Can we start calling this the 'Chicago Corpse Count'?
[NBC Chicago] President Barack Obama's Because I won... visit to Chicago didn't stop another violent weekend.
At least seven people were killed and 35 were maimed since Friday night. The youngest victim was a 16-year-old girl who died after she was shot three times in the chest Saturday evening in the Englewood neighborhood.
Ten people were shot overnight Friday, and in one hour Sunday morning, three people were killed. The latest shooting happened just after midnight Monday when a 19-year-old was shot to death on the city's North Side.
The shootings mark the third weekend in a row with gunfire injuries totaling well into the double digits. Last weekend, 46 people were hurt and eight killed across Chicago. The previous weekend, 29 were maimed and three were killed in shootings.
"None of it is OK," Supt. Garry McCarthy told NBC Chicago last week. "And I don't want it to seem like we're managing it, but the realistic expectations have to be over the long-term."
This weekend marked the beginning of an overtime incentive program to put more police in neighborhoods where crime is highest. Fewer than 60 officers signed up for the program, though.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/18/2012 12:41 ||
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#1
Well, if Chicago had passed laws making guns illegal this wouldn't be happening....oh, wait, what?
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/18/2012 15:44 Comments ||
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#2
Duh! You also need a law making it illegal to shoot people with illegal guns.
A Maryland man faces trial in a $9.1 million fraud case that is shedding light on problems in a renewable energy credits program run by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Federal prosecutors accuse Rodney Hailey of Perry Hall of selling renewable fuel credits even though his company, Clean Green Fuel LLC, did not produce any renewable fuel. Instead, prosecutors say he pocketed the money and bought Ferraris and other luxury cars, as well as tractor-trailers, homes, jewelry and computers.
Jury selection is scheduled to begin in the case Monday in U.S. District Court. If Hailey is convicted, prosecutors are seeking forfeiture of the $9.1 million, including the cars, homes and other items, of which nearly $3 million has been recovered, said Marcia Murphy, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's office.
Joseph Evans, a federal public defender representing Hailey, declined comment.
The case is one of several nationwide, including similar fraud cases in Texas and Alabama, that have led to calls in Congress for a review of the program.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/18/2012 00:00 ||
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Rodney King, whose beating by Los Angeles police helped spark the 1992 L.A. riots, died Sunday at his home in Rialto. He was 47. It wasn't me! I got an alibi!
King became a symbol for police brutality and the troubled relations between the LAPD and minority residents. He was eventually awarded a $3.8-million settlement, but the money and fame brought him little solace. He had repeated run-ins with the law and as of April said he was broke.
King's fiancée called 911 about 5:25 a.m. and said she had found King at the bottom of his pool, Sgt. Paul Stella told The Times. Officers pulled him from the pool and began CPR until paramedics arrived and took King to Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton. King was pronounced dead at the hospital at 6:11 a.m., Stella said.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/18/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
King's fiancée called 911 about 5:25 a.m. and said she had found King at the bottom of his pool,
Yup, broke, With a pool, HIS pool.
Suuurre.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/18/2012 3:41 Comments ||
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#2
You just knew this guy would not die of old age in bed.
[Al Ahram] Five Egyptian political parties have jointly called for the establishment of a pro-civil-state political force to stand against "repression" by the military and Islamist groups.
In a statement released Sunday, the parties said attempts by the ruling military council to rehabilitate the regime of ousted president Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... is "state despotism."
They also condemned what they said were plans by Islamists, including the Moslem Brüderbund, to establish a religious dictatorship through the control of state institutions and by excluding other political factions from power.
The statement was signed by the Free Egyptians Party, the Egyptian Social Democratic Party, the Egypt Freedom Party and the- three parties established after the 2011 uprising - as well as the older Democratic Front Party and Nasserist Karama Party.
The parties criticised last week's decision by the justice ministry to grant military police the power to arrest civilians, as well as the High Constitutional Court's decision to dissolve parliament.
