pictures. The image is in the negatives and not a blemish or scratch. It appears in different parts of each frame.”

June 6, 2008 Needles, California - On Wednesday, May 14, 2008, at 3 AM Pacific south of Needles, California, on the Colorado River near Topock, Arizona, a long-time houseboat resident was stunned to see a large, bright “fiery object” hurtling from the sky toward him. From the upper deck on his houseboat, “R. B.” was puzzled by the vivid turquoise-blue with touches of green he was seeing instead of reds, yellows and oranges in more normal fire. Despite the strange blue-green color, Ted thought perhaps he was watching a plane about to crash.

Ted did not know there was another eyewitness - Frank Costigan, retired former Superintendent of Operations and Police Chief at Los Angeles International Airport from 1978 to 1985 and Superintendent of Operations at Ontario International Airport in California from 1985 to 1986. Recently Frank Costigan has been doing special news investigations and reports for KTOX AM 1340 Radio in Needles, California.

At 3 AM on May 14, 2008, Frank had gotten up to let his Siamese cat out and went outside to look at the clear night sky. His home is about three miles east of the Colorado River. To his surprise, a large, bright object of many colors dominated by turquoise blue with some green was streaking through the sky toward the Colorado River area. Frank could also see some red and yellow colors like flames and expected to hear the huge boom of a crash impact.

“I thought I might hear something when it hit the ground because if it was as close as I thought it was and as big as it was, I thought I would hear something. But I did not hear anything. And it went out of my view before it hit the ground.”

But over on the Colorado River, R. B. was only about 400 yards from where the fiery turquoise-blue object hit the ground on the west side of the river. R. B. has requested anonymity because he’s afraid the U. S. government hurts people who report UFOs. He did not even want his voice recorded. R. B. has lived in a houseboat on the Colorado River for thirty some years. He was outside at 3 AM fishing when he saw the brilliant, turquoise-blue flaming object. When it hit the ground about 100 yards west of the river, he saw the whole thing bounce back up in the air with even more glowing red-yellow pieces around the big center object. And yet, he did not hear the crash sound he expected. “There was only a thump sound,” he told me.

But he was afraid that some kind of plane had crashed and urgently went down to the lower deck of his houseboat to get his cell phone and climbed back up to the top deck to get a satellite signal for his phone. When he had a signal, he kept dialing 911, but only got a busy signal. All of this took about seven minutes after the crash. Then to his complete amazement, John Smith heard the loud sound of a sky-hook, or skycrane, helicopter coming fast in the night sky. The next thing he knew, the still-glowing object was hooked underneath the skycrane and carried away rapidly.

I asked R. B. how big he thought the glowing object was? He said it was about the size of a 10,000-gallon tank truck – big and oval-shaped.

After the sun came up, David Hayes, the Owner and General Manager of KTOX AM 1340, was driving to work along I-40 in Needles, when he saw very unusual vehicles traveling together with black and white U. S. government license plates.

Interviews:

David Hayes, Owner and General Manager, KTOX AM 1340, Needles, California: “That same morning (May 14, 2008), when I drove to the KTOX station which is right along I-40 in Needles, I noticed strange vehicles coming off the freeway going west into Needles. The first one was a very strange, black vehicle that was 4-wheel drive, definitely looked like it had a very beefed up suspension. It had a grill on the front of it and a utility bed in the back that had some strange bumps and almost looked like a radar dome-shaped type thing on top of it. It was black and had a triangular bed on the back. It kind of looked stealthy.

Right behind it was a green van. Both had U. S. government license plates, the white with black letters. Behind those two, was a very long brand new stretch van also beefed up with government plates and a very serious man who I looked at and made eye contact with and he just stared me down. I was parallel with him on a frontage road as he was coming off the freeway and he slowed down to my speed. I was on a dirt road and going only 10 to 15 mph, when he could have been doing 40 mph over that bridge. He just got real slow and stared me down. I thought, ‘If you’re going to drive a Star Wars vehicle with U. S. government plates and not think people are not going to stare at you!?’ I just wondered why he was staring at me so intently. After that, Frank told me what he had seen falling in the sky from his place around 3 AM.

Then another friend of ours in the Laughlin, Nevada, airport area said that flights from McCarran Airport to Area 51 were coming in and landing throughout that day (May 14, 2008).

So, it was like, ‘Wow, this is pretty strange!’

One thing I’ll say about the government vehicles and the people in them is that they were very, very serious. In fact, it was suspiciously serious. That’s what got my ears perked up and when you put it all together.”

R. B.'s Experience in Colorado River Houseboat

R. B. has requested anonymity as one of many people who live in houseboats on the Colorado River and happened to be out fishing at 3 AM on Wednesday, May 14, 2008.

R. B.: “Never seen anything this dramatic come out of sky before. Have seen green-blue meteors, but this thing was bright, turquoise blue, almost like a lighter sky blue!

Arizona turquoise gemstone.
Source: Indianvillage.com.

© 2008 by Linda Moulton Howe

Whatever crashed, I thought at the time it was a plane crashing.

BECAUSE IT HAD WINGS AND A TAIL?

No, because it was flaming.

ACTUAL FIRE?

Oh, yes, but a turquoise-blue fire with some green in it. And it hit the ground and bounced. But there were many other pieces – there were at least nine other pieces that bounced up in a circle around the turquoise blue-green object.

ALL BOUNCING UP IN THE AIR AT THE SAME TIME?

No, the main unit that looked like the size of a tanker truck hit. I was sitting on top of my boat fishing and listening to the radio like I do living out here on the Colorado River, but I saw it hit and thought, ‘My God, it has to be a plane that hit and bounced!’ Not like a ball, but it hit and came back up and went back down again. But there were other pieces that were coming with it. When it settled down, I couldn’t see it because of bushes between me on the river and where it came down.

WHEN IT BOUNCED GLOWING, WHAT WAS THE SHAPE?

More oval shaped. When it came down, that’s how I saw the shape of it – by the turquoise-blue fire that was in front of it that showed the oval shape.

THE BIG PIECE WAS ABOUT THE SIZE OF A SEMI-TRAILER TRUCK?

Yes, about the size of a maybe a 10,000-gallon tank truck.

HOW DID YOU JUDGE THE SIZE OF THE CRASHED OBJECT AS BEING LIKE A 10,000-GALLON TANK TRUCK?

Because there was a huge fire in front of it as it was coming down.

DID THE OTHER SMALLER PIECES GLOW THE SAME BLUE-GREEN?

No, they were more of a reddish color. But those smaller, glowing pieces did not appear until after the impact. It was like they broke off. The big object hit the ground at a tremendous speed.

DID IT MAKE A BIG BOOMING SOUND WHEN IT HIT?

No, actually, there was just a thump. It hit hard, but there was no crash sound. That’s when I saw the other pieces that flew off. I can’t believe I’m seeing this, and I had to go off the weather deck down to the main deck to get my phone because I thought a plane has crashed. There was no signal for my phone. Where I stay on the river, it’s hard to get a signal. So, I had to wait for a phone signal for maybe seven or eight minutes because a satellite was not there. Finally, I got a signal indication and I called 911, but there was no answer! My call would not go through. I kept getting a busy signal.

Skycrane Retrieved Large,
Still-Glowing, Oval-Shaped Crash Object

Anyway, that’s when I heard the rotors going overhead. There were no lights, but I know what a skycrane sounds like and I know what it looks like.

Skycrane hauling up interferometer housing at Mt. Wilson Observatory
in Los Angeles, California, in 1998. Image source: Erickson Air-Crane, Inc.

And that skycrane was with at least four smaller helicopters. The skycrane and the smaller helicopters surrounded the crashed object and the sky crane picked the thing up still glowing and off it went. From the time that object impacted to the time it was picked up was only about 17 minutes!

HOW DO YOU THINK THE SKYCRANE PICKED UP THE BIG OBJECT?

That’s the funny part. I could not figure that out. I was there trying to call 911 about an airplane crash and I went back up to get the phone signal and the skycrane already had the big object in the air! I could tell because it was still glowing – it was still red hot. And up it went toward the northwest at an extremely high rate of speed, from where I’m at, directly towards Las Vegas. When it was coming before it hit, the object had the turquoise-blue color to it. Then it hit and bounced and I went to get my phone. Then the skycrane came and as they were hauling the object off, it had a gold-orange hot glow to it.

WHEN THE SKY-CRANE PICKED UP THE OBJECT WITH THE GOLD-ORANGE HOT GLOW, WAS THERE STILL SOME OF THE TURQUOISE COLOR?

Just in the front where it seemed to be wrinkled a bit. It was picked up either in a net or by cables, but they picked it up so quickly and flew it off so quickly.

THAT MEANS SOMEONE WAS TRACKING THE OBJECT ALL THE WAY DOWN AND ALREADY HAD THE SKYCRANE IN THE AIR TO RETRIEVE IT.

They must have because the time from when it hit the ground to when they flew off with it was not more than about 17 minutes.

WHERE WAS THE IMPACT IN RELATIONSHIP TO YOUR HOUSEBOAT? HOW FAR WAS IT FROM YOU?

Approximately less than 400 yards.

WHICH DIRECTION FROM THE RIVER?

Coming from straight up to straight down on the west side, California side, of the Colorado River.

DID ANY GOVERNMENT AGENTS OR VEHICLES SHOW UP AFTER SUN UP?

No, the only thing that happened is that one of those small helicopters circled around my boat, shone a blue beam down that night, and then flew off.

KTOX Weekly Tuesday Guest Questioned

On Tuesday, May 27, 2008, David Hayes at KTOX hosted his regular morning radio program. Since May 14, he has talked about Frank Costigan's and R. B.'s fiery turquoise sighting and R. B.'s crash account. On May 27, David Hayes made a radio appeal for any other eyewitnesses to call KTOX and asked R. B. if he would call David again off air.

On May 27th, the KTOX regular weekly guest to discuss politics was Toni Sagan, a member of the local River Valley Democratic Club. Her radio topic was the Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton battle for the presidential nomination. Toni told me she did not absorb the details about R. B.'s experience during the radio broadcast and was very surprised at the Democratic Club meeting that week when a well-dressed stranger approached her at the meeting and began asking questions about the crash.

Toni told me the stranger called himself “Phil” and asked her if she knew R. B. She said she did not. Phil asked her if she knew any details from the off air conversation between David Hayes and R. B. off air. Toni told Phil she had no information. Phil sounded irritated and asked her if she heard any discussion about whether the object was on fire, what color it was, how big it was, did it splash in the river, who came to get it and where did R. B. live?

Toni Sagan told Phil she knew nothing about the crashed object or R. B., which further irritated him to say, ‘But you were sitting right there during the broadcast. Didn't you hear any discussion with R. B.?’

Toni was puzzled by the stranger's impatient interrogation during a Democratic Party meeting. The last she saw of Phil was his leaving the room to have a cigarette outside and he never returned. “Who do you think he was?” Toni asked. “His clothes were too neat and nice for Bullhead country here and his hair was cut short and neat. Do you think he was working for the military or government? If so, why would he ask me questions? It's David who runs KTOX and knows R. B.”

If any Earthfiles viewers have more information about the fiery turquoise-blue, oval-shaped object that crashed on the western side of the Colorado River south of Needles, California, near Topoc, Arizona, at 3 AM on Wednesday, May 14, 2008, please email me: earthfiles@earthfiles.com Confidentiality is always honored.

