Chicago was hit with a burst of gun violence on the Fourth of July, with at least 21 people shot during an 11-hour stretch from Friday evening into Saturday morning, according to police.
That brings to 36 the number of people who have been shot in the city since the long holiday weekend began Thursday afternoon, when two women were hit by gunfire as they sat on a porch just a block from Garfield Park on the West Side.
The holiday shootings have stretched across the city but have been concentrated in the South and West sides. The Englewood and Harrison districts have both seen a handful of people shot over the last two days, and there have been shootings as far south as the Altgeld Gardens neighborhood at the edge of the city to the Rogers Park neighborhood bordering Evanston.
Three of those wounded were shot by police officers in Portage Park, Rogers Park and Englewood. The man shot in Portage Park, around 9:50 p.m., died.
#2
But, but, how could this possibly happen? Guns are illegal in Chicago!!!
I know - the solution is to make it even harder for law abiding citizens to own guns. That will solve the problem!!!
/sarcasm, in case you hadn't figured it out
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
07/06/2014 2:22 Comments ||
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#3
natural selection noun - The process by which forms of life having traits that better enable them to adapt to specific environmental pressures, as predators, changes in climate, or competition for food or mates, will tend to survive and reproduce in greater numbers than others of their kind, thus ensuring the perpetuation of those favorable traits in succeeding generations.
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/06/2014 7:57 Comments ||
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#5
Cartel gang members are often very young. Some of these kids have already "made their bones (made several hits)" at an early age. Maybe some of these these young killers in the Mexican diaspora will be relocated to Chicago. I have read that Obama is looking for another place to live after his occupation of the WH.
#6
Nice B. However, it's not natural selection when the farmer intentionally breeds stock. The farmer creates an artificial environment with the intent of seeking some traits or characteristics that the farmer determines is desirable, among those are docility to his control. However, in such artificial breeding, other traits have a tendency to appear which result in unintended and undesirable consequences. In this case the farmer/pols have clear cut the fickle middle class to make room for a more reliable voting stock, the base commodity of machine politics. As they sowed, so they shall reap.
[CONNECTICUT.CBSLOCAL] It may not destroy your soul, but it turns out heavy metal music can be hazardous to your brain. At least in some rare cases.
German doctors say they have treated a Motorhead fan whose headbanging habit ultimately led to a brain injury, but that the risk to metal fans in general is so small they don't need to give up the shaking.
Last January, doctors at Hannover Medical School saw a 50-year-old man who complained of constant, worsening headaches. The patient, who was not identified, had no history of head injuries or substance abuse problems but said he had been headbanging regularly for years — most recently at a Motorhead concert he attended with his son.
After a scan, doctors discovered their patient had a brain bleed and needed a hole drilled into his brain to drain the blood. The patient's headaches soon disappeared. In a follow-up scan, the doctors saw he had a benign cyst which might have made the metal aficionado more vulnerable to a brain injury.
"We are not against headbanging," said Dr. Ariyan Pirayesh Islamian, one of the doctors who treated the man. "The risk of injury is very, very low. But I think if (our patient) had (gone) to a classical concert, this would not have happened."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/06/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
But I think if (our patient) had (gone) to a classical concert, this would not have happened.
Um, it wasn't the music, but his headbanging that was the trigger. If he did the same to Mozart, it would have had the same effect.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
07/06/2014 23:27 Comments ||
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[IsraelTimes] Egypt's prime minister on Saturday defended a steep rise in fuel prices as a necessary move to shore up the treasury, as outraged commuters bickered with public transport drivers over fare hikes and some rushed to gas stations over fears of shortages.
The price increases of up to 80 percent came into force early on Saturday in a swift announcement made just hours earlier, following promises to cut subsidies that eat up nearly a quarter of the state budget. They also come after an increase in electricity prices that were put in effect at the start of July.
Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab, addressing a televised news conference, said energy subsidies have over the past decade cost the treasury a staggering 687 billion pounds (nearly $100 billion) that could have been used to bolster essential services.
He said it would be a "crime" if his government did not move to start lifting subsidies. He argued that 26.3 percent of Egypt's estimated 86 million people live in poverty and that overall unemployment stands at 13.6 percent, reaching above 50 percent for Egyptians aged between 20 and 30.
"There will have to be political, social and economic reforms," vowed Mahlab. "Debts are mounting and the question we must ask ourselves is whether we want to leave this legacy for future generations."