The parties said the decisions were politically motivated and their timing suspicious because they had provoked a political crisis just days before the presidential election runoff.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/18/2012 00:00 ||
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#2
When I was kid, there was a barn fire in our neighborhood. At first, the horses ran out of the barn, escaping the fire. Then they all ran back into the barn and perished. These Egyptian secular parties remind me of that.
The Scottish ruling party SNP says the British government has "no democratic mandate to impose" a planned £1 billion project for renewal of Britain's nuclear-armed submarines on Scotland, where the boats are based.
SNP defense spokesman Angus Robertson said there is overwhelming opposition to the Trident nuclear program in Scotland.
"People in Scotland do not want Trident. Church leaders, the Scottish Trades Union Council, The Scottish Government and the Scotland's Parliament are all against weapons of mass destruction being in our waters," Robertson said.
"Despite this the UK Government is prepared to spend £1 billion of taxpayers money on a needless program and then expect the people of Scotland to accept weapons of mass destruction being dumped here," he added.
He further called for a "world free from nuclear weapons" saying the party, which is leading a campaign for Scotland's independence from Britain, has a "solid commitment" to the "earliest possible withdrawal of Trident from Scotland."
SNP's reaction came after British Defense Secretary Philip Hammond said the government plans to announce a contract ordering nuclear reactors for a new class of submarines to replace the current Vanguard fleet that carries the Trident nuclear missiles.
The London governemnt is also facing strong opposition to Trident replacement due to its massive costs to an already sinking British economy.
Scottish government Strategy Secretary Bruce Crawford earlier said the costs for the new Trident weapons system are estimated to "be anything up to £25billion and, over the lifetime, £100billion."
"I think it's an obscenity that we're going to be pressing ahead at this time with this particular system," he added.
British Royal Navy is now operating 58 nuclear-armed submarine-launched ballistic missiles as well as around 200 nuclear warheads on four Vanguard-class submarines based in Clyde Naval Base at Faslane, western Scotland.
[Iran Press TV] Striking workers on low incomes are to have their benefits cut under the British government's controversial welfare reforms to be unveiled this week, a move that has been criticized for attacking vulnerable low-paid workers.
Striking workers will not have their wages topped up by the state under the rules of the new Universal Credit, which is replacing the current benefit system.
The British Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith said the current benefit system, which compensates the workers and tops up their income when they go on strike, is "unfair and creates perverse incentives."
"Striking is a choice and in future benefit claimants will have to pay the price as, under Universal Credit, we no longer will," he added.
However, today is that tomorrow you were thinking about yesterday... the Coalition government's move to halt the working tax credits of striking claimants, earning under £13,000 a year, has been widely criticized.
"Iain Duncan Smith isn't just out of touch; he's in La-La Land. He tells hard-pressed families simply to get a new job. What planet is he on?" said British shadow welfare secretary Liam Byrne.
In addition, Labour MP Anne Begg, chair of the work and pensions select committee, said, "There are still a lot of questions to be answered about the Universal Credit."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/18/2012 00:00 ||
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No one in England is willing to play the role of King Edward this time...
MSPs have for the first time voted in favour of Scotland becoming independent.
First Minister Alex Salmond hailed the vote, by 69 to 52, as a "milestone" in the country's history. He also revealed that 15,000 people have backed a declaration stating it is "fundamentally better" if decisions about the country's future are taken by the people of Scotland.
The declaration is a key part of the Yes Scotland cross-party campaign for independence, which officially got under way just six days ago. At the time of its launch Mr Salmond declared that if one million voters put their names to it "then we shall win an independent Scotland".
The SNP leader revealed 15,000 people had already given it their backing as Holyrood debated the country's constitutional future.
Labour, Tories and the Liberal Democrats all united round an amendment put forward by Johann Lamont, the Scottish Labour leader. It argued that it was in Scotland's best interest to remain part of the United Kingdom and that the country was "stronger together and weaker apart".
But that was defeated, with MSPs instead backing Mr Salmond's motion, which said: "The Parliament agrees that Scotland should be an independent country."