More Information:

For further information about unidentified aerial objects, please see my books and documentaries in the Earthfiles Shop and Earthfiles Archive reports listed below:

• 05/20/2008 — High Strangeness in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada
• 05/06/2008 — Viewer Comments on Decatur, Alabama, White Sphere Incident
• 05/06/2008 — What Are the Strange “Pearls” in Google Map Images?
• 04/29/2008 — Part 1: Insights from An Experiencer with Greys and Blond Humanoids
• 04/24/2008 — Strange Aerial Lights Like Texas - But Now Photographed in Indiana, Illinois, and Massachusetts
• 04/23/2008 — Four Red, Unidentified Lights Change Patterns Over North Phoenix
• 04/07/2008 — Part 1: Bizarre Objects Caught by Illinois and Missouri Game Trail Cameras
• 04/07/2008 — Part 2: Bizarre Objects Caught by Illinois and Missouri Game Trail Cameras
• 04/06/2008 — Final Part 10: Real X-File, Source Unknown
• 04/02/2008 — Part 9 - Real X-File, Source Unknown
• 03/31/2008 — Mysterious Aerial Spheres: Letters to Earthfiles
• 03/30/2008 — Part 8 - Real X-File, Source Unknown
• 03/28/2008 — Deer Mutilation in Longs, South Carolina, Two Helicopters and Large, White Sphere
• 03/20/2008 — Part 7 - Real X-File, Source Unknown
• 03/15/2008 — Part 6 - Real X-File, Source Unknown
• 03/08/2008 — Part 5: Real X-File, Source Unknown
• 03/07/2008 — Mysterious Aerial “Drones” - Oklahoma and Arkansas
• 03/04/2008 — Part 4: Real X-File, Source Unknown
• 03/03/2008 — Updated Part 1: Real X-File, Source Unknown
• 03/02/2008 — Part 2: Real X-File, Source Unknown
• 03/02/2008 — Part 3: Real X-File, Source Unknown
• 02/26/2008 — Viewer Comments About Infrared Cameras, Aerial Symbols and Lights
• 02/22/2008 — Updated: Three Eyewitnesses in Selden, Texas, Saw Two, Large Rectangles of “White Flames” in Sky
• 02/22/2008 — Updated: More Aerial “Symbols” Photographed Over Dublin, Texas
• 02/22/2008 — Abductee Jim Sparks Comments On Alien Symbol Technology
• 02/14/2008 — Update: Mysterious Symbols Projected in Night Sky by Aerial Disc Near Stephenville, Texas, Local Airport
• 02/08/2008 — Law Officers Describe Unidentified Shape-Shifting Aerial Craft in Stephenville, Texas, Region
• 01/28/2008 — Updated 01-28-08: Viewer Letters About Aerial Craft and Military Flyovers Above Dublin, Stephenville and Selden, Texas
• 01/24/2008 — Part 17, Final: In League With A UFO, Interview with Lou Baldin
• 01/18/2008 — Updated: Huge Aerial Craft Over Dublin, Texas, “Longer Than 3 Football Fields”
• 01/15/2008 — Updated: More Sky Spiral Mysteries in Iraq, Canada and Germany
• 01/13/2008 — Part 16: In League With A UFO, Interview with Lou Baldin
• 01/11/2008 — Canadian "Disc" and Smoke Spiral Still A Mystery
• 01/07/2008 — Part 15: In League With A UFO
• 01/05/2008 — Part 14: In League With A UFO
• 01/02/2008 — Part 13: In League With A UFO
• 12/29/2007 — Part 12: In League With A UFO
• 12/27/2007 — Updated - Part 11: In League With A UFO
• 12/22/2007 — Part 10: In League With A UFO
• 12/20/2007 — Updated: Viewer Letters About Secret American Military Space Program
• 12/18/2007 — Part 9: In League With A UFO
• 12/16/2007 — Part 8: In League With A UFO
• 12/14/2007 — Part 7: In League With A UFO
• 12/12/2007 — Part 6: In League With A UFO
• 12/11/2007 — More Confirmation of May 1974 Discs in Albuquerque and Huge Cylinder Craft At White Sands Proving Ground.
• 12/08/2007 — Another Eyewitness to Glowing Disc and Military Security in Albuquerque, New Mexico
• 12/07/2007 — Part 2: Secret American Military Space Program?
• 12/03/2007 — Part 5: In League With A UFO
• 12/01/2007 — Part 1: Secret American Military Space Program?
• 11/29/2007 — Part 1: Glowing Disc Encounter with Military in Albuquerque, NM
• 11/29/2007 — Part 2: Glowing Disc Encounter with Military in Albuquerque, NM
• 11/29/2007 — Part 3: Glowing Disc Encounter with Military in Albuquerque, NM
• 11/25/2007 — Part 4: In League With A UFO
• 11/21/2007 — Part 3: In League With A UFO
• 11/20/2007 — Do Black Budget Trillions Support A Secret American Space Program?
• 11/14/2007 — Part 2: In League With A UFO
• 11/08/2007 — More Unusual Animal Deaths
• 11/06/2007 — Part 1: In League With A UFO
• 10/31/2007 — Part 5: Elk Hunter Meets Non-Human
• 10/29/2007 — Part 4: Elk Hunter Meets Non-Human
• 10/25/2007 — Part 3: Elk Hunter Meets Non-Human
• 10/21/2007 — Viewer Comments About Big Triangles and Lights - In Conflict?
• 10/17/2007 — Updated: Half Cat Mutilations Persist in San Antonio, Texas
• 10/14/2007 — Part 2: Elk Hunter Meets Non-Human
• 10/08/2007 — Part 1: Elk Hunter Meets Non-Human
• 09/28/2007 — Earthfiles Mail About Cat Mutilations
• 09/26/2007 — Neatly Sliced Front Third of 14 Cats Found in Granbury, Texas
• 09/20/2007 — Part 2: Psi Spies - True Story of America's Psychic Warfare Program
• 09/16/2007 — Part 5: Military Insiders Comment About Zeta Reticuli and EBENs
• 09/14/2007 — Part 1: Psi Spies - True Story of America's Psychic Warfare Program
• 09/11/2007 — Part 4: Military Insiders Comment About Zeta Reticuli and EBENs
• 09/07/2007 — Part 3: Military Insiders Comment About Zeta Reticuli and EBENs
• 09/05/2007 — Part 2: Military Insiders Comment About Zeta Reticuli and EBENs
• 08/31/2007 — Part 1: Betty and Barney Hill: Captured!
• 08/31/2007 — Part 2: Betty and Barney Hill: Captured!
• 08/30/2007 — Part 1: Military Insiders Comment About Zeta Reticuli and EBENs
• 08/24/2007 — Orange-Red "Fiery" Aerial Spheres
• 08/17/2007 — Two Bulls and Several Cows Dead and Mutilated in Manitoba, Canada
• 08/01/2007 — Part 3, Non-Human Blonds, Greys and Big-Nosed, Cat-Eyed Lizards
• 07/31/2007 — Part 2, Non-Human Blonds, Greys and Big-Nosed, Cat-Eyed Lizards
• 07/28/2007 — Clarifications and Comments by Isaac
• 07/28/2007 — Mysterious Aerial Lights Over Stratford-upon-Avon, July 14, and Farnborough, Hampshire, on July 22, 2007
• 07/27/2007 — Updated: Part 1: 1,033-Foot-Long East Field Wheat Formation "Happened Within 90 Minutes."
• 07/26/2007 — Part 1, Non-Human Blonds, Lizards and Big-Nosed, Cat-Eyed Greys
• 07/23/2007 — 070707 East Field Wheat Formation: Viewer Comments
• 07/14/2007 — Schofield Barracks, Oahu, Hawaii - Huge, Lime Green Oval Craft Hovered Over Battalion Headquarters
• 07/13/2007 — Iowa Minister Reports Large "Crab/Scorpion" Creature Attacked Cow
• 06/26/2007 — Part 1: Explanation of the Recent "Strange Craft" Sightings
• 06/22/2007 — Dragonfly "Drone" Seen October 1995 in Arizona
• 06/18/2007 — Crop Circles On Rings and Three Mysterious Aerial Lights in Slovenia
• 06/17/2007 — More Big Basin, California, Bizarre "Drone" Images
• 06/15/2007 — Part 1: Northridge, California, Aerial "Drone" Eyewitness On the Record
• 06/15/2007 — Part 2 - Star Wars Physicist Edward Teller, Outer Space Menace And Remotely Piloted Vehicles (RPVs)
• 06/13/2007 — Into the Unknown with George Noory
• 06/08/2007 — More Drone Photos and Other Eyewitnesses
• 05/30/2007 — Birmingham-Type "Drone" Seen At Barksdale AFB, Louisiana, in Mid-1980s
• 05/29/2007 — Final Part 7: Eyewitness Links Animal Mutilations to Non-Humans
• 05/28/2007 — Letters About Unidentified "Drone" Aerial Objects
• 05/25/2007 — Two More Eyewitnesses of Aerial "Drones" in 2005 and 2006
• 05/21/2007 — Updated: Odd Aerial "Drone"? Photographed Again Over Capitola, California
• 05/16/2007 — Updated: Odd Aerial "Drones"? Over Lake Tahoe and Central California
• 05/16/2007 — Updated: Engineer Comments About Odd Aerial "Drones"? Over Lake Tahoe and Central California
• 05/11/2007 — CIA Origin of National Enquirer?
• 04/20/2007 — 2006 Human Encounter with Translucent Entity
• 04/18/2007 — Part 1: Eyewitness Links Animal Mutilations to Non-Humans
• 03/16/2007 — Tenth Anniversary of March 1997 Phoenix Lights: What Was the 2-Mile-Long Triangular Craft?
• 03/14/2007 — Part 5: Mysterious Events At 2005 Tawsmead Copse "Insectogram" Crop Formation
• 03/13/2007 — Part 4: Mysterious Events At 2005 Tawsmead Copse "Insectogram" Crop Formation
• 03/09/2007 — Zones of Fear and Diamond-Shaped Aerial Light
• 02/27/2007 — Part 1: Mysterious Events At 2005 Tawsmead Copse "Insectogram" Crop Formation
• 02/14/2007 — Part 3: Tappen, North Dakota, High Strangeness Provokes Many Emails from Viewers and Listeners
• 02/11/2007 — Part 1: Tappen, North Dakota, High Strangeness Provokes Many Emails from Viewers and Listeners
• 02/10/2007 — Part 12: Inside Saucer Post ...3-0 Blue
• 02/08/2007 — Why Do UFOs Sometimes Play Cat and Mouse with Humans?
• 02/07/2007 — Part 11: Inside Saucer Post ...3-0 Blue
• 01/30/2007 — Part 10: Inside Saucer Post ...3-0 Blue
• 01/16/2007 — Part 9: Inside Saucer Post ...3-0 Blue
• 01/02/2007 — Grey Aerial Disk Reported by Chicago O'Hare United Airlines Pilots and Mechanics
• 12/27/2006 — Part 7: Inside Saucer Post ...3-0 Blue
• 12/18/2006 — Part 6: Inside Saucer Post ...3-0 Blue
• 12/14/2006 — Abductee Jim Sparks's Encounter with Reptillian Beings, Their Warning and Possible Agenda
• 12/11/2006 — Part 5: Inside Saucer Post ...3-0 Blue
• 12/06/2006 — Part 4: Inside Saucer Post ...3-0 Blue
• 11/28/2006 — Part 2: Inside Saucer Post ...3-0 Blue
• 11/27/2006 — Inside Saucer Post ...3-0 Blue © 1957 by Leonard H. Stringfield
• 11/03/2006 — Another UFO Retaliation to Radar Lock On - 2003
• 10/28/2006 — Close UFO Encounter by USAF Eyewitnesses
• 10/26/2006 — Norwegian Crashed Disc and Other High Strangeness
• 10/19/2006 — UFO Retaliation to U. S. Army Radar Lock On in Florida, 1967
• 10/14/2006 — Big Sorghum Circle in Beloit, Kansas
• 10/11/2006 — Part 2: Time Travel, Insights from USAF Sergeant and UFO Abductee
• 10/08/2006 — Part 1: Time Travel, Insights from USAF Sergeant and UFO Abductee
• 10/07/2006 — Updated: 1953 Kinross AFB Mystery: F-89 Found in Lake Superior
• 10/02/2006 — Unusual Deaths of Six Female Goats in White Salmon, Washington
• 09/29/2006 — Manipulation of Time and Matter by Non-Humans: The Experiences of Jim Sparks
• 09/20/2006 — Updated: Three Sets of Concentric Rings in South Texas Field
• 09/20/2006 — Animal Mutilations Increase Again in Argentina
• 09/16/2006 — Disc Crash At Cedar Breaks Radar Site, Utah
• 09/05/2006 — Part 2: "Alphonso Lorenzo" - Military Visitor to Another Planet?
• 09/04/2006 — Part 1: "Alphonso Lorenzo" - Military Visitor to Another Planet?
• 07/17/2006 — Area 29 - A Reverse Engineering Center of E. T. Technology?
• 07/01/2006 — Cattle Mutilation and Glowing Discs in Saskatchewan, Canada
• 06/30/2006 — Celestial Secrets: The Hidden History of the Fatima Cover-Up
• 06/29/2006 — Another Horse Suspended in the Air
• 06/28/2006 — Half Cats in Destin, Florida, and Beheaded Animals in Rochester, N. Y.
• 06/22/2006 — Horse Suspended in Mid-Air Near Milan, Italy, Apartment
• 06/18/2006 — Viewer Letters About NASA Airbrushing Photos; EBENs and Reptilian Humanoids
• 06/13/2006 — Mysterious Triangle-Shaped Welts and Bruises
• 06/08/2006 — Part 2: Unexplained Phenomenon of Sudden Human-to-Reptile "Replacement"
• 06/07/2006 — Gary McKinnon: An Electronic "Robin Hood"?
• 05/05/2006 — Military Man's Description of EBE Telepathic Download
• 04/13/2006 — High Strangeness In Skies Near White Sands Missile Range
• 04/03/2006 — Genetic Harvest in Cimarron, New Mexico?
• 03/23/2006 — Part 15 - Peculiar Phenomenon: Early United States Efforts to Collect and Analyze Flying Discs
• 03/23/2006 — Part 2: U.S. Navy Chief Yeoman Describes "Extraterrestrial Biological Entities" in TOP SECRET/MAJIC Photographs
• 02/28/2006 — Part 13 - Peculiar Phenomenon: Early United States Efforts to Collect and Analyze Flying Discs
• 02/27/2006 — Part 4: Military Voices Reply About Government Interaction with UFOs
• 02/23/2006 — Huge Boomerang Craft and Blond Beings
• 02/22/2006 — Part 3: Military Voices Reply About Government Interaction with UFOs
• 02/21/2006 — Part 2: Military Voices Reply About Government Interaction with UFOs
• 02/17/2006 — Updated: White Sands Navy Radar Operator Saw Discs Circle V-2 Rocket Launches
• 02/13/2006 — Mysterious, Aerial Bars of Light Near Brawley, California
• 02/10/2006 — NORAD "Fast Walkers" and "Men In Black"
• 02/10/2006 — Crashed Disc Photos, "Ebens," and Area 51 "Anti-Gravity"
• 02/07/2006 — Military Voices Reply About Government Interaction with UFOs.
• 02/05/2006 — Part 11 - Peculiar Phenomenon: Early United States Efforts to Collect and Analyze Flying Discs
• 01/27/2006 — Part 2: Navy Physicist and USAF Geophysicist Discuss UFOs and ETs
• 01/20/2006 — Part 1: Navy Physicist and USAF Geophysicist Discuss UFOs and ETs
• 01/17/2006 — Part 9 - Peculiar Phenomenon: Early United States Efforts to Collect and Analyze Flying Discs
• 01/13/2006 — 31st Cattle Mutilation on Red Bluff, California Ranch
• 12/21/2005 — Updated: Part 2 - Peculiar Phenomenon, Early United States Efforts to Collect and Analyze Flying Discs
• 12/02/2005 — Abduction by Grey ETs in Huge, Black Triangle
• 12/02/2005 — Former Canadian Minister of Defence Calls for Public Parliament Hearings About UFOs and Extraterrestrials
• 11/11/2005 — Part 3: An Alleged 1953 UFO Crash and Burial Near Garrison, Utah
• 11/10/2005 — Part 2: An Alleged 1953 UFO Crash and Burial Near Garrison, Utah
• 11/02/2005 — Part 3: Unusual Animal Deaths -Sheep Mutilations in Moortown, Dartmoor, England
• 10/27/2005 — Updated: Five "Satellites" That Merged As One Star
• 10/25/2005 — Part 6 - Final: Retrievals of the Third Kind - A Case Study of Alleged UFOs and Occupants in Military Custody
• 10/13/2005 — Part 5: Retrievals of the Third Kind - A Case Study of Alleged UFOs and Occupants in Military Custody
• 10/07/2005 — Part 1: Beam Technology Lifted Body Near Ft. Stewart, Georgia
• 10/05/2005 — Part 4: Retrievals of the Third Kind - A Case Study of Alleged UFOs and Occupants in Military Custody
• 10/04/2005 — "Stars" That Move In Patterns
• 09/30/2005 — Part 3: Retrievals of the Third Kind - A Case Study of Alleged UFOs and Occupants in Military Custody
• 09/26/2005 — Part 2: Retrievals of the Third Kind - Kingman, Arizona Crash
• 09/25/2005 — Part 1: Retrievals of the Third Kind - A Case Study of Alleged UFOs and Occupants in Military Custody
• 09/19/2005 — Final Part 9: The UFO Crash/Retrieval Syndrome: Status Report II - New Sources, New Data
• 09/17/2005 — Part 8: The UFO Crash/Retrieval Syndrome: Status Report II - New Sources, New Data
• 09/15/2005 — Animal Mutilations Reported in Switzerland, Hollywood and Kansas
• 09/14/2005 — Part 7: The UFO Crash/Retrieval Syndrome: Status Report II - New Sources, New Data
• 09/09/2005 — Rock Stars and Extraterrestrials
• 09/08/2005 — Canadian UFO Researcher Blocked by U. S. Homeland Security From Speaking at NUFOC Conference, Hollywood
• 09/06/2005 — Part 6: The UFO Crash/Retrieval Syndrome: Status Report II - New Sources, New Data
• 08/26/2005 — Another Cattle Mutilation in Canada
• 08/22/2005 — Part 5: The UFO Crash/Retrieval Syndrome: Status Report II - New Sources, New Data
• 08/17/2005 — Part 4: The UFO Crash/Retrieval Syndrome: Status Report II - New Sources, New Data
• 07/29/2005 — Bentwaters and Rendlesham Forest Mystery Beyond December 1980
