EdailyDeal: The Curse of Lono Beach jogger likely never saw or heard plane that killed him Death Accidental - revdrew - 15 Comments Tags: ipod, South Carolina, Jogging, crash landing, small plane 03/18/10 - - - (Link) The kit-built single-engine plane was gliding quietly as it came down for an emergency landing on a beach. Pharmaceutical salesman Robert Gary Jones, listening to his iPod while jogging, likely never saw or heard it before the aircraft hit him from behind and killed him.
Somali pirates attempt attack on Dutch warship Crime - Arnisador - 9 Comments Tags: Dutch, Somalia, pirates, Hijack Attempt, EU Naval Force 03/18/10 - - - (Link) These Somali pirates picked the wrong ship to hijack.
Troops aboard the Dutch warship HNLMS Tromp fired warning shots Wednesday off the coast of East Africa as suspected Somali pirates in two small skiffs raced toward their warship, the EU Naval Force said.
Junk Bond Avalanche Looms for Credit Markets Business - EVILdogshu - 0 Comments Tags: economic crisis, credit crisis, junk bonds, corporate debt, financial doomsday 03/18/10 - - - (Link) When the Mayans envisioned the world coming to an end in 2012 — at least in the Hollywood telling — they didn’t count junk bonds among the perils that would lead to worldwide disaster.
Maybe they should have, because 2012 also is the beginning of a three-year period in which more than $700 billion in risky, high-yield corporate debt begins to come due, an extraordinary surge that some analysts fear could overload the debt markets.
Dentist used paper clips in root canals Crime - Harry - 0 Comments Tags: fraud, medicaid, dentists, paper clips, thrifty 03/18/10 - - - (Link) A former Fall River dentist whose license to practice was suspended in three states has been charged with Medicaid fraud after repeatedly billing for work using the information of other dentists, prosecutors said.
[...]
Coakley’s office said the former dentist illegally prescribed painkillers and used parts of paper clips as posts when performing root canals on some MassHealth patients, to save money.
Nuns in U.S. back healthcare bill despite Catholic bishops' opposition Living Health - Harry - 0 Comments Tags: Catholic Church, abortion, nuns, health care reform, defiant 03/18/10 - - - (Link) Their numbers and influence may be declining, but American nuns demonstrated Wednesday what generations of schoolchildren already knew: They are a force to be reckoned with.
By sending a letter to Congress in support of the Senate healthcare bill, a wide coalition of nuns took sides against not only the Republican minority but against their own church hierarchy, as represented by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which opposes the bill. The nuns' letter contributed to the momentum in favor of the legislation, despite opposition that is partially rooted in a disagreement over abortion funding.
Kucinich Switches Vote on Health Care Government Politics - Harry - 4 Comments Tags: Democrats, Dennis Kucinich, President Obama, health care reform, reluctant support 03/18/10 - - - (Link) Representative Dennis J. Kucinich, Democrat of Ohio, said today that he plans to support the health care bill when it comes up for a vote this week. He becomes the first Democrat to publicly disclose his intention to switch from a no to a yes vote on the legislation.
As Medicaid Payments Shrink, Patients Are Abandoned Living Health - revdrew - 1 Comment Tags: health insurance, medicaid, economic crisis, health care crisis, health care reform 03/18/10 - - - (Link) Carol Y. Vliet’s cancer returned with a fury last summer, the tumors metastasizing to her brain, liver, kidneys and throat.
As she began a punishing regimen of chemotherapy and radiation, Mrs. Vliet found a measure of comfort in her monthly appointments with her primary care physician, Dr. Saed J. Sahouri, who had been monitoring her health for nearly two years.
She was devastated, therefore, when Dr. Sahouri informed her a few months later that he could no longer see her because, like a growing number of doctors, he had stopped taking patients with Medicaid.
Wife Of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas Launches Tea Party Group Government Corruption - Xiphias - 2 Comments Tags: Supreme Court, tea party, Clarence Thomas, impartiality, Virginia Thomas 03/18/10 - - - (Link) Reporting from Washington — As Virginia Thomas tells it in her soft-spoken, Midwestern cadence, the story of her involvement in the "tea party" movement is the tale of an average citizen in action.
"I am an ordinary citizen from Omaha, Neb., who just may have the chance to preserve liberty along with you and other people like you," she said at a recent panel discussion with tea party leaders in Washington. Thomas went on to count herself among those energized into action by President Obama's "hard-left agenda."
But Thomas is no ordinary activist.
Original Story: Supreme Court rejects limits on corporate spending on political campaigns Other Related Stories: Campaign stunt launches a corporate 'candidate' for Congress
Ex-Pfizer Worker Cites Genetically Engineered Virus In Lawsuit Over Firing Living Health - enki don't - 0 Comments Tags: Connecticut, viruses, Pfizer, genetic engineering, OSHA 03/18/10 - - - (Link) Medical experts will be watching closely Monday when a scientist who says she has been intermittently paralyzed by a virus designed at the Pfizer laboratory where she worked in Groton opens a much anticipated trial that could raise questions about safety practices in the dynamic field of genetic engineering.