While the vote is largely procedural, it will have symbolic significance for Nationalists, who can now state that independence is "the will of the Scottish Parliament".
Mr Salmond said: "Today, for the first time since the beginning of the political union, the elected representatives of the people of Scotland have agreed that this nation should be an independent country." He said the establishment of the Scottish Parliament in 1999 had a been a "milestone in Scotland's journey" and added: "The motion today marks another."
While he said Holyrood had "achieved much in its short life span" - such as the ban on smoking in public places - he added: "This Parliament is not yet able to make many of the key decisions which affect the lives of our fellow countrymen and women."
But Ms Lamont argued that most Scots did not want independence. "We, as a nation, were never conquered," the Labour leader said. "The United Kingdom has not been imposed upon us, it is the choice of Scots. It is the choice of Scots to share power with our neighbours in these small islands."
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/18/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
England would be much better off without the Scottish albatross.
A total of three deaths and three hurt have been recorded so far in the aftermath of Hurricane Carlotta as the Mexican Army began its preparations for relief efforts, according to Mexican news reports.
The Mexican Secretaria de Defensa Nacional (SEDENA), the controlling agency for the Mexican army announced Sunday that their part in relief efforts would begin in three southern Mexican states affected by Hurricane Carlotta.
According to a news item posted on the website of Informador news daily, the two unidentified young female victims, ages 13 and seven, were killed in a mudslide in their residence in Pluma Hidalgo in Oaxaca.
Accrdoing to a news item on CNN Mexico blog, a third victim identified as Paula Medina Alaves, 56 in San José Manialtepec municipality died when the truck she was riding in was caught by winds and flipped. The driver, said to be her nephew was unharmed.
According to a news item on the website of La Jornada, a railroad bridge collapsed in Loma Bonita municipality Sunday injuring three and destroying six railroad cars. La Jornada also posted in a separate item that power has already been restored to 92 percent of residents and businesses in Oaxaca and Guerrero states.
According to data supplied by the US National Hurricane Center, Carlotta became a hurricane early Friday and made landfall near Puerto Escondido municipality in Oaxaca state with winds of 148 kph (90 MPH) at 2000 hrs Friday night. Saturday morning the storm was downgraded to tropical depression status.
The affected states include Chiapas, Oaxaca and Guerrero. The extend of the damage is uncertain at this point, but concerns are for damage from flooding and mudslides. The effected area mostly consists of dense jungle and mountains.
According to a news item post on the website of El Sol de Mexico news daily, an army command center is expected to be in place at the base of the Mexican 54 Infantry Battalion base in Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca.
Additional army units from the Mexican 36th Military Zone are expected to be deployed in Mapastepec Pijijiapan, Tonala and Arriaga municipalities in Chiapas to assist in relief efforts.
Five refugee shelters have been activated in Puerto Escondido, Bajas de Chila, Pinotepa Nacional, Coyante and Pochutla municipalities in Oaxaca state. So far, 334 refugees have appeared in those shelters.
The storm is not expected to have much effect on the G-20 Economic Summit to be held in Los Cabos, Baja California Sur today and Tuesday.
From TFA:
After several years during which Fernandez bragged that Argentina was one of the world's most rapidly growing economies while the United States and Europe were crumbling, Argentina's economy is now projected to slow down from nearly 9 percent last year to 2.2 percent this year, according to the latest World Bank estimates. Many independent economists say that even that projection is too optimistic, and that the country may end this year with a recession.
#1
Why did Argentinas economy take such a sudden turn downwards?
Because their president is a heavy-handed left-wing Peronist who tries to limit free speech, nationalize industries, and get cozy with large labor unions.
[Iran Press TV] Unemployment rates rose in 18 U.S. states in May, the most in nine months. Increasing unemployment in more than a third of U.S. states is the latest evidence of a weaker job market.
The Labor Department said that unemployment rates fell in only 14 states. That's fewer than the previous month, when rates fell in 37 states. Rates were unchanged in 18 states.