• 07/23/2005 — Mystery of Six Grass Circle Formations in North Carolina
• 07/20/2005 — Part 3: The UFO Crash/Retrieval Syndrome: Status Report II - New Sources, New Data
• 07/14/2005 — Part 2: The UFO Crash/Retrieval Syndrome: Status Report II - New Sources, New Data
• 07/12/2005 — Part 1: The UFO Crash/Retrieval Syndrome: Status Report II - New Sources, New Data
• 07/05/2005 — Part 15: UFO Crash/Retrievals: Status Report III - Amassing The Evidence
• 06/23/2005 — Updated: More Than 3,000 Unusual Animal Deaths Reported in Argentina and Chile Since 2002
• 06/20/2005 — Part 14: UFO Crash/Retrievals: Status Report III - Amassing The Evidence
• 06/17/2005 — Unusual Cow Death in Paradise Hill, Saskatchewan, Canada
• 06/17/2005 — Part 13: UFO Crash/Retrievals: Status Report III - Amassing The Evidence
• 05/26/2005 — Part 1 - Brazilian Air Force Opens Its UFO Files to Public
• 05/20/2005 — May 2005 Crop Formation Update in Six Countries
• 05/10/2005 — Part 12: UFO Crash/Retrievals: Status Report III - Amassing The Evidenc
• 05/04/2005 — Part 11: UFO Crash/Retrievals: Status Report III - Amassing The Evidence
• 04/28/2005 — Dozens of Unidentified Aerial Objects Videotaped Over Sonora, California
• 04/19/2005 — Part 10: UFO Crash/Retrievals: Status Report III - Amassing The Evidence © June 1982 by Leonard H. Stringfield
• 04/18/2005 — Part 9: UFO Crash/Retrievals: Status Report III - Amassing The Evidence © June 1982 by Leonard H. Stringfield
• 04/17/2005 — 1949 Aerial Disc Covered-Up By Project Blue Book As "Kite"
• 04/14/2005 — "Battle of Los Angeles" On February 25, 1942: When America's 37th Coast Artillery Brigade Fired Off 1,430 Anti-Aircraft Shells At A UFO
• 04/13/2005 — Highly Strange Dog Death in Arkansas; 2000-Pound Bull Dropped On Log Pile and Calf Skinned
• 04/05/2005 — Part 8: UFO Crash/Retrievals: Status Report III - Amassing The Evidence
• 03/28/2005 — Part 7: UFO Crash/Retrievals: Status Report III - Amassing The Evidence © June 1982 by Leonard H. Stringfield
• 03/24/2005 — Part 6: UFO Crash/Retrievals: Status Report III - Amassing The Evidence
• 03/22/2005 — Part 5: UFO Crash/Retrievals: Status Report III - Amassing The Evidence © June 1982 by Leonard H. Stringfield
• 03/13/2005 — Part 4: UFO Crash/Retrievals: Status Report III - Amassing The Evidence
• 03/08/2005 — Flying Disc Paced Airliner Over Puget Sound Navy Yard
• 03/07/2005 — Part 3: UFO Crash/Retrievals: Status Report III - Amassing The Evidence
• 03/03/2005 — Part 2: UFO Crash/Retrievals: Status Report III - Amassing The Evidence © June 1982 by Leonard H. Stringfield
• 03/01/2005 — Part 1: UFO Crash/Retrievals: Status Report III - Amassing The Evidence © June 1982 by Leonard H. Stringfield
• 02/23/2005 — FINAL Part 4: UFO Crash/Retrievals: Status Report IV - Fatal Encounter At Ft. Dix-McGuire
• 02/21/2005 — Updated - Bull and Cow Mutilations Northwest of Corpus Christi, Texas
• 02/19/2005 — Part 3: UFO Crash/Retrievals: Status Report IV - Fatal Encounter At Ft. Dix-McGuire
• 02/13/2005 — Part 1: UFO Crash/Retrievals: Status Report IV - Fatal Encounter At Ft. Dix-McGuire
• 02/11/2005 — Story Behind "Inflation-Theory Implications for Extraterrestrial Visitation"
• 02/07/2005 — FINAL Part 3: UFO Crash/Retrievals: Status Report V - Is The Cover-Up Lid Lifting?
• 02/04/2005 — Part 2: UFO Crash/Retrievals: Status Report V - Is The Cover-Up Lid Lifting?
• 01/30/2005 — Part 1: UFO Crash/Retrievals: Status Report V - Is The Cover-Up Lid Lifting?
• 01/26/2005 — Final Part 28: UFO Crash/Retrievals: The Inner Sanctum - Status Report VI © July 1991 by Leonard H. Stringfield
• 01/17/2005 — Part 27: UFO Crash/Retrievals: The Inner Sanctum - Status Report VI © July 1991 by Leonard H. Stringfield
• 01/15/2005 — Part 26: UFO Crash/Retrievals: The Inner Sanctum - Status Report VI © July 1991 by Leonard H. Stringfield
• 01/15/2005 — Bull and Cow Mutilations Northwest of Corpus Christi, Texas
• 01/11/2005 — Part 25: UFO Crash/Retrievals: The Inner Sanctum - Status Report VI © July 1991 by Leonard H. Stringfield
• 01/04/2005 — Part 23: UFO Crash/Retrievals: The Inner Sanctum - Status Report VI © July 1991 by Leonard H. Stringfield
• 12/30/2004 — September 12, 1952: America's "Secret War"? Part 1: UFO Retrieval in Flatwoods, West Virginia
• 12/30/2004 — September 12, 1952: America's "Secret War"? Part 2: USAF Starfire Disappeared Over Gulf of Mexico
• 12/30/2004 — September 12, 1952: America's "Secret War"? Part 3: Nuclear Physicist Stanton Friedman Comments
• 12/30/2004 — Audience Feedback About Earthfiles "September 12, 1952: America's 'Secret War'?"
• 12/22/2004 — Part 1: "Reasons Why U.S. Government CAN'T Release Truth About UFOs!" with Canadian Researcher, Grant Cameron
• 12/22/2004 — Part 2: "Reasons Why U.S. Government CAN'T Release Truth About UFOs!" with Canadian Researcher, Grant Cameron
• 12/19/2004 — Part 21: UFO Crash/Retrievals: The Inner Sanctum - Status Report VI © July 1991 by Leonard H. Stringfield
• 12/17/2004 — Updated - Feedback About Destruction of U. S. Military Records
• 12/10/2004 — Part 3: "Peculiar Phenomena," V-2 Rockets - and UFOB Retaliation?
• 12/10/2004 — Part 4: "Peculiar Phenomena," V-2 Rockets - and UFOB Retaliation?
• 12/07/2004 — Part 2: "Peculiar Phenomena," V-2 Rockets - and UFOB Retaliation?
• 12/04/2004 — Part 1: "Peculiar Phenomena," V-2 Rockets - and UFOB Retaliation?
• 11/26/2004 — Part 20: UFO Crash/Retrievals: The Inner Sanctum - Status Report VI © July 1991 by Leonard H. Stringfield
• 11/12/2004 — Strange Metal Pieces from Plains of San Agustin Alleged UFO Crash Site Analyzed.
• 11/03/2004 — Gen. Wesley Clark - Has He Been Briefed About UFOs?
• 10/29/2004 — Part 1: Update On Shag Harbour, Nova Scotia, UFO Case. See Upcoming Crash Retrieval Conference in Las Vegas, November 12 - 14
• 10/29/2004 — Part 2: Update On Shag Harbour, Nova Scotia, UFO Case. See Upcoming Crash Retrieval Conference in Las Vegas, November 12 - 14
• 10/23/2004 — 1948 Aztec, New Mexico UFO Crash: Policemen, Disk and Humanoids
• 10/10/2004 — Part 2: Texas Case of Shape-Shifting Human-to-Reptilian
• 09/25/2004 — Part 6: "Clearview" Report on the Investigation of UFO Experiences on A Rocky Mountain Ranch
• 09/23/2004 — Part 5: "Clearview" Report on the Investigation of UFO Experiences on A Rocky Mountain Ranch
• 09/19/2004 — Part 4: "Clearview" Report on the Investigation of UFO Experiences on A Rocky Mountain Ranch
• 09/13/2004 — Part 1: "Clearview" Report on the Investigation of UFO Experiences on A Rocky Mountain Ranch
• 09/10/2004 — Part 17: UFO Crash/Retrievals: The Inner Sanctum - Status Report VI © July 1991 by Leonard H. Stringfield
• 09/06/2004 — Part 2: Terry Sherman - 1996 Interview About High Strangeness on Fort Duchesne, Utah Ranch
• 09/04/2004 — Hillsboro, Ohio Corn Formation - High Strangeness in Soil and Plants
• 08/30/2004 — Part 16: UFO Crash/Retrievals: The Inner Sanctum - Status Report VI © July 1991 by Leonard H. Stringfield
• 08/28/2004 — Cow Mutilation and Loud, Unidentified Sound in Farnam, Nebraska
• 08/20/2004 — Part 2 - The Apollo Program, Cape Canaveral and UFOs
• 08/18/2004 — New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson Wants More Investigation of 1947 Roswell UFO Crash
• 08/13/2004 — Part 15: UFO Crash/Retrievals: The Inner Sanctum - Status Report VI © July 1991 by Leonard H. Stringfield
• 08/06/2004 — Updated - Truck Driver Who Allegedly Saw Craft and "Lizard" Arm from 1965 Kecksburg, PA Crash
• 08/05/2004 — Part 14: UFO Crash/Retrievals: The Inner Sanctum - Status Report VI © July 1991 by Leonard H. Stringfield
• 07/27/2004 — Part 12: UFO Crash/Retrievals: The Inner Sanctum - Status Report VI © July 1991 by Leonard H. Stringfield
• 07/21/2004 — The Apollo Program, Cape Canaveral and UFOs
• 07/17/2004 — Inside Job - Unmasking the 9/11 Conspiracies by Jim Marrs
• 07/02/2004 — Part 11: UFO Crash/Retrievals: The Inner Sanctum - Status Report VI © July 1991 by Leonard H. Stringfield
• 06/27/2004 — Part 10: UFO Crash/Retrievals: The Inner Sanctum - Status Report VI © July 1991 by Leonard H. Stringfield
• 05/17/2004 — Updated - Crop Formation Reported in Zabno, Poland
• 05/16/2004 — Part 8: UFO Crash/Retrievals: The Inner Sanctum - Status Report VI © July 1991 by Leonard H. Stringfield
• 05/11/2004 — An Extraordinary Photograph in A Dutch Home
• 04/30/2004 — Part 2 - Ted Phillips's Search for "Black Mirror" Cylinder in Slovakia
• 04/21/2004 — At the X-Conference, Former Naval Intelligence Officer, C. B. Scott Jones
• 04/13/2004 — Part 7: UFO Crash/Retrievals: The Inner Sanctum - Status Report VI © July 1991 by Leonard H. Stringfield
• 03/26/2004 — Back Engineering ET Craft
• 03/17/2004 — Part 1 - "Horrible Secret" in UFO Crash Retrievals Near Roswell, New Mexico, in July 1947?
• 03/17/2004 — Part 2 - "Horrible Secret" in UFO Crash Retrievals Near Roswell, New Mexico, in July 1947?
• 03/14/2004 — Part 5: UFO Crash/Retrievals: The Inner Sanctum - Status Report VI © July 1991 by Leonard H. Stringfield
• 03/08/2004 — Part 4: UFO Crash/Retrievals: The Inner Sanctum - Status Report VI © July 1991 by Leonard H. Stringfield
• 03/01/2004 — Part 3: UFO Crash/Retrievals: The Inner Sanctum - Status Report VI © July 1991 by Leonard H. Stringfield
• 02/25/2004 — Part 2: UFO Crash/Retrievals: The Inner Sanctum - Status Report VI © July 1991 by Leonard H. Stringfield
• 02/24/2004 — Part 1: UFO Crash/Retrievals: The Inner Sanctum - Status Report VI © July 1991 by Leonard H. Stringfield
• 02/16/2004 — Part 15: Epilogue - UFO Crash/Retrievals, Status Report VII by Leonard H. Stringfield
• 02/13/2004 — Part 14 - UFO Crash/Retrievals, Status Report VII by Len Stringfield
• 02/12/2004 — Part 13 - UFO Crash/Retrievals, Status Report VII by Len Stringfield
• 02/07/2004 — Part 12 - UFO Crash/Retrievals, Status Report VII by Len Stringfield
• 01/24/2004 — Are Military Jets Chasing UFOs in Bloomington, Indiana?
• 01/21/2004 — Part 8 - UFO Crash/Retrievals, Status Report VII by Len Stringfield
• 01/18/2004 — Part 7 - UFO Crash/Retrievals, Status Report VII by Len Stringfield
• 01/18/2004 — Huge Moving "Triangle of Stars" Over Alberta, Canada
• 01/11/2004 — Part 6 - UFO Crash/Retrievals, Status Report VII by Len Stringfield
• 12/29/2003 — Part 5 - UFO Crash/Retrievals, Status Report VII by Len Stringfield
• 12/21/2003 — Part 4 - UFO Crash/Retrievals, Status Report VII by Len Stringfield
• 12/19/2003 — Part 3 - UFO Crash/Retrievals, Status Report VII by Len Stringfield
• 12/17/2003 — Part 2 - UFO Crash/Retrievals, Status Report VII by Len Stringfield
• 12/13/2003 — What Snapped Off Big Trees in A Circle in Ruby, Alaska?
• 11/07/2003 — British UFO Crash Retrievals
• 10/28/2003 — Part 2 - U. S. Presidents and UFO Investigations
• 10/25/2003 — Part 1 - What Does NASA Know About 1965 Aerial Vehicle Crash in Kecksburg, Pennsylvania?
• 09/12/2003 — Second Soybean Crop Formation in Ohio is Manmade. Special USAF Investigation Unit Involved?
• 08/29/2003 — Part 1 - Why Do Military Helicopters Focus On Crop Formations?
• 08/21/2003 — Avebury Eyewitnesses Follow Aerial Disk to Field East of Cherhill
• 06/27/2003 — Part 2 - Mysterious Lights and Fourteen Crop Formations in Italy
• 05/28/2003 — Cat and Dog Mutilations in Salt Lake City; $6,500 Reward
• 05/18/2003 — Cattle Mutilation - The Unthinkable Truth, Chapter 5, Part One
• 05/18/2003 — Cattle Mutilation - The Unthinkable Truth, Chapter 5, Part Two
• 04/22/2003 — UFO Experiences Reported by Forest Fire Lookouts
• 04/06/2003 — Cattle Mutilation - The Unthinkable Truth, Chapter 4, Part Three
• 03/30/2003 — Cattle Mutilation - The Unthinkable Truth, Chapter 4, Part Two
• 03/28/2003 — Cattle Mutilation - The Unthinkable Truth, Chapter 4, Part One
• 03/19/2003 — Cattle Mutilation - The Unthinkable Truth, Chapter 3, Part Three
• 03/08/2003 — Cattle Mutilation - The Unthinkable Truth, Chapter 3, Part Two
• 02/03/2003 — Cattle Mutilation - The Unthinkable Truth, Chapter 3, Part One
• 01/21/2003 — Mutilated Horse Baffles Police in Des Moines, Iowa
• 01/16/2003 — Dubayy, United Arab Emirates Shopping Mall Uses "UFO Fly-Over" to Promote January Store Festival
• 01/15/2003 — Cattle Mutilation - The Unthinkable Truth, Chapter 2, Part Three
• 12/21/2002 — Part 2 - Corguinho, Brazil: Close Encounters with Tall Red-Haired and Blond-Haired Non-Human Beings
• 12/07/2002 — Cattle Mutilation - The Unthinkable Truth, Chapter 1, Part Three
• 11/19/2002 — What Broke Up Between Afyon and Yalova, Turkey On November 1, 2002?
• 11/09/2002 — UPDATED: Majestic-12 Documents with Ryan Wood About Extraterrestrial Technologies
• 11/03/2002 — Chapter 12 - Mystery Stalks The Prairie
• 11/03/2002 — Chapter 13 - Mystery Stalks The Prairie
• 10/30/2002 — Unidentified Aerial Object Over Albany, N. Y. Airport
• 10/28/2002 — Chapter 11 - Mystery Stalks The Prairie
• 10/26/2002 — Former White House Aide, John Podesta, Says Government Should Open Up UFO Files
• 10/26/2002 — Chapter 10 - Mystery Stalks the Prairie
• 10/20/2002 — Chapter 9 - Mystery Stalks The Prairie
• 10/15/2002 — Chapter 8 - Mystery Stalks The Prairie
• 10/13/2002 — Chapter 7 - Mystery Stalks The Prairie
• 10/09/2002 — Extraterrestrial Biological Entities and Discs Described by CIA/U.S. Army Administrator, 1957-1960
• 10/08/2002 — Chapter 6 - Mystery Stalks The Prairie
• 10/03/2002 — Chapter 5 - Mystery Stalks The Prairie
• 09/09/2002 — Chapter 1 - Mystery Stalks The Prairie
• 07/23/2002 — Mysterious, Buzzing Light in Tehachapi, California
• 06/15/2002 — Cattle Mutilations In LaPampa, Argentina
• 04/20/2002 — Canadian and American Officials In 1950s Collaborated on Study of Unidentified Aerial Disks
• 04/17/2002 — Part 2 - Unidentified Aerial Craft Over Farmington and Aztec, New Mexico in Spring 1949
• 01/19/2002 — Nine Unidentified Aerial Objects Tracked at 8,000 mph on 1952 Radar
• 05/11/2001 — Horse Slashings and Deaths in Calgary, Alberta, Canada
• 05/04/2001 — Part 3 - Retired Army Sergeant Describes 1969 Film of Unidentified Craft
• 04/30/2001 — Part 2 - Former U.S. Army Sergeant Describes 1969 Film of Non-Human Entities
• 04/29/2001 — Part 1 - Former Army Sergeant Describes 1969 Film of Alien Craft and Entities
• 04/21/2001 — April 1986: After Chernobyl Melt Down, What Flew Over Mannheim, Germany?
• 06/22/2000 — The UFO/FBI Connection by U. S. Navy Physicist, Bruce S. Maccabee - Part 5
• 06/21/2000 — The UFO/FBI Connection by U. S. Navy Physicist, Bruce S. Maccabee - Part 4
• 06/19/2000 — The UFO/FBI Connection by U. S. Navy Physicist, Bruce S. Maccabee - Part 2
• 06/18/2000 — The UFO/FBI Connection by U. S. Navy Physicist, Bruce S. Maccabee - Part 1
• 03/21/2000 — Mysterious Fires in Bartlesville, Oklahoma - 1966/1967
• 03/10/2000 — New Energy Patent - Hydrogen Gas from Algae
• 02/21/2000 — Green Square Unidentified Aerial Craft Over Phoenix
• 10/24/1999 — A U. S. Army Infantryman's Abduction
• 09/05/1999 — Delphos, Kansas Ring Mystery - More Analyses
• 01/28/1999 — Army Sgt. Clifford Stone's and Triangle Craft in Germany, 1989
• 01/10/1999 — Updates: Astronomy and Rufus Baughn, Nevada Test Site