Mahlab said the partial lifting of energy subsidies would free 51 billion pounds (about $7 billion) to be spent on education, health care, pensions and raising wages.
Newly elected President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi has said he would need to tackle the tough issue of subsidies and asked every Egyptian to be ready to sacrifice to help the country's battered economy after three years of turmoil.
The former military chief also asked the government to amend the largest budget in Egypt's history — at $115 billion — to reduce its deficit from 12 to 10 percent.
The fuel price rise was highest for 80 octane gasoline, used mostly by old vehicles that still fill Egyptian streets, with the price jumping 78 percent to 22 cents per liter. Diesel fuel, used by most of Egypt's public transport and trucks, increased 64 percent to 25 cents a liter. Gasoline that is 92 octane increased by 40 percent to 37 cents a liter.
Successive Egyptian leaders have balked at reducing energy subsidies, fearing unrest.
In some areas, the decision spurred a rush on gas stations, with long lines forming and many motorists frustrated.
Some drivers of Egypt's popular microbuses had raised their fares before the government announced exact increases. Mahlab warned that authorities would intervene to make sure fare increases are limited to around 10 percent. Taxi meters will also be changed to allow for higher fares, he added.
In the Canal city of Suez, microbus and taxi drivers refused to take on passengers until the government announces a detailed new fare structure. Some employees had to walk to work. Drivers have forced other public transportation vehicles to stop working until the fares are increased.
On line Saturday at one Cairo gas station, taxi driver and father of five Ebeid Ibrahim directed his frustration at the president. "When el-Sissi came to office he said he did not have a magical wand to make people's lives better. We do not want anything form anybody, but at least the status quo should have been left as it is. Where am I supposed to get money from?" said the 56-year-old Ibrahim.
Near him, Abdullah Ibrahim, 36 and father of three, stood in line to fill up his microbus, decrying the sharp rise.
"We will raise the prices on the passengers who are in need just like us," he said. "If they ask us to bear extreme measures, they have to be reasonable, the rise will specifically affect the poor."
[Washington Post] Ukraine's president has hailed as the "start of a turning point" his troops' success in driving out pro-Russian insurgents from a key rebel stronghold in the east.
Petro Poroshenko said the recapture of the city of Slovyansk was "not a total victory." But he said in a statement posted online that the move carried symbolic significance and marked a turning point "in the battle against the rebels for the territorial integrity of Ukraine."
After a night of heavy fighting, Ukrainian forces chased rebels from Slovyansk, which had been under the insurgents' control since early April. The rebels vowed to regroup elsewhere and fight on.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/06/2014 00:00 ||
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Donetsk, occupied Ukraine -- Resurgent government forces on Saturday hoisted the Ukrainian flag over pro-Russian rebels' main stronghold after a devastating shelling onslaught that levelled much of the city but delivered Kiev its biggest success of the campaign.
Looks like the new president of Ukraine has found some political wiggle-room to go after the separatists. And that the Ukraine military has found some footing for itself. This is impressive for them. Donetsk, the heart of the separatist movement, might be in line to fall next if there is no ceasefire, a ceasefire that the separatists are now demanding loudly.
The self-proclaimed mayor of Slavyansk confirmed to AFP that insurgents had abandoned the rustbelt city of 120,000. A local resident said by phone that barricades once manned by the camouflage-clad gunmen stood abandoned since the early morning.
Ukraine's ability to win back Slavyansk -- home to one of the country's biggest weapons storage facilities that fell to the insurgents on April 6 -- marks a key turning point in three months of low-scale warfare that has threatened the very survival of the ex-Soviet state.
Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said in a Facebook post that the withdrawal was led by senior militia commander Igor Strelkov -- alleged by Kiev to be a colonel in Russia's GRU military intelligence unit.
Both Strelkov and Moscow deny any GRU link despite Western claims that the Kremlin is covertly funding and arming the uprising to destabilise Kiev's new pro-European leaders and retain control over Russian-speaking eastern regions of Ukraine.
Ukrainian Defence Minister Valeriy Geletey told President Petro Poroshenko that his forces had raised the national flag over city hall "in accordance with your order to liberate Slavyansk".
"The departure of the fighters was a surprise. Nobody was aware it was happening," city resident Kolya Cherep told AFP by telephone. "This morning, I saw that there were no fighters in front of the town hall. Then I saw that there were none manning the barricades in town."