Nationally, the rate rose to 8.2 percent in May from 8.1 percent in April, the first increase in almost a year. Employers added only 69,000 jobs, the fewest in 12 months.
North Carolina reported the biggest loss, shedding 16,500 jobs. It was followed by Pennsylvania, which lost nearly 10,000.
Nevada had the nation's highest unemployment rate, at 11.6 percent, followed by Rhode Island's 11 percent and Caliphornia's 10.8 percent.
Some of the hardest-hit states have seen improvement in the past year. Some of those declines reflect more hiring.
But the lower rates also are a result of more people becoming discouraged and dropping out of the work force. The government only counts people as unemployed if they are actively looking for work.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/18/2012 00:00 ||
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Sad that we have to get such news from Iran.
Of course, it's not "news" here.
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/18/2012 6:14 Comments ||
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#2
Yes, thanks to the MSM shills for Obama and the lefty progressives, we get more accurate news from the internet and other sources.
#3
Too many confuse the original First Amendment 'free press' with the technology of the times rather than the intent of 'free flow of information' which today's institutional MSM is abjectly against.
#4
no worries, obama has another 25 million green jobs lined up for all the unemployed!
Posted by: chris ||
06/18/2012 10:28 Comments ||
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The unemployment rate is BS.
Just because a person runs out of unemployment benefits, it does not mean they have quit looking for work.
Look at the employment ratios in the US. Currently, the employment ratio is at 63% the lowest since the depression.
If someone would do an accurate count, the real unemployment rate is closer to 30%. Heck I know more people out of work than I do people that work. All of us are college educated professionals and we cannot find work.
It is a disgrace, we are in a depression, the growth rate, as stated by the Department of Commerce is less than the rate of inflation, which is someone would pull out a calculator would find the economy is contracting not expanding.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
06/18/2012 10:54 Comments ||
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#6
The CIA was 'surprised' by the collapse of the Soviet Union because they were reading all the official reports that the apparatchiks sent up to the bosses telling the bosses what they wanted to hear. Not much difference here either these days.
On the marginally bright side, these functionaries have self identified for the cleaver when it comes time to cut government.
France's Socialists won control of parliament in a run-off vote Sunday, handing President Francois Hollande the convincing majority needed to push through his tax-and-spend agenda, estimates said.
The Socialists' bloc obtained between 308 and 320 seats -- an absolute majority in the 577-seat National Assembly -- and so will not need to rely on the Greens or the far left, polling institutes CSA, Ispsos and Sofres said.
Hollande, who defeated right-winger Nicolas Sarkozy in a May presidential election, had urged voters to give him the MPs he needs to steer France through the eurozone crisis, rising unemployment and a faltering economy.
Sarkozy's UMP and the New Centre won between 221 and 231 seats, the Socialist-allied Greens 20 seats and the far-left Left Front 10, the polling institutes said, with the centrist MoDem winning two seats.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/18/2012 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] A large number of people tried to storm into a cop shoppe in North Nazimabad to get hold of a man who was booked and placed in durance vile Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! for allegedly desecrating the Koran on Sunday.
The Taimuria police placed in durance vile Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! the man, Saleem, a resident of North Nazimabad's Block N, and started the paperwork but haven't done much else (FIR 308/2012) against him under Section 295-B (defiling, etc, of Holy Qura'an) of the Pakistain Penal Code on behalf of the state.
The police said the man, whom they described as a drug addict, was placed in durance vile Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! on a complaint of people who had witnessed the alleged desecration in the apartment building where the suspect lived.
Following his arrest, a large number of people gathered outside the Taimuria cop shoppe and demanded that the police to hand over the suspect to them so that they could lynch him.
The mob tried to storm into the cop shoppe, but the law-enforcers had gun sex and hurled teargas shells to disperse the crowd.