Websites:

Majestic-12 Documents: http://www.majesticdocuments.com

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http://www.earthfiles.com/news.php?ID=1432&category=Environment

The Watchmen Movie gets Cancelled

2008-08-19T20:24:00.000-07:00

http://www.moviesonline.ca/movienews_4339.html

The Watchmen Movie gets Cancelled

Movie The Watchmen Posted By: / Source

According to Variety, The Watchmen has been cancelled. No surprise since Paramount has been fighting to bring the budget down for some time. The producers and director have now taken the film and are shopping it to other studios.. so technically its not dead, its just dead at Paramont.

The Watchmen is about the paranoid delusions of a half-insane hero called Rorschach. But is Rorschach really insane or has he in fact uncovered a plot to murder super-heroes and, even worse, millions of innocent civilians? On the run from the law, Rorschach reunites with his former teammates in a desperate attempt to save the world and their lives, but what they uncover will shock them to their very core and change the face of the planet!

Following two generations of masked superheroes from the close of World War II to the icy shadow of the Cold War comes this groundbreaking comic story — the story of The Watchmen.

http://www.moviesonline.ca/movienews_4339.html

......
I hope this bullshit isn't true,I loved the Dark Knight....but a few times I saw it was just to see the Watchmen trailer

http://my.spill.com/forum/topic/show?id=947994%3ATopic%3A515806

Posted by 47_SilentAssassin on August 19, 2008 at 9:32am in General Movie Sh*t

View Discussions

Watchmen might be cancelled?