Strelkov himself had told the pro-Kremlin LifeNews channel on Friday that his units "will be destroyed... within a week, two weeks at the latest" unless Russia helped secure an immediate truce or moved in its troops. The militia commander tweeted on Saturday that President Vladimir Putin's repeated vow to use "all "available means" to protect his compatriots in Ukraine -- a neighbour he referred to as "New Russia" -- now looked like an empty promise.
"They filled us with hope and abandoned us. Those were fine words by Putin about protecting the Russian people, defending New Russia. But only words," Strelkov wrote.
Slavyansk is the symbolic heart of an uprising sparked by the February ouster of a pro-Kremlin administration in Kiev and fuelled by Russia's subsequent seizure of Crimea.
Clashes in the economically-vital border regions of Lugansk and Donetsk picked up with renewed vigour when Poroshenko tore up a 10-day ceasefire agreement earlier this week. His decision was immediately followed by the launch of a "massive" offensive by Kiev that prompted Germany and France to spearhead a new push for an immediate and lasting ceasefire.
US President Barack Obama has also urged Putin to commitment himself to a solution in Ukraine that could stave off punishing American sanctions against Russia's banking and arms exports sectors. And uneasy EU leaders are hoping that a firm promise by the Putin not to meddle in Ukraine can take pressure off the 28-nation bloc to adopt punitive steps that could damage their own strong energy and financial ties with Russia.
But Poroshenko's call for European-mediated truce talks on Saturday was left unanswered by Moscow and the separatist command.
"The date, place and format are being discussed, but there have been no major changes yet in the progress of preparations for consultations," a source Moscow told Russia's Interfax news agency.
The 43-year-old Strelkov remains one of the uprising's most mysterious but also powerful figures who effectively headed the new Kiev leadership's most-wanted list. He holds the title of "defence minister" of the Donetsk People's Republic and is also the chief of the Slavyansk militia.
Strelkov was linked to the April capture and detention of seven OSCE monitors in Slavyansk who were eventually released after an eight-day ordeal following intervention from Moscow. Kiev has published what it says are intercepted conversations between him and Putin's special envoy Vladimir Lukin talking about the OSCE monitors.
"We want to liberate Ukraine from the fascists," Strelkov told a Russian tabloid after his units had captured Slavyansk.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/06/2014 00:00 ||
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Ukrainian army has fired artillery into residential regions of Luhansk and left power stations damaged. The attack happened on Friday night and cut off power supplies in the eastern parts of Luhansk.
"As a result of damage done to a high-voltage transmission line, the residents of the Zhovtnevy district were disconnected from power supplies," the press service of the Luhansk Town Hall said.
"Since the water pumping stations are cut off from power supplies too, there is no tap water at the households located in the eastern districts of the city," the service said.
The Ukrainian military forces also carried out two airstrikes on Wednesday on the densely-populated residential areas of the Cossack settlement of Luhansk, causing numerous casualties and major devastation.
This comes after the foreign ministers of Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany on Wednesday agreed on a series of measures for the resumption of a new ceasefire in eastern Ukraine.
Ukraine's mainly Russian-speaking parts in the east have been the scene of deadly clashes between pro-Russia protesters and the Ukrainian army since Kiev launched military operations in mid-April in a bid to crush the pro-Moscow protests. The government in Kiev says it is targeting armed protesters, but reports say many civilians have been caught in the fighting.
The violence intensified after Donetsk and Luhansk held local referendums on May 11, in which their residents voted overwhelmingly in favor of independence from Ukraine.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/06/2014 00:00 ||
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[NYTimes] The details of the latest case were murky. The news media reports suggested that the man, a midlevel employee of the Federal Intelligence Service, was originally arrested on suspicion of spying for Russia. The Kremlin has markedly stepped up recruitment of German informants since the uprisings in Ukraine and the resulting sanctions aimed at Russia's economy.
But according to the news reports and the account of the American official, the man told his interrogators he had been working for the United States for some time.
But in conversations with German officials over the past year, the Obama administration has made it clear that its Not gonna' spy on you no more
commitment extends only to Ms. Merkel herself, and not other German officials. That was one of many sources of tension as the two countries, which traditionally share intelligence on terrorism suspects and nuclear proliferation, struggled and failed to reach a new accord.
Why is anyone surprised? Of course intel agencies spy on other countries, friend and foe alike. The crime isn't spying, the crime is getting caught.
[BREITBART] MURRIETA -- An American flag has reportedly been burned by pro-amnesty protesters near the Murrieta Border Patrol station on America's Independence Day.