'Rogue' CIA Official's Program Diverted Funds To Pay Assassins Government War - Xiphias - 2 Comments Tags: CIA, Afghanistan, private contractors, covert spies, intelligence gathering 03/18/10 - - - (Link) Under the cover of a benign government information-gathering program, a Defense Department official set up a network of private contractors in Afghanistan and Pakistan to help track and kill suspected militants, according to military officials and businessmen in Afghanistan and the United States.
The official, Michael D. Furlong, hired contractors from private security companies that employed former C.I.A. and Special Forces operatives. The contractors, in turn, gathered intelligence on the whereabouts of suspected militants and the location of insurgent camps, and the information was then sent to military units and intelligence officials for possible lethal action in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the officials said.
Grill ripped from man's teeth at Tenn. jail Crime Violent - revdrew - 10 Comments Tags: Prison, Tennessee, police brutality, grill, forced extraction 03/18/10 - - - (Link) When a Tennessee jailer ripped the gold grill from a new inmate's teeth two days before Thanksgiving last year, it left the 31-year-old man in excruciating pain and left taxpayers on the hook for nearly $100,000 in damages.
Pies-in-face attack roils anarchist-vegan world Crime Stupid - keinsignal - 1 Comment Tags: Anarchists, vegan, Infighting, schism, pie-in-the-face attack 03/18/10 - - - (Link) An ex-vegan who was hit with chili pepper-laced pies at an anarchist event in San Francisco said Tuesday that her assailants were cowards who should direct their herbivorous rage at the powerful - not at a fellow radical for writing a book denouncing animal-free diets.
Family condemned for taking £18,000 'hush money' from paedophile who abused son Crime - raith - 4 Comments Tags: teacher, UK, paedophile, hush money, poor parenting skills 03/18/10 - - - (Link) Gerard Raffell, 42, walked free from court despite admitting that he had repeatedly abused the boy between 2004 and 2005 before the child's discovered his crimes.
Instead of reporting Raffell to the police they demanded £18,000 for a deposit on their new home in return for keeping quiet.
Encyclopedia Dramatica Drama: Website Targeted by Australian Government Living Legal - Chibisuke - 5 Comments Tags: censorship, australia, aborigine, Encyclopedia Dramatica, racial vilification 03/18/10 - - - (Link) The website Encyclopedia Dramatica has been targeted by the Australian Human Rights Commission, a government agency, for containing racist content.
In January, at the government's request, Google Australia pulled down links to an article on Australian Aborigines contained on the site, and now the commission may file charges against the site's American owner.
Racist Notes Found In Eggs Crime - enki don't - 0 Comments Tags: racism, Michigan, Hate Crimes, Easter eggs, Aryan Nation 03/18/10 - - - (Link) The fun of finding Easter eggs took an ugly turn in Auburn Hills Sunday when neighbors reported that they found racists notes stuffed inside brightly colored plastic eggs.
Thai protesters to spill own blood on streets Government Elections - Aquillion - 10 Comments Tags: Thailand, protesters, Prime Minister, bloodshed, red shirt 03/17/10 - - - (Link) Supporters of ousted Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra say they will continue their protest today by pouring 1,000 litres of their own blood on the steps of parliament.
Couple slain in Mexico shooting had baby on the way Crime Violent - Harry - 18 Comments Tags: mexico, drug cartels, innocent victims, gang violence, U.S. Consulate 03/17/10 - - - (Link) Lesley Enriquez went to a birthday party and brought her husband and baby daughter along. After the food and cake and singing and children's games were done, the family piled into the car and headed home.
They never made it.
As Enriquez's husband, Arthur Redelfs, pulled away from the U.S. Consulate in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, where the party took place Saturday, a car full of gang members fell in behind them, authorities said.
More human remains found at Beer Can Beach Crime Violent - Name Brand Aspirin - 5 Comments Tags: California, limbs, human remains, Beer Can Beach, John or Jane Doe 03/17/10 - - - (Link) A human head and two limbs were found over the weekend at Beer Can Beach on the Feather River in south Sutter County, not far from where a severed leg was found in November, a Sutter County Sheriff's Department official said Monday.
Mexico City hosts nation's first gay marriages Government Laws - MaulLove - 1 Comment Tags: adoption, Civil Rights, Mexico City, gay rights, same-sex marriage 03/17/10 - - - (Link) The mayor was there. So were the protesters. Judith Vazquez wore an ivory wedding dress. So did her bride.