A judge has denied a Warner Bros motion to dismiss 20th Century Fox's lawsuit over Warners' right to make a film based on the graphic novel "Watchmen."

Ruling is potentially a huge victory for Fox, which could wind up as a profit participant in the film, and could cost Warners millions considering the film's box office prospects. However, Fox's legal team says it isn't looking for monetary compensation and instead wants to prevent the big-budget film from being released altogether.

Project, which has been in development for two decades, finally began lensing in September with Zack Snyder at the helm. Warners was set to release the film, which stars Patrick Wilson and Jackie Earle Haley, on March 6th in the same slot in which "300" opened.

At the heart of Fox's suit, filed in February, is the contention that it never ceded rights to the property. And according to the federal Judge Gary Allen Feess, Fox retained distribution rights to the graphic novel penned by Alan Moore and illustrated by Dave Gibbons through a 1991 claim. Furthermore, Feess appears to agree that under a 1994 turnaround deal with producer Larry Gordon, Gordon acquired an option to acquire Fox's remaining interest in "Watchmen," which was never exercised, thereby leaving Fox with its rights under the 1994 agreement.

The court has asked the two parties for expedited discovery; generally the discovery process can take up to two years. Because the film has already wrapped and is dated for spring 2009, the judge wants to move forward quickly.

"We will be asking the court to enforce Fox's copyright interests in 'The Watchmen' and enjoin the release of the Warner Bros film and any related 'Watchmen' media that violate our copyright interests in that property," said Fox.

Surprisingly, Fox said it would rather see the film killed instead of collecting a percentage of the box office. "When you have copyright infringement, there are some damages you never recover," said a source close to the litigation.

Fox spent more than $1 million developing "Watchmen" but had not previously taken legal action against the project, which had been in development at Paramount several years ago.

http://my.spill.com/forum/topic/show?id=947994%3ATopic%3A515806

Elizabeth Bathory Countess Dracula

2008-08-17T18:39:00.000-07:00

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_B%C3%A1thory

Elizabeth Báthory

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Elizabeth Báthory
Elizabeth Báthory

Born	August 7, 1560 Nyírbátor, Kingdom of Hungary
Died	August 21, 1614 (aged 54) Čachtice, Kingdom of Hungary
Penalty	House Arrest until Death
Status	Nobility
Occupation	Royal Family of Hungary
Spouse	Ferenc Nádasdy

Countess Elizabeth Báthory (Báthory Erzsébet in Hungarian, Alžbeta Bátoriová in Slovak, Alžběta Báthoryová in Czech, Elżbieta Batory in Polish, August 7, 1560 – August 21, 1614), was a Hungarian countess from the renowned Báthory family. She is possibly the most prolific serial killer in history and is remembered as the "Blood Countess" and as Bloody Lady of Čachtice, after the castle near Trenčín, at that time in Royal Hungary, where she spent most of her life.

She spent most of her adult life at Čachtice Castle in what is now Slovakia. The Báthory family is famous for defending Hungary against the Ottoman Turks.

After her husband's death, she and four collaborators were accused of torturing and killing hundreds of girls and young women, with one witness attributing to them over 600 victims, though she was only convicted on 80 counts.^[1] In 1610, she was imprisoned in Čachtice Castle, where she remained bricked in her room until her death four years later. She was never formally tried in court.

This spread the true story^{[citation needed]} of the Countess bathing in the blood of virgins in order to retain her youth. These stories have led to comparisons with Vlad III the Impaler of Wallachia, on whom the fictional Count Dracula is partly based, and to modern nicknames of the Blood Countess and Countess Dracula.

[hide]

[edit] Life

[edit] Early years

Elizabeth Báthory was born on a family estate in Nyírbátor, Hungary, and spent her childhood at Ecsed Castle. Her father was George Báthory, a brother of Andrew Bonaventura Báthory, who had been Voivod of Transylvania of the Ecsed branch of the family, while her mother was Anna Báthory (1539-1570), daughter of Stephen Báthory, another Voivod of Transylvania, of the Somlyó branch. Through her mother, she was the niece of Stefan Báthory, King of Poland.

[edit] Married life

At the age of 11, Báthory was engaged to Ferenc Nádasdy and moved to Nádasdy Castle in Sárvár, Hungary. In 1575, she married Nádasdy in Varannó not long after giving birth to a daughter concieved by sex play with a servant at Sarvar. She was sent to a far Bathory castle to give birth, This daughter along with the midwife were sent in exile to Transylvania, though not without a large sum of money. Anna Bathory carefully hushed up the affair so as to not hinder the upcoming nuptuals.lNádasdy’s wedding gift to Báthory was his home, Čachtice Castle, situated in the Little Carpathians near Trenčín, together with the Čachtice country house and 17 adjacent villages. The castle itself was surrounded by a village and agricultural lands, bordered by outcrops of the Little Carpathians. In 1602, Nádasdy finally bought the castle from Rudolf II, so that it became a private property of the family.

In 1578, Nádasdy became the chief commander of Hungarian troops, leading them to war against the Ottomans. With her husband away at war, Elizabeth Báthory managed business affairs and the estates. That role usually included providing for the Hungarian and Slovak peasants, even medical care.

During the height of the Long War (1593-1606), she was charged with the defense of her husband's estates, which lay on the route to Vienna.^[2] The threat was significant, for the village of Čachtice had previously been plundered by the Ottomans while Sárvár, located near the border that divided Royal Hungary and Ottoman occupied Hungary, was in even greater danger.

She was an educated woman who could read and write in four languages.^[2] There were several instances where she intervened on behalf of destitute women, including a woman whose husband was captured by the Turks and a woman whose daughter was raped and impregnated. She was interested in science and astronomy.^{[citation needed]}

Her husband died in 1604 at the age of 47. His death is commonly reported as resulting from an injury sustained in battle.

[edit] Arrest

[edit] Early investigation

Between 1602 and 1604, Lutheran parish priest István Magyari complained about atrocities both publicly and with the court in Vienna, after rumors had spread.^[3]

The Hungarian authorities took some time to respond to Magyari's complaints. Finally, in 1610, King Matthias assigned György Thurzó, the Palatine of Hungary, to investigate. Thurzó ordered two notaries to collect evidence in March 1610.^[4] Even before obtaining the results,^[5] Thurzó debated further proceedings with Elizabeth's son Paul and two of her sons-in-law. A trial and execution would have caused a public scandal and disgraced a noble and influential family (which at the time ruled Transylvania), and Elizabeth's considerable property would have been seized by the crown. Thurzó agreed that Elizabeth Báthory should be kept under strict house arrest, but that further punishment should be avoided.^[6] It was also determined that Matthias did not have to repay a large debt for which he lacked sufficient funds.^[7]

[edit] Arrest and trial

Thurzó went to Čachtice Castle on December 30, 1610 and arrested Báthory and four of her servants, who were accused of being her accomplices. Thurzó's men reportedly found one girl dead and one dying. Another woman was found wounded, others locked up.^[8]

But on the court later Elizabeth was missing as also all her personal household and dependants from her castle. The only statements that were written down were said by aristocrats and people that never lived in or around her castle. All potential witnesses from her castle as also the girls that "were found by Thurzo on Dec. 30 wounded and locked" were never given the chance of speaking on the court.

While the countess was put under house arrest (and remained so from that point on), her associates were brought to court. A trial was held on January 7, 1611 at Bytča. The trial was presided over by Royal Supreme Court judge Theodosious Syrmiensis de Szulo and 20 associate judges. Bathory herself did not appear at the trial. Intimidation and torture were part of the judicial process. She was also accused of witchcraft and pagan practices.^[9]

The defendants at that trial were:

Dorottya Szentes, also referred to as Dorko.
Ilona Jó
Katarína Benická
János Újváry, "Ibis" or Ficko.

Dorko, Ilona and Ficko were found guilty and executed on the spot. Dorko and Ilona had their fingernails ripped out before they were thrown into a fire, while Ficko, who was deemed less guilty, was beheaded before being consigned to the flames. A public scaffold was erected near the castle to show the public that justice had been done. Katarína Benická was sentenced to life imprisonment, as she only acted under the domination and bullying by the other women, as implied by recorded testimony.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Last years and death

During the trial of her primary servants, Elizabeth had been placed under house arrest in a single room. She remained there for four years, until her death.

King Matthias had urged Thurzó to bring her to court and two notaries were sent to collect further evidence^[10], but in the end no court proceedings against her were ever commenced.

On August 21, 1614, Elizabeth Báthory was found dead in her castle. Since there were several plates of food untouched, her actual date of death is unknown. She was buried in the church of Čachtice, but due to the villagers' uproar over having "The Tigress of Csejthe" buried in their cemetary her body was moved to her birthhome at Nagyecsed in Hungary, where it is interred at the Bathory family crypt. .^[11]

[edit] Accusations

In 1610 and 1611 the notaries collected testimonies from more than 300 witness accounts. Trial records include testimonies of the four defendants, as well as 13 more witnesses. Priests, noblemen and commoners were questioned. Witnesses included the castellan and other personnel of Sárvár castle.

According to these testimonies, her initial victims were local peasant girls, many of whom were lured to Čachtice by offers of well-paid work as maidservants in the castle. Later she is said to have begun to kill daughters of lower gentry, who were sent to her gynaeceum by their parents to learn courtly etiquette. Abductions were said to have occurred as well.

The descriptions of torture that emerged during the trials were often based on hearsay. The atrocities described most consistently included:

severe beatings over extended periods of time, often leading to death.
burning or mutilation of hands, sometimes also of faces and genitalia.
biting the flesh off the faces, arms and other bodily parts.
freezing to death.
bad surgery on victims, often leading to death.
starving of victims.

The use of needles was also mentioned by the collaborators in court.

Some witnesses named relatives who died while at the gynaeceum. Others reported having seen traces of torture on dead bodies, some of which were buried in graveyards, and others in unmarked locations.

According to the defendants' confessions, Elizabeth Báthory tortured and killed her victims not only at Čachtice but also on her properties in Sárvár, Sopronkeresztúr, Bratislava and Vienna, and even between these locations.

In addition to the defendants, several people were named for supplying Elizabeth Báthory with young women. The girls had been procured either by deception or by force.

A little-known figure named Anna Darvulia was also rumoured to have influenced much of Báthory's early sadistic career but apparently died long before the trial.

The number of young women tortured and killed by Elizabeth Báthory is unknown, though it is often cited as being in the hundreds, between the years 1585 and 1610. The estimates differ greatly. During the trial and before their execution, Szentes and Ficko reported 36 and 37 respectively, during their periods of service. The other defendants estimated a number of 50 or higher. Many Sárvár castle personnel estimated the number of bodies removed from the castle at between 100 to 200. One witness who spoke at the trial mentioned a book in which a total of over 650 victims was supposed to have been listed by Báthory herself. This book was never mentioned anywhere else, nor was it ever discovered; however, this number became part of the legend surrounding Báthory.

László Nagy has argued that Elizabeth Báthory was a victim of a conspiracy,^[12] a view opposed by others.^[13] Nagy argued that the proceedings were largely politically motivated. However the conspiracy theory is consistent with Hungarian history at that time.^[14]

[edit] Folklore, literature and popular culture

Main article: Elizabeth Báthory in popular culture

The case of Elizabeth Báthory inspired numerous stories during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The most common motif of these works was that of the countess bathing in her victims' blood in order to retain beauty or youth.

This legend appeared in print for the first time in 1729, in the Jesuit scholar László Turóczi’s Tragica Historia,^[15] the first written account of the Báthory case.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, this certainty was questioned, and sadistic pleasure was considered a far more plausible motive for Elizabeth Báthory's crimes.^[16] In 1817, the witness accounts (which had surfaced in 1765) were published for the first time,^[17] demonstrating that the bloodbaths, for the purpose of preserving her youth, were legend rather than fact.

The legend nonetheless persisted in the popular imagination. Some versions of the story were told with the purpose of denouncing female vanity, while other versions aimed to entertain or thrill their audience. During the twentieth and twenty first centuries, Elizabeth Báthory has continued to appear as a character in music, film, plays, books, games and toys and to serve as an inspiration for similar characters.