Breitbart News obtained the above photograph, which shows a burnt flag on the ground, from an anti-illegal immigration activist who was monitoring the pro-amnesty demonstration.
Opponents of illegal immigration had gathered in Murrieta to stop Friday's planned transfer of Central American illegal aliens, as they did earlier this week. A pro-amnesty counter-demonstration was organized in response.
The illegal aliens, many of them unaccompanied children, are being brought from overcrowded Texas detention facilities for processing in California.
In addition, Breitbart News obtained photographs of torn-up flags that pro-amnesty demonstrators had impaled on a fence.
Bonnie Lewis, an anti-illegal immigration activist, told Breitbart News that she saw one of the pro-amnesty activists dragging an American flag on the ground.
"I said: 'Hey, don't do that.' He said: 'That's where it belongs,'" she said.
Another anti-illegal immigration activist said that pro-amnesty demonstrators called her a "f***ing whore" i Spanish, and shouted, "F*** America!"
Posted by: Fred ||
07/06/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
"Por La Raza Todo- Fuera La Raza Nada"! /sarc off
#4
For the pro-amnesty asshats described in this article I have only two words, loud and beginning with an F and a Y. As for the dipshit whose smug retort was "...Reconquista baby" the same applies!
#5
g(r)mgoru, perhaps you assume that all Hispanics are devout Catholics. This is not necessarily a valid assumption...
But, hey, when they carry Mexican flags and burn American flags at least they're good enough to let us know exactly who they are and what they want. If we let them have it we will deserve the loss.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
07/06/2014 15:51 Comments ||
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#6
drudge is now reporting the feds are bringing riot squads in to ensure the illegals get in. concrete barricades and water cannon tower also.
may not be pretty
#7
It is past time to recognize that the White House is firmly convinced that the Republicans in the House will not before the election, and perhaps never, will try to impeach the President because of his color. It would rally support along racial/ethnic/party lines and is doomed to fail in the Senate, even after 2014 elections. Thus increasingly, they are more open in their actions both to inflame the right and transform the nation into a workers paradise. However, the power to impeach does not merely cover the President, but a much wider field of Cabinet appointees and even the judiciary (remember AlCee Hastings?) Consider Holder, and more immediately, the Secretary of DHS, and think about the chilling effect several impeachments might have on those whose Obama has made feel immune from public anger! This wholesale failure to enforce the law at its most fundamental level must be stopped......
[DAWN] NOWSHERA: A couple was rubbed out by relatives for marrying without their consent here on Friday.
Police said that the couple was bumped off while fleeing in a car on the GT road in Kandar area. The couple had got married some six month ago on their own free will and had been living secretly ever since.
Nowshera Kalan police brought the bodies to the district headquarters hospital for an appointment with Dr. Quincy. Hospital sources said that the brother of the dear departed man, resident of Khurabad, Rashakai, said that the victims had married secretly after their respective families didn't allow them to tie the knot.
Girl's father, belonging to Mardan and his two sons, and the two brothers of the dear departed man were accused of killing the couple. Nowshera Kalan police registered case and began investigation.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/06/2014 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] Gullu "Stinky" Butt, the baton-wielding man seen damaging vehicles in Lahore, filed a bail petition in a local court on Saturday, DawnNews reported.
The petition was filed in Judicial Magistrate Imran Ishaq's court.
The petition submitted by Advocate Wahid Hussain presented the stance that the case registered against Butt was a false one thus he should be released on bail.
The court summoned a record from the police on July 10.
Butt, also known as Sher-e-Lahore, came into the limelight after he was caught on cameras brazenly damaging several vehicles in the presence of police, during the clash between Pakistain Awami Tehrik workers and police in Lahore's Model Town on June 17.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/06/2014 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] An anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Lahore on Saturday charged five suspects in connection with the murder of 25-year-old Farzana Iqbal who was stoned to death outside the Lahore High Court, DawnNews reported.
The case was heard by Judge Haroon Latif of ATC-III.
The preliminary report submitted by the police in the court nominated the names of five people, including the victim's father Azeem, two brothers Ghulam Ali and Zahid Iqbal, former husband Mazhar Abbas and a close relative Jahan Khan, as responsible for the murder.
The court indicted all five suspects today.
The court summoned all witnesses on July 7 and subsequently adjourned the hearing of the case to the said date.
Farzana Parveen was murdered on May 27 outside the Lahore High Court in a so-called honour killing by more than two dozen attackers, including her brother and father, for marrying against her family's wishes.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... had demanded "immediate action" over the brutal murder.