Rangers were also called in to avert any further breakdown of law and order. Finally, the crowd dispersed.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/18/2012 00:00 ||
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Long article that summarizes a series of 3 scholarly articles. Thought provoking. Here's an excerpt from the introduction:
The mid-Victorian period is usually defined as the years between 1850 and 1870, but in nutritional terms we have identified a slightly longer period, lasting until around 1880. During these 30 years, we argue here, a generation grew up with probably the best standards of health ever enjoyed by a modern state. The British population had risen significantly and had become increasingly urbanised, but the great public health movement had not yet been established and Britain's towns and cities were still notoriously unhealthy environments. Despite this, and contrary to historical tradition, we argue in this paper, using a range of historical evidence, which Britain and its world-dominating empire were supported by a workforce, an army and a navy comprised of individuals who were healthier, fitter and stronger than we are today. They were almost entirely free of the degenerative diseases which maim and kill so many of us, and although it is commonly stated that this is because they all died young, the reverse is true; public records reveal that they lived as long -- or longer -- than we do in the 21st century.
These findings are remarkable, as this brief period of great good health predates not only the public health movement but also the great 20th century medical advances in surgery, infection control and drugs. They are also in marked contrast to popular views about Victorian squalor and disease, views that have long obscured the realities of life and death during that 'period of equipoise'.
Our recent research indicates that the mid-Victorians' good health was entirely due to their superior diet. This period was, nutritionally speaking, an island in time; one that was created and subsequently squandered by economic and political forces. This begs a series of questions. How did this brief nutritional 'golden age' come about? How was it lost? And could we recreate it?
#2
Processed foods didn't exist back then. People have a ton more choice now. Junk food is aimed squarely at the local palate, and scientists are hired to create it.
#3
Other factors, too. Very locally produced vegs and fruits using organic fertilizers => more micronutrients in the crop, so that not only did they eat more of these good foods, the foods were better for them than our mass-farmed equivalents grown on highly-worked soil & bred to hold up to long distance travel. Also very little butter fats in the diet, much less alcohol and very little tobacco use. Way less sugar and those mostly not the refined cane sugar type. Whole grains.
The stats on changes in strength and stature within one - two subsequent generations are eye-opening.
#4
The tract homes that mushroomed outside of major cities grew lawns instead of vegetable gardens because 1. The topsoil had been stripped away by the builders and there wasn't much left; 2 Lawns were a sort of status symbol: "I don't have to devote my property to growing my own food".
Fast forward a few generations. Now, for the first time in my stodgy domestic life, I'm a trendsetter. Two years ago we took out a tree in the front yard and dug up the lawn for vegetable beds. Now a few neighbors have their tomatoes in the front yard too, and the Sunday paper had an article about urban gardens in Madison.
#5
Have any problems with thieves?
It's in the FRONT yard and any passer-by could grab whatever's ripe, prove it.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/18/2012 21:04 Comments ||
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The paper says that many urban families had a couple hens, too, yielding a dozen or more eggs a week. Those birds ate a lot of insects and food scraps, not just grain, so they would have had more Omega 3s etc. than the industrial, grain fed egg factories produce.
#7
Despite this, and contrary to historical tradition, we argue in this paper, using a range of historical evidence, which Britain and its world-dominating empire were supported by a workforce, an army and a navy comprised of individuals who were healthier, fitter and stronger than we are today.
Yep, if you lived beyond childhood. They sort of skip the 'thinning out' that occurs with 19th Century infant mortality rates. It makes great statistics when the weak are gone by adulthood. Smack of Social Darwinism. Didn't we just have an issue with people who cherry pick data?
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.
Five Egyptian political parties have jointly called for the establishment of a pro-civil-state political force to stand against "repression" by the military and Islamist groups.
Unemployment rates rose in 18 U.S. states in May, the most in nine months. Increasing unemployment in more than a third of U.S. states is the latest evidence of a weaker job market.
France's Socialists won control of parliament in a run-off vote Sunday, handing President Francois Hollande the convincing majority needed to push through his tax-and-spend agenda, estimates said.