[edit] See also

Darya Saltykova
The Countess (film)
Countess Dracula (1971 film)
Daughters of Darkness (1971 film)
Hellboy: Blood and Iron
Immoral Tales (1974 film)
Castlevania: Bloodlines
Stay Alive (2006 film)
Bathory (2008 film)
Cruelty and the Beast (concept album by metal band Cradle of Filth about Elizabeth)
Ottoman wars in Europe

[edit] References

^ Countess Elizabeth Bathory - The Blood Countess - The Crime library
^ ^a ^b Báthory Erzsébet - Elizabeth Báthory: Short FAQ
^ Farin, Heroine des Grauens, p. 234-237.
^ Letters from Thurzó to both men on March 5, 1610, printed in Farin, Heroine des Grauens, p. 265-266, 276-278.
^ On September 19, 1610, Andreas of Keresztúr sent 34 witness accounts to Thurzó. On October 27, 1610 Mózes Cziráky sent 18 accounts.
^ Letter from December 12, 1610 by Elizabeth's son-in-law Zrinyi to Thurzó refers to agreement made earlier. See Farin, Heroine des Grauens, p. 291.
^ McNally, Raymond T. (1983). Dracula Was a Woman: In Search of the Blood Countess of Transylvania. New York: McGraw Hill. ISBN 0070456712.
^ Letter from Thurzó to his wife, December 30, 1610, printed in Farin, Heroine des Grauens, p. 293.
^ McNally, Raymond T. (1983). Dracula Was a Woman: In Search of the Blood Countess of Transylvania. New York: McGraw Hill. ISBN 0070456712.
^ 224 Witness accounts were sent to Matthias on 28 July, 1611 by A. of Keresztúr, 12 by M. Cziraky on 14 December, 1611,
^ Farin, Heroine des Grauens, p. 246.
^ László Nagy: A rossz hirü Báthoryak. Budapest: Kossuth Könyvkiadó 1984
^ György Pollák: Az irástudók felelötlensége. In: Kritika. Müvelödéspollitikai és kritikai lap. Budapest, January 1986, p. 21-22
^ P.F. Sugar etal:A History of Hungary. Indiana University Press, 1990, p. 97
^ in Ungaria suis cum regibus compendia data, Typis Academicis Soc. Jesu per Fridericum Gall. Anno MCCCXXIX. Mense Sepembri Die 8. p 188-193, quoted by Farin
^ Alois Freyherr von Mednyansky: Elisabeth Báthory, in Hesperus, Prague, October 1812, vol. 2, No. 59, p. 470-472, quoted by Farin, Heroine des Grauens, p. 61-65.
^ Hesperus, Prague, June 1817, Vol. 1, No. 31, p. 241-248 and July 1817, Vol. 2, No. 34, p. 270-272

[edit] Further reading

In English:

McNally, Raymond T. (1983). Dracula Was a Woman: In Search of the Blood Countess of Transylvania. New York: McGraw Hill. ISBN 0070456712.
Penrose, Valentine (trans. Alexander Trocchi) (2006). The Bloody Countess: Atrocities of Erzsébet Báthory. Solar Books. ISBN 0971457824.
Thorne, Tony (1997). Countess Dracula. Bloomsbury. ISBN 0747529000.

In French:

Périsset, Maurice (2001). Le comtesse de sang. Pygmalion. ISBN 2857047002.

In German:

Farin, Michael (2003). Heroine des Grauens. Elisabeth Báthory. Munich: P. Kirchheim. ISBN 3-87410-038-3.

In Hungarian:

Bessenyei, József (2005). A Nádasdyak. General Press Kiadó. ISBN 9639598658.
Nagy, László (1984). A rossz hírű Báthoryak. Kossuth Könyvkiadó. ISBN 9630923084.
Péter, Katalin (1985). A csejtei várúrnő: Báthory Erzsébet. Helikon. ISBN 9632076524.
Szádeczky-Kardoss, Irma (1993). Báthory Erzsébet igazsága. Nestor Kiadó. ISBN 963752326x.
Welden, Oscar (pseud. for István Nemere) (2000). Báthory Erzsébet magánélete. Anno kiadó. ISBN 9633752248.

In Slovak:

Dvořák, Pavel (1999). Krvavá grófka: Alžbeta Bátoryová, fakty a výmysly. Slovart. ISBN 9788085501070.
Nižnánsky, Jožo (2001). Čachtická pani. Media klub. ISBN 8088963524.

[edit] External links

Persondata
NAME	Báthory, Elizabeth
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Báthory Erzsébet (Hungarian); Bátoriová(-Nádašdy), Alžbeta (Slovak); Bloody Lady of Čachtice (nickname); Lady Dracula (nickname)
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Countess and serial killer
DATE OF BIRTH	August 7?, 1560
PLACE OF BIRTH	Nyírbátor, Hungary
DATE OF DEATH	August 21, 1614
PLACE OF DEATH	Čachtice, Slovakia

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_B%C3%A1thory"

http://bathory.org/shyla.html

Shyla's History of Erzsébet

[Note from Dennis: This page was written several years ago and contributed by Shyla, then an art student. It continues to be included here only for site completeness. It has factual errors, and should not be used for reference.]

Shyla's Realm

1560: Elizabeth Bathory is born into one of the oldest and wealthiest families in Transylvania. Her family had many powerful relatives -- a cardinal, princes, and a cousin who was prime minister of Hungary are among these relatives. The most famous relative was Istvan (ISHT-vahn) Bathory (1533-86). Istvan was prince of Transylvania and king of poland from 1575-86. It has been said that At around the age of 4 or 5, Elizabeth had violent seizures. These may have been caused by epilepsy or another neurological disorder and may have something to do with her "psychotic" behavior later in life.

1575: Age 15, Elizabeth married Count Ferenc (pronounced FAIR-entz) Nadasdy (NAW-dawzhd with silent y). The Count was 26 years of age. The count took Elizabeth's surname so that she could keep her name. They lived together in Castle Cséjthe (which in hungarian is pronounced CHAY-tuh). In Slovak this Castle is named Cachtice (pronounced CHAKH-teet-suh). [To this day there is rivalry between the Hungarians and the Slovak's and you will get a blank expression if you refer to the "wrong" name.] The count spent a great deal of time away from home fighting in wars and for this he was nicknamed "The Black Hero of Hungary". While her husband was away Elizabeth's manservant Thorko introduced her to the occult. For a brief time Elizabeth eloped with a "dark stranger". Upon her return to Castle Cachtice the count did forgive her for her leaving. Back at the castle, Elizabeth couldn't tolerate her domineering mother-in-law. With the help of her old nurse Ilona Joo, she began to torture the servant girls. Her other accomplices included the major-domo János Ujvary (pronounced YAH-nosh OOEE-vahr-yuh), Thorko, a forest witch named Darvula and a witch Dorottya Szentes. The first ten years of their marriage, Elizabeth bore no children because she and Ferenc shared so little time together as he pursued his "career." Then around 1585, Elizabeth bore a girl whom she named Anna, and over the following nine years gave birth to two more girls, Ursula and Katherina, and in 1598 bore her first and only son, Paul. Judging from letters she wrote to relatives, she was a good wife and protective mother, which was not surprising since nobles usually treated immediate family very differently from the lower servants and peasant classes.

1600: At age 51, Count Ferenc died in battle and thus began Elizabeth's period of atrocities. First, she sent her hated mother-in-law away from the Castle. By this time it is thought that she had dabbled into some forms of sorcery, attending rituals that included the sacrificing of horses and other animals. Elizabeth, now 40 years old, grew increasingly vain and she feared the thought of aging as she may lose her beauty. One day a servant girl accidentially pulled her hair while combing it. Elizabeth slapped the girl's hand so hard she drew blood. The girls blood fell into ELizabeth's hand and she immediately thought that her skin took on the freshness of her young maid. She believed that she had found the secret of eternal youth. Elizabeth had her major-domo and Thorko strip the maid and then cut her and drain her blood into a huge vat. Elizabeth bathed in it to beautify her entire body.

1600 - 1610: Elizabeth's henchmen continued to provided Elizabeth with new girls for the blood-draining ritual and her blood baths. Elizabeth went out of her way to see to it that the dead girls were given proper Christian burials by the local Protestant pastor, at least initially. As the body count rose, the pastor refused to perform his duties in this respect, because there were too many girls coming to him from Elizabeth who had died of "unknown and mysterious causes." She then threatened him in order to keep him from spreading the news of her "hobby" and continued to have the bodies buried secretly. Near the end, many bodies were disposed of in haphazard and dangerously conspicuous locations (like nearby fields, wheat silos, the stream running behind the castle, the kitchen vegetable garden, etc.). But one of her intended victims escaped and told the authorities about what was happening at Castle Cachtice. King Mátyás (MAHT-yash) of Hungary ordered Elizabeth's own cousin, Count György (pronounced DYERD-yuh) Thurzo, governor of the province to raid the castle. On December 30, 1610 they raided the castle and they were horrified by the terrible sights. One dead girl in the main room, drained of blood and another alive whose body had been pierced with holes. In the dungeon they discoverd several living girls, some of whose bodies had been pierced several times. Below the castle, they exhumed the bodies of some 50 girls.

1611: A trial was held at Bitcse. Elizabeth, who refused to plead either guilty or innocent, and never appeared in the trial.. At this trial Johannes Ujvary, major-domo, testified that about 37 unmarried girls has been killed, six of whom he had personally recruited to work at the castle. The trial revealed that most of the girls were tortured for weeks or even months. They were cut with scissors, pricked with pins, even prodded with burning irons onto short spikes in a cage hung from the ceiling to provide Bathory with a "blood shower". Sometimes the two witches tortured these girls, or the Countess did it herself. Elizabeth's old nurse testified that about 40 girls had been tortured and killed. In fact, Elizabeth killed 612 women -- and in her diary, she documented their deaths. A complete transcript of the trial was made at the time and it survices today in Hungary. Of the people involved in these killings, all but Countess Bathory and the two witches were beheaded and cremated. Due to her nobility, Elizabeth was not allowed by law to be executed. The tow accomplices had their fingers torn out and were burned alive. The court never convicted Countess Elizabeth of any crime, however she was put under house arrest. She was sentenced to life imprisonment in her torture chamber and stonemasons were brought to wall up the windows and doors of the with the Countess inside. They left a small hole through which food could be passed. King Mátyás II demanded the death penalty for Elizabeth but because of her cousin, the prime minister, he agreed to an indefinitely delayed sentence, which really meant solitary confinement for life.

1614: On July 31 Elizabeth (age 54) dictated her last will and testament to two cathedral priests from the Esztergom bishopric. She wished that what remained of her family holdings be divided up equally among her children, her son Paul and his descendants were the basic inheritors though. Late in August of the year 1614 one of the countess's jailers wanted to get a good look at her, since she was still reputedly one of the most beautiful women in Hungary. Peeking through the small aperture in her walled-up cell, he saw her lying face down on the floor. Countess Elizabeth Bathory was dead. Her body was intended to be buried in the church in the town of Cachtice, but the grumbling of local inhabitants found abhorrent the idea of having the "infamous Lady" placed in their town, on hallowed ground no less! Considering this, and the fact that she was "one of the last of the descendants of the Ecsed line of the Bathory family", her body was placed to the northeastern Hungarian town of Ecsed, the original Bathory family seat.

More Information:

All records of Elizabeth were sealed for more than a century, and her name was forbidden to be spoken in Hungarian society.
Unlike most females of the time, Elizabeth was well educated and her intelligence surpassed even some of the men of her time. Elizabeth was exceptional, becoming "fluent in Hungarian, Latin, and German... when most Hungarian nobles could not even spell or write...Even the ruling prince of Transylvania at the time was barely literate"(20). Some modern scholars and contemporaries of hers postulated that she may have been insane, thus accounting for her seemingly inconceivable atrocities, but even a brief glance into her past reveals a person fully in control of her faculties.
Dracula, created by the Irish author Bram Stoker, was based, albeit loosely, on the Romanian Prince, Vlad Dracula, the Impaler. Raymond T. McNally, who has written four books on the figure of Dracula in history, literature, and vampirism, in his fifth book, "Dracula was a Woman," presents insights into the fact that Stoker's Count Dracula was also strongly influenced by the legends of Elizabeth Bathory of Hungary. Why, for example, make a Romanian Prince into a Hungarian Count? Why, if there are no accounts of Vlad Dracula drinking human blood, does blood drinking consume the Dracula of Stoker's novel, who, contrary to established vampire myth, seems to appear younger after doing so? The answers, of course, lie in examining the story of Countess Elizabeth Bathory.
It was largely Slovak servants whom Erzsebet killed, so the name "Csejthe" is only spoken in derision, and she is still called "The Hungarian Whore" in the area.