Vazquez and Lol Kin Castaneda on Thursday became the first gay couple to marry in Mexico under a new law that allows same-sex couples to wed and to adopt children.
Utah's House Majority Leader Kevin Garn Admits Paying Woman for Cover-Up Government Corruption - Xiphias - 0 Comments Tags: Republicans, Utah, 15-year-old girl, Skinny dipping, nondisclosure agreement 03/17/10 - - - (Link) In the midst of his 2002 congressional campaign, Utah House Majority Leader Kevin Garn paid $150,000 to a woman threatening to go public with a past relationship.
In recent days, Cheryl Maher has resurfaced, contacting legislators and reporters about her interaction with Garn, telling a story that a visibly distraught and shaken Garn admitted Thursday is essentially true and potentially damaging to his political career and personal life.
Extra: "Garn said he was not paying Maher to keep her quiet, but to make amends with someone who believed she had been damaged."
Banana beats anti-HIV drugs Science - Ringo_ate_my_baby - 8 Comments Tags: bananas, hiv, research study, lectins, microbicide 03/17/10 - - - (Link) On March 19, a new study to be published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, scientific journal, concluded that banana lectins, a naturally occurring chemical, has the ability to stop the transmission and prevention of HIV.
Extra: Full study, "A Lectin Isolated from Bananas Is a Potent Inhibitor of HIV Replication":
Briton is recognised as world's first officially genderless person Living - enki don't - 29 Comments Tags: australia, Sex Change, Gender Trust, neuter, genderless 03/17/10 - - - (Link) A British expat who claims to have no gender is thought to have become the first person to be officially recognised as neither male or female.
One Gene Lost = One Limb Regained? Scientists Demonstrate Mammalian Regeneration Science - Lies, lies, LIES! - 7 Comments Tags: Mammals, healing, regeneration, gene deletion, p21 gene 03/17/10 - - - (Link) A quest that began over a decade ago with a chance observation has reached a milestone: the identification of a gene that may regulate regeneration in mammals. The absence of this single gene, called p21, confers a healing potential in mice long thought to have been lost through evolution and reserved for creatures like flatworms, sponges, and some species of salamander.
Ultraviolet freckles start fish fights Living Nature - Name Brand Aspirin - 0 Comments Tags: ultraviolet light, Reef fish, damselfish, freckles, FIGHT! 03/17/10 - - - (Link) Seen in the right light, yellow reef fish become spotty pains in the tail fin.
Members of one damselfish species use facial patterns of speckles and swooshes to identify the fish species they regularly attack, researchers report in an upcoming issue of Current Biology. These markings show up only in ultraviolet light, says visual ecologist Ulrike Siebeck of the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia.
Girl With Paranoid Schizophrenia Has Urges to Kill Her Mother Living Health - The Naz - 2 Comments Tags: Hallucinations, schizophrenia, juvenile mental illness, urges to kill, Rebecca Stancil 03/17/10 - - - (Link) Rebecca Stancil often seems like a typical 9-year-old girl, playing a sweet child's game of rock, paper, scissors with friends and attending pool parties in her Simi Valley, Calif., neighborhood.
It was one of the lowest points for her mother, who recalled bringing her daughter to the hospital.
New Jersey mom aspires to be the world's fattest woman Living Weird - B. Weed - 16 Comments Tags: guinness world records, fantasy, fetishists, life goals, worlds fattest woman 03/17/10 - - - (Link) Donna Simpson, 42, of New Jersey, weighs 604 pounds, but you won't see her competing on 'The Biggest Loser' anytime soon. In fact, Simpson told The New York Post this week her goal is to become the heaviest woman to ever give birth. Her 'fantasy' is to someday tip the scale at 1,000 pounds.
"When you have a 3-year-old daughter and you’re trying to run a household, things like this tend to be a fantasy," said the mother of two. She weighed 532 pounds when her daughter was born in 2007.
Nurses' union: Care does not include sex Living Sex - Anomalocaris - 9 Comments Tags: Dutch, Nurses, sexual services, I Draw The Line Here, standard health care 03/17/10 - - - (Link) A union representing Dutch nurses will launch a national campaign Friday against demands for sexual services by patients who claim it should be part of their standard care.
Man used penis to assault female police officer Crime Stupid - raith - 13 Comments Tags: Drunk, police, penis, Assault, aberdeen 03/17/10 - - - (Link) A man who assaulted a female police officer with his penis has been fined.
Marium Varinauskas, 28, tried to strike the officer on the head with his penis when she was called out to his flat, but she got out of the way.
He Pingping, the world's shortest man, dies aged 22 Death - denspark - 45 Comments Tags: china, guinness world records, Rome, worlds shortest man, Pingping 03/16/10 - - - (Link) The world's shortest man, He Pingping, who was just 74.6cm (2ft 5in) tall, has died in Rome.