The brazen, brutal nature of the killing, in broad daylight in the centre of Pakistain's second largest city, fired up the rubes around the world.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/06/2014 00:00 ||
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[NEWS.YAHOO] Pope Francis has lamented the abandoning of the traditionally Christian practice of not working on Sundays, saying it has a negative impact on families and friendships.
Francis on Saturday traveled to Molise, an agricultural region in the heart of southern Italy where unemployment is chronically high. While he said poor people need jobs to have dignity, he indicated that opening stores and other businesses on Sundays as a way to create jobs wasn't beneficial for society.
Francis said the priority should be "not economic but human," and that the stress should be on families and friendships, not commercial relationships. He added: "Maybe it's time to ask ourselves if working on Sundays is true freedom."
He said that spending Sundays with family and friends is an "ethical choice" for faithful and non-faithful alike.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/06/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
That was standard fare, when I grew up in KC in the 50's. Remember the 'Blue Laws" anyone?
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/06/2014 8:01 Comments ||
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#3
The admonition is one day of rest. It never said 'Sunday'. The principle is a cultural ritual that recognizes as a whole one particular day. Some groups its Friday, others sunset Friday to sunset Saturday, and others its Sunday. I suspect what the Pope is advocating is what others may term, getting the family to sit down for dinner, except instead of a nuclear family, he's talking community.
#4
Blue Laws were killed by modern medical science that developed drugs that were determined to be life saving. Exemptions appeared for drug stores for Sunday access. Then it became milk and food for the baby. Then it became the classical camel, nose, tent event with drug stores becoming general stores. Then the pressure from other businessmen resenting the competition getting an extra day of customers which fueled the 'separation of church and state' argument. All of which leads us to the situation today.
#1
...As the article suggests, Patriot is designed to sweep the skies clear of ANYTHING, and it does a pretty damned good job of it. The problem is that our training and IFF/ID systems and procedures aren't as advanced as the weapons.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
07/06/2014 10:13 Comments ||
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#2
Kill boxes. Avoid them, zoomies. Or fly low and hard, like the A-10
[ARABNEWS] The attackers stormed in close to midnight, tearing through town with gasoline bombs and clubs before carting away piles of cash and jewelry they stole from Moslem families in this tiny corner of Sri Lanka.
The onslaught incited by the Bodu Bala Sena, or Buddhist Power Force, a hard-line group that has gained thousands of followers in recent years, killed at least two Moslems and injured dozens more last month in the worst religious violence Sri Lanka has seen in decades.
Now, President Mahinda Rajapaksa's government is under fire, accused of failing to protect Sri Lanka's tiny Moslem minority and allowing radical Buddhists spewing illegal hate speech to operate with impunity for years.
Critics of Rajapaksa's government say it has turned a blind eye to the violence as a way to shore up its core constituency — the Sinhalese Buddhist population — which makes up about 75 percent of Sri Lanka's 20 million people.
"At the root of the failure of the government to check the violence is electoral politics," said Jehan Perera, head of the National Peace Council, a local peace activist group in Sri Lanka. "If the Sinhalese voters feel insecure for any reason they will tend to vote for the present government, which is seen as strong and pro-Sinhalese."
But the most recent violence has drawn rare — and harsh — criticism from inside Sri Lanka, with the media, moderate Buddhists and even the justice minister slamming Rajapaksa's seeming unwillingness to safeguard Moslems.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/06/2014 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Chicago was hit with a burst of gun violence on the Fourth of July, with at least 21 people shot during an 11-hour stretch from Friday evening into Saturday morning, according to police.
[CONNECTICUT.CBSLOCAL] It may not destroy your soul, but it turns out heavy metal music can be hazardous to your brain. At least in some rare cases.
[NYTimes] The details of the latest case were murky. The news media reports suggested that the man, a midlevel employee of the Federal Intelligence Service, was originally arrested on suspicion of spying for Russia. The Kremlin has markedly stepped up recruitment of German informants since the uprisings in Ukraine and the resulting sanctions aimed at Russia's economy.
[DAWN] Gullu "Stinky" Butt, the baton-wielding man seen damaging vehicles in Lahore, filed a bail petition in a local court on Saturday, DawnNews reported.
[DAWN] An anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Lahore on Saturday charged five suspects in connection with the murder of 25-year-old Farzana Iqbal who was stoned to death outside the Lahore High Court, DawnNews reported.