Page maintained by Malted/Media.
Copyright ©1991-2006 by Dennis Báthory-Kitsz. All rights reserved.

http://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/elizabeth-bathory.htm

Short Biography of the life of Elizabeth Bathory -

Lady Dracula
The following biography information provides basic

facts about the life Elizabeth Bathory:

Nationality - Hungarian

Nickname: The notorious Elizabeth Bathory

is also known as Lady Dracula

Lifespan - 1560 - 1614

Born: August 7, 1560 in modern-day

Slovakia

Married: Count Ferencz Nadasdy in 1575

Spent her early married life living in the

home of her husband - Nadasdy Castle in

Sarvar, Hungary

Count Ferencz Nadasdy took Elizabeth

Bathory's surname when they married

giving her the full title of Countess

Elizabeth Bathory Nadasdy.

Lady Dracula's Castle: Count Ferencz

Nadasdy gave his wife the Countess

Elizabeth Bathory Nadasdy Cachtice

Castle in modern Slovakia ( then

Hungary) together with the adjoining

villages

Died: Elizabeth Bathory died August 21,

1614

Family connections of Elizabeth Bathory

- Elizabeth Bathory came from

one of the wealthiest families in

Transylvania. Father was George/Gyorgy

and her mother was Anna Bathory. The

brother of Elizabeth’s mother was the

Polish king Istvan Bathory (1533-1586)

and Elizabeth’s nephew Gabriel Bathory

was the ruler of Transylvania

Children: Elizabeth Bathory had six

children although two children died

in infancy. the names of her surviving

children were:

Anastasia Bathory, born out of
wedlock 1574
Anna Nadasdy (born c.1585)
Katalin (Katherina) Nadasdy
(born c.1594)
Paul Nadasdy (1598 - 1650)

Education - extremely well educated

and able to speak several languages

Famous for : Countess Elizabeth Bathory

Nadasdy ( 1560 - 1614 ) is famous as

a real historical figure who was reputed

to have not only drunk but bathed

in the blood of young virgin girls she

murdered in order to retain her youth

Character of Elizabeth Bathory :

Intelligent,

ruthless, vain, cruel and sadistic -

probably mentally unstable

Short Biography, Facts & History

about the life of Elizabeth Bathory -

Lady Dracula
The following are additional facts

about the bio, life and history of Elizabeth
Bathory:
Legend has it that Countess Elizabeth Bathory
Nadasdy discovered her "secret of eternal
youth" when some spots of blood from a

beaten servant seemed to 'tighten' her skin.
She became obsessed with this notion which
gave her a perfect excuse to vent her
sadistic streak on local teenage peasant
women. Countess Elizabeth Bathory
Nadasdy was known to torture her
victims before bathing in their blood. Her

instruments of torture included knives,
pincers, needles, razors, red-hot irons
and pokers. She is also reputed to
have ordered the construction of
an iron cage called "Iron Virgin".
The "Iron Virgin" was shaped like
a woman and fitted with blades,
similar to the "Iron Maiden".
Countess Elizabeth Bathory Nadasdy
was believed to have been responsible
for the deaths of over 600 peasant women.
She was aided in her crimes by servants
including Dorka Szentes, Iloona Joo,
Johannes Ujuvary, Anna Darvulia and
Damien Thorko. So many complaints
were made about the Countess that
King Mathias of Hungary sent cousin,
Lord Palatine George Thurzo to question
her. Her accomplices were sentenced to
death but Elizabeth's involvement was
'hushed-up' due her her royal connections.
She was quietly left to die in her own castle.
The windows and doors of her room were
sealed by workmen were sealed leaving just
a small hath to pass food to her.
Countess Elizabeth Bathory Nadasdy
( Lady Dracula ) died three and a half years later.

Parallels between
Elizabeth Bathory and Dracula
Parallels have been made between Countess
Elizabeth Bathory Nadasdy and Vlad
Dracul (Prince Vlad IV) also called
Vlad Dracula meaning Son of the Devil.
Vlad Dracul (1431 - 1476) a was also
known by the nickname Vlad the Impaler
after impaling his enemies on stakes as a
cruel and vicious form of torture and
execution. Bram Stoker wrote the famous
fictional book he called Dracula which
was inspired by the Middle Ages prince
from Transylvania who had a lust for
blood. There is speculation that Bram
Stoker
also used the stories about Countess
Elizabeth Bathory Nadasdy when writing
his book. Prince Vlad IV and Elizabeth
Bathory both lived in Transylvania
and had a real lust for blood - there are
several other similarities between these
two historical figures...

Famous Elizabethans - Elizabeth
Bathory - Lady Dracula
Some interesting facts and biography information
about the History, Life & Times of Elizabeth Bathory.
Additional details, facts, history and information
about the famous Elizabethans and events
in Elizabethan Times can be accessed via the
Elizabethan Era Sitemap.

http://bathory.org/

http://bathory.org/erzsgall.html

http://www.abacom.com/~jkrause/bathory_pix_page.html

McDonald's Donation to Gay Rights Angers Anti Gay Marriage Folks

2008-08-17T16:55:00.000-07:00

McDonald's Donation to Gay Rights Angers Anti Gay Marriage Folks

August 6, 2008

Is this a redeeming quality of McDonald's? While they may be banned from opening new stores in South LA, there is also a right-wing group boycotting the fast food franchise. The same group is working on getting troops to vote to ban gay marriage on the November ballot as well. McDonald's donated $20,000 to the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC) and the The American Family Association (AFA) has chosen to make a big deal about it. The donation gained the company membership with the NGLCC and a seat on the groups board of directors.

Burger King / Wash It Your Way

2008-08-14T00:22:00.000-07:00

Xenia, Ohio Burger King declares a 2319 after an employee takes a bath in the kitchen sink. Timothy "Mr. Unstable" Tackett gets canned, along with several co-workers, after posting the clip to his MySpace page. BK orders the sink sterilized twice, liquidates all utensils involved:

I have low expectations of cleanliness anytime I dine out. So I'll ask: What made Mr. Unstable's baño any less hygienic than use of the sink to clean, say, pests and pest droppings, spoiled food, employee hands, vomit, stuff that fell on the floor, or any of the other contaminants that routinely need to be cleaned up even in the best restaurants?

"My first thought was oh my God," Greene County health commissioner Mark McDonnell tells WDTN's Megan O'Rourke, and his second and third thoughts aren't much more coherent. Mr. Unstable hosts a clip of McDonnell free-associating on the possible dangers involved in letting a tattooed punker take a birthday bath in a kitchen sink: "Contaminating a food utensil, cleaning sink; employee health; spreading bacteria all over food contact surfaces; spreading bacteria all over... Bacteria that happened to be on his skin could be deposited on the utensils too. Could promote a food poisoning."

Again, are these risks rendered any greater by a guy taking a bath? I say this is another case of aesthetic disapproval pretending to be a public safety concern.

Which isn't to say Burger King shouldn't have fired the guy (pity Xenia, where this is what an underappreciated show business genius has to do for fun on his birthday), though it's a shame to see that the real protagonist of the video — money-grubbing manager "Karen," the only person doing any real work in the joint — seems to have taken a fall as well.

Posted by Tim Cavanaugh on August 13, 2008 in Food , Found Objects , Labor , Public Shaming , Stupidity | Permalink

Comments

He looks like he really does need a bath... I'm pretty sure most of us who've patronized most fast food chains have ingested something we'd rather never know about... This actually is far more tame than some of stories I've heard about things that go on... and he's kinda cute... so that makes it better too...

Posted by: Brian | August 13, 2008 at 01:55 PM

I saw this video on break.com last nite and the only thing I could think of was his dirty butt was soaking in the sink they clean the dishes in. YUCK!

In regards to the above article... I don't think that BK washes rodents or rodent droppings in their sink...

I'm glad he was fired. He was obviously an idiot looking for attention. I bet if he was to stand up during that video and show everything we'd see how really inept he is as a man. lol!

Posted by: Stormy | August 13, 2008 at 03:03 PM

Burger King Employee in BK Sink No shit

2008-08-14T00:05:00.000-07:00

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WHIO Top Local Story

Xenia BURGER KING Employee caught taking bath in restaurant sink

XENIA, Ohio-- An unbelievable video is now showing on myspace and now on our sister station, WHIO-TV. An employee celebrated his birthday by taking a bath in the utility sink at the Burger King in Xenia. Greene County Health Commissioner Mark McDonnell was emailed the video and is now using it as evidence. In the video, the teenager dumps water on himself using a bucket marked with the words, "sanitary solution." More... See the shock raw video.

Burger King does not want its employees to take baths

Again, are these risks rendered any greater by a guy taking a bath? I say this is another case of aesthetic disapproval pretending to be a public safety concern.

Posted by Tim Cavanaugh on August 13, 2008 in Food , Found Objects , Labor , Public Shaming , Stupidity | Permalink

Comments

Posted by: Brian | August 13, 2008 at 01:55 PM

I saw this video on break.com last nite and the only thing I could think of was his dirty butt was soaking in the sink they clean the dishes in. YUCK!

In regards to the above article... I don't think that BK washes rodents or rodent droppings in their sink...

I'm glad he was fired. He was obviously an idiot looking for attention. I bet if he was to stand up during that video and show everything we'd see how really inept he is as a man. lol!

Posted by: Stormy | August 13, 2008 at 03:03 PM

Ottawa man found dead in Denver hotel

2008-08-12T19:09:00.000-07:00

Last Updated: Tuesday, August 12, 2008 | 9:16 PM ET Comments0 Recommend3

CBC News

An Ottawa man whose body was discovered in a Denver hotel might have died of cyanide poisoning, according to authorities.

Saleman Abdirahman Dirie was found dead at a room in the Burnsley Hotel, located several blocks from Colorado state capitol building. Police said he had been dead for several days.

Investigators found a bottle of white powder in Dirie's fourth-floor room. Police said they are trying to identify the powder, but that foul play is not suspected.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has said it is participating in the investigation.

An autopsy will be performed soon, according to the local medical examiner's office.

With files from the Associated Press

Marmalade: Bears Unveil new Look Like Shit Offense

2008-08-12T13:11:00.000-07:00

Marmalade: Bears Unveil new Look Like Shit Offense

Bears Unveil new Look Like Shit Offense

2008-08-12T11:48:00.001-07:00

http://www.theonion.com/content/news_briefs/bears_unveil_new_look_like

July 31, 2008

BOURBONNAIS, IL—The Chicago Bears put on a display of inaccurate passing, sluggish route running, and careless ball-handling Wednesday as the team exhibited their new-look-like-shit offense to fans and media attending training camp to view a full-squad practice. "We finally have the personnel to implement a game plan of high-percentage incomplete passes, completed passes of four yards or less, and a rushing attack that lets us lose control of the game clock with complex plays that take forever to develop and generate negative yardage," offensive coordinator Ron Turner
said, explaining why the Bears abandoned the "West-Coast-My-Fat-Ass" offense they ran last year. "I'm confident that both Rex Grossman and Kyle Orton possess the ability to overthrow a receiver on a deep fly pattern or find an open defender and deliver the ball with laser-like precision, so we'll be switching between them often and at random intervals to avoid either one getting into a rhythm or developing any confidence." According to Turner, the offense is starting to malfunction as a cohesive unit and has shown much more consistency at blowing assignments, missing blocks, and fumbling snaps.

http://www.theonion.com/content/news_briefs/bears_unveil_new_look_like

China not going to Olympics?

2008-08-12T11:45:00.000-07:00

(from www.theonion.com/sports)

BEIJING—In an 11th-hour move that shocked the international athletic and political communities alike, the Chinese Olympic Team announced Wednesday that it will not be attending the XXIX Olympiad in Beijing due to "shocking, shameful, and ultimately dangerous environmental conditions" in the host city.

"Given the unconscionably bad environmental state of the area in and around the site of the 2008 Summer Games, we cannot in good conscience allow Chinese athletes to compete in China," said Olympic committee spokesman Sun Weide. "We deeply apologize to China for the bitter disappointment they will feel at not being represented in these Games. However, we place the blame squarely on China for their failure to prepare a suitable venue for international competition."

"Frankly, it seems to me that in terms of air quality, water purity, and general contamination, Beijing is barely even capable of supporting human life, let alone strenuous activities such as team sports, swimming, and long-distance running," added Weide, who has lived in Beijing all his life. "We can only hope our refusal to compete in this city will result in real change for its long-suffering residents."

Weide's sentiments were echoed by other high-ranking members of China's Olympic athletic community.

"China's Olympic athletic community should be deeply ashamed of itself," said Zhang Tianbai, deputy director of the PRC's Athletic Sciences and Education Department and director of China's Olympic Committee. "When factories have to be shut down for a month beforehand just to clear the air, when automobile traffic is artificially thinned to reduce smog, when thousands of uniformed men have to dredge the river mere days before the regatta, in a city that is supposed to be the pride of a nation and the athletic center of the world for two weeks—disgusting is not too strong a word."