Marines gone rogue or leading the fight against counterinsurgency? Government War - EVILdogshu - 8 Comments Tags: Taliban, Afghanistan War, U.S. Marines, Marineistan, unorthodox approach 03/16/10 - - - (Link) Home to a dozen truck stops and a few hundred family farms bounded by miles of foreboding desert, this hamlet in southwestern Afghanistan is far from a strategic priority for senior officers at the international military headquarters in Kabul. One calls Delaram, a day's drive from the nearest city, "the end of the Earth." Another deems the area "unrelated to our core mission" of defeating the Taliban by protecting Afghans in their cities and towns.
U.S. Marine commanders have a different view of the dusty, desolate landscape that surrounds Delaram. They see controlling this corner of remote Nimruz province as essential to promoting economic development and defending the more populated parts of southern Afghanistan.
Airborne Bears To Defeat Osama, And Other DoD Suggestions Government Military - Xiphias - 16 Comments Tags: Osama bin Laden, Department of Defense, bears-in-the-air, suggestions, Contact Us 03/16/10 - - - (Link) Could parachute-wearing bears sniff out Osama bin Laden?
That’s one suggestion the Pentagon has received from someone who noted, quite correctly, that a bear’s sense of smell is much more powerful than a bloodhound’s.
Air Force Sergeant Outed by Police, Discharged via DADT Government Military - disgruntled_goat - 19 Comments Tags: Air Force, privacy, police officers, lesbian, dont ask-dont tell 03/16/10 - - - (Link) Jene Newsome played by the rules as an Air Force sergeant: She never told anyone in the military she was a lesbian. The 28-year-old's honorable discharge under the "don't ask, don't tell" policy came only after police officers in Rapid City, S.D., saw an Iowa marriage certificate in her home and told the nearby Ellsworth Air Force Base.
Extra: "Police officers, who said they spotted the marriage license on the kitchen table through a window of Newsome's home, alerted the base, police Chief Steve Allender said in a statement sent to the AP."
Carrollton man charged with threatening Elton John Crime - Xiphias - 14 Comments Tags: Death Threats, anti-abortion, homophobia, Elton John, atlanta 03/16/10 - - - (Link) An anti-abortion activist and gubernatorial candidate from Carrollton who was arrested for allegedly making threats against Elton John is still being held in the Fulton County jail.
Man guilty for racial attack on Borehamwood rail worker Crime Violent - Miskimo - 17 Comments Tags: racist, moustache, murderer, dandy, rail passenger 03/16/10 - - - (Link) A rail passenger has been found guilty of grabbing and racially abusing a ticket inspector in Hertfordshire.
Another Small Texas Town Overpunishes Another Piddly Drug Offender Crime - unknown rebel - 3 Comments Tags: texas, possession, crack, prison overcrowding, 60-year sentence 03/16/10 - - - (Link) Think 35 years for a brick or so of pot is bad?
Try this one on for size...
In a case one local defense attorney has said showed "shades of Tulia," a Bay City man was sentenced to 60 years in prison for possessing 1.3 grams of crack.
Man Dies After Being Shot Several Times In Groin At Strip Club Crime Violent - Name Brand Aspirin - 0 Comments Tags: Bar, Groin, strip club, fatal shooting, San Diego 03/16/10 - - - (Link) A search was under way Monday for whoever killed a 42-year-old man at a North Park strip club, shooting him several times in the groin, police said.
Toddler Dies After Mistaking Gun for Wii Controller Crime Violent - revdrew - 31 Comments Tags: Tennessee, Wii, 3-year-old, accidental suicide, irresponsible gun owner 03/16/10 - - - (Link) Mistaking a loaded gun for a video game controller, a 3-year-old in Tennessee accidentally shot and killed herself, officials said.
Cheyenne Alexis McKeehan of Norene, Tenn., shot herself Sunday night after her stepfather left his loaded Smith & Wesson handgun out on a table, Wilson County Sheriff Terry Ashe said.
Georgia judge bars release of photos of hiker's nude, decapitated body Government Laws - Tameriaen - 0 Comments Tags: Georgia, first amendment, Hustler, crime photos, The Meredith Emerson Memorial Privacy Act 03/16/10 - - - (Link) Photos of the nude and decapitated body of a murdered hiker, sought by a writer on assignment for Hustler magazine, will not be released, a judge in Georgia ordered Wednesday.
The decision came as state lawmakers considered legislation that would ban public release of graphic photos of crime victims. First Amendment lawyers say the legislation could have a chilling effect on open records requests.
For Family of Nikki Catsouras, a Victory in Court Living Legal - MaulLove - 6 Comments Tags: Internet, car crash, decapitation, CHP, photo leak 03/16/10 - - - (Link) They say losing a child is the worst thing a parent can endure. But for Christos and Lesli