Director Tianbai joined Li Furong, vice president of the Chinese Olympic Committee, in calling for the immediate resignation and possible indictment of the entire Chinese Olympic Committee.

The 639 athletes chosen to represent China were informed Wednesday night that they would not in fact be competing in Beijing. Although all were shocked at the suddenness of the decision, most took the news stoically.

"I was very much looking forward to making China proud," said 100-meter hurdling champion Liu Zhang, who had expected to defend his gold medal in Beijing. "But, if I am honest, China should be ashamed of itself."

"I shall regret this for the rest of my life, but I think the current conditions Beijing are currently worse than the ones I encounter in my polluted, petroleum-fume-choked home town," said Rockets center Yao Ming, easily the team's most prominent athlete. "Which is Beijing. Things have gotten even worse since I moved."

"It brings me great sorrow to say this, as I had hoped that Chinese athletes would return from Beijing triumphant, having demonstrated our nation's greatness on a global stage," Hu Jintao, president and paramount leader of the People's Republic of China. "However, China's blatant disregard for its responsibility to the basic health, welfare, and safety of its Olympic participants has forced us to withdraw China's athletes for their own protection, and I urge the Olympic teams of all other nations to do the same."

China's Olympic team will spend one last night in their Olympic quarters before returning Friday to Beijing, where they will resume training for next year's Pan-American Games.

story is from:

http://www.theonion.com/content/news/citing_poor_conditions_china

(from www.theonion.com/sports)

philadephlia_sports

2008-08-12T10:59:00.001-07:00

http://www.theonion.com/content/news_briefs/crushed_philadephlia_sports

July 31, 2008
PHILADELPHIA—Hockey, baseball, basketball, and football fans alike are mourning the Philadelphia Soul's victory in ArenaBowl XXII, a 59-56 win over the San José SaberCats which continues the city's seemingly endless championship title drought. "It's been over 20 years since a sports team from this city won a national championship," said mayor Michael Nutter. "This arena league championship title just rubs salt in that wound." Locals are saying the damage to Philadelphia's morale and civic pride is equal to that done by Boyz II Men, the crack cocaine epidemic, and the acquisition of the Philadelphia Soul by New Jersey pop star Jon Bon Jovi.

http://www.theonion.com/content/news_briefs/crushed_philadephlia_sports

DID PIN THIEVES GRAB HACKING'S HOLY GRAIL?

2008-08-12T09:32:00.001-07:00

Posted: Tuesday, August 12 at 05:00 am CT by Bob Sullivan

Could a hacker steal enough information from a store you’ve shopped at to print up fake debit cards in your name and withdraw cash from your checking account at an ATM? Even if you’ve never told a soul your PIN code?

In fact, said the Justice Department last week, it’s already happened, possibly to millions of people.

Buried in last week’s indictments of 11 alleged international computer hackers accused of stealing 40 million credit and debit account numbers from U.S. retailers was something far more unsettling: At at least one retail chain, the indictments accuse the group of swiping encrypted versions of debit card PINs, decrypting them, then using the information to print debit cards and get cash from ATMs.

If proven true, that could mean criminals have crossed a new threshold in the pursuit of plastic card fraud -- PIN hacking.

For decades, the only security layer standing between criminals and cash from stolen debit cards has been the secret PIN code, which has proven surprisingly robust. When hackers steal a large set of debit cards numbers, there is generally no way to obtain their corresponding PINs, limiting the value of the stolen data.

Criminals have stolen small numbers of PINs in old fashioned ways, such as installing tiny cameras on ATMs that record PINs while they are entered.

But uncovering a way to obtain PINs from a stolen batch of debit card account data would give hackers the ability to withdraw thousands of dollars at a time from any ATM in the world – a holy grail of sorts for card thieves. That's precisely what the U.S. government says some of the suspects did as part of their five-year scheme, detailed last week.

In the indictment of alleged ringleader Albert Gonzalez, the Department of Justice accuses him of:
• Downloading "tens of millions of credit and debit cards and PIN blocks associated with millions of debit cards.”
• Obtaining “technical assistance from criminal associates in decrypting encrypted PIN numbers."
• Cashing out “by encoding the data on magnetic stripes of blank credit/debit cards and using these cards to obtain tens of thousands of dollars at a time from ATMs."

The Justice Department would not comment on the indictments or on the specific methods that might have been used to perform the decryption. A spokeswoman would only confirm that the agency is indeed accusing some of the suspects of decrypting PINs.

Speculation for years
Encrypted PIN codes are supposed to be impenetrable. After a consumer enters their code into a PIN pad at a store, or at an ATM, the data is immediately converted into an unintelligible string of text called a "PIN block." That block of text is then sent along the payment processing network, ultimately back to the cardholders' bank, where the PIN is verified.

There has been speculation for years that criminals had found some way around the PIN encryption. In 2006, after a spate of fraudulent ATM withdrawals, Citibank began cutting off ATM cash access to some overseas travelers. Consumers around the country reported phantom withdrawals from their checking accounts of $1,500 or more from far-flung places like Bulgaria.

At the time Citibank, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Washington Mutual all reissued some debit cards. There was conjecture that criminals might have stolen PIN information that was accidentally left "in the clear," or unencrypted, by a retailer.

Earlier this year, Wired News reported that a Citibank server that processes transactions initiated at 7-11 stores ATMs had been "breached," according to an affidavit filed by an FBI investigator. The affidavit claims a single suspect, who has now been arrested and charged with theft, stole $750,000 from ATMs in a single month during early 2008.

But last week's indictment accuses the criminals of taking everything they need to print fake debit cards and steal money directly from retailers. The specific case outlined in the indictments involved downloading PIN blocks from a Florida OfficeMax store in 2004 through a vulnerable wireless network, then later decrypting them. The indictments also accuse the group of downloading PIN blocks associated with millions of debit cards,” hinting that the PIN problem might be even wider.

The scheme was apparently so successful that at several times the suspects allegedly sent boxes full of cash through express mail services to make payments to one another.

How it might have happened
PIN blocks are transmitted from retailers to credit card processors and are sometimes stored on computers along the way, where they would be available for the taking by criminals who knew how to decrypt the secret codes. This is sometimes called stealing data “at rest.” Retailers have no need to keep PIN blocks in the stores, but poorly configured systems sometimes store this information anyway.

The hacking gang indicted last week also was capable of stealing data on the move, according to the indictments. The group is accused of using various methods to install "sniffer" programs that grabbed account numbers and PIN blocks as they flew by on computer networks. Initially the suspects sat in parking lots and used insecure wireless networks to gain unauthorized access, the government charges. For example, in July 2005, while sitting in a Miami TJ Maxx parking lot, the criminals are accused of worming their way into the firm's central credit card server in Framingham, Mass.

Later, some of the suspects brazenly walked into stores and physically installed sniffer software onto computers in other stores, the indictments say.

In May 2007, for example, they entered a Dave & Buster's restaurant in Islandia, N.Y., and installed sniffer software. Afterward they re-entered the store every month to empty the catch from their virtual net, eventually stealing 5,000 account numbers from that store alone and using those numbers to steal $600,000. In that case, they are accused of stealing only debit and credit card numbers.

Still, even with data stolen using such hands-on methods, stolen PIN blocks should be useless to criminals -- unless they can be unscrambled.

Encryption expert Ross Anderson, a professor at Cambridge University in England, has testified before about the possibility of "phantom withdrawals" involving PIN codes stolen from British banks. He says potential vulnerabilities in bank encryption software have been known by researchers for years. In 2003, a British court imposed a gag order on Anderson, preventing him from revealing some elements of his research.

He called this week's indictment "the first documented recent case" of PIN hacking, but added that it was "not surprising."

"The banks have encryption boxes that are claimed to be 'secure' but the claim is of course untrue," he said. "

Not so alarming
Mike Urban, who runs a debit card fraud-fighting service called CardAlert at Fair Isaac Corp., counters such talk by saying the most likely explanation for the crime is also the least alarming: Hackers didn’t reverse engineer PINs; they simply managed to steal encryption keys from the same retailers where they stole the data, he said.

“I'm speculating here, but more than likely, to compromise that many PIN blocks they would have to have gotten the encryption keys somehow,” he said. “More than likely there was a breakdown in management of keys wherever the keys were compromised. “ Armed with the keys and a little know-how, he said, criminals could readily discern PIN codes from PIN blocks.

Urban said it would not be terribly alarming if the hackers obtained PINs that way, noting that retailers routinely secure keys carefully and that PIN compromises are “extremely rare.” He also said that while the government’s case against the hackers mentions theft of PIN blocks from several retailers, evidence of actual PIN-block decryption is offered in only one case – the one involving OfficeMax. He said he believed that could be an isolated incident.

“Fraud on PIN-based transactions is much lower than signature-based debit or credit transactions,” he said.
Gonzalez, the alleged ringleader of the hacking ring, who also went by the moniker soupnazi -- apparently a reference to the “Seinfeld“ character -- is being held in New York while awaiting trial. He faces life in prison if he is convicted of all charges. Only two other suspects out of the 11 indicted are in custody. Ukranian national Maksym Yastremskiy is being held in Turkey, and Aleksandr Suvorov is in Germany. Both are facing extradition.

RED TAPE WRESTLING TIPS
There’s no need to panic over the possibility that hackers could steal PINs from places you shop. Consumers who are hit with fraud related to debit cards have strong legal protections. Losses reported within two days of discovery are limited to $50, and most banks give full refunds to consumers. Still, debit fraud can be a huge hassle, because consumers who are victims may find their bank accounts emptied and their ability to access cash severely limited until the money is replaced. The hassle factor is much higher than with standard credit card fraud.

But possible PIN theft is another incentive to use debit cards only to withdraw cash at ATMs – not for purchasing. There are already plenty of other good arguments for keeping your debit card in your wallet. We’ve written about the case for credit here; so has Consumer Reports.

If you really want to buy things with your debit card, perhaps as part of a monthly budgeting plan, consider signing the sales slip instead of entering your PIN, to keep your PIN a secret. And if you really want to enter your PIN, consider setting up a separate checking account, isolated from your standard account, for your purchases. That way, if your account is hacked, the criminals won’t have access to all your money. But be sure to keep that fully stocked with cash; overdrawing your debit account can lead to costly overdraft fees.
Also, resist the urge to use the same PIN code for all your accounts.

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Assistant principal jumped from bridge, authorities say

2008-08-12T09:24:00.000-07:00

***(This story is from earlier in the year.....just never posted it back then as I did not have a computer at that time.)***

By Nita Birmingham (Contact)

The Post and Courier

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Kathryn Dozier

The assistant principal of a Mount Pleasant middle school died Tuesday morning after authorities said she jumped 200 feet off the Arthur Ravenel Jr. bridge.

Kathryn Dozier, 31, of Charleston, was pronounced dead at Medical University Hospital shortly after a witness saw her jump from the top of the bridge just after midnight Monday, Charleston County Deputy Coroner Bobbi Jo O'Neal said.

Dozier was on medical leave from Thomas C. Cario Middle School in Mount Pleasant and had previously taught at Alston Middle School in Summerville.

Maurice Milligan, 45, of Mount Pleasant, witnessed the incident. Milligan and his fiancee were trying to make it home by midnight and said there was little traffic on the bridge. They saw a car in the far right lane with its emergency flashers on as they approached the top of the bridge.

"I glanced over at the jogging area, and I saw someone just release and let go," Milligan said.

He told his fiancee, Donna Campbell, he'd just seen someone jump off the bridge and called 911. Campbell said that was at 12:03 a.m. Tuesday.

Witnesses on the sailing vessel Buena Vida reported a body in the water at 12:13 a.m., said Lee Bower, search and rescue coordinator. A Coast Guard boat located Dozier two minutes later and took her to Remleys Point Boat Landing in Mount Pleasant, where an ambulance was waiting.

Milligan and Campbell found it difficult to forget what had happened.

"We talked about it all night long. We didn't sleep. I was so sorry," Campbell said.

Dozier graduated with a 4.0 grade point average from Clemson University and was a state student teacher of the year, Alston Middle School principal Sam Clark said.

Dozier was a math teacher at Alston for six years, Clark said. He and Charleston County School District Superintendent Nancy McGinley described Dozier as a tremendous advocate for children.

"She was a gifted educator. All of our staff that worked with her are just sick," Clark said.

He said he had hoped that Dozier would stay with the school district, but she left in the summer of 2006 for the position in Mount Pleasant.

McGinley said Dozier had been on medical leave since November and was waiting for her doctor to release her so she could return to work. McGinley said she could not comment on the nature of the medical leave.

The faculty had a great deal of respect for Dozier, McGinley said.

"Everybody is very much in shock over this," she said.

Reach Nita Birmingham at 745-5858 or nbirmingham@postandcourier.com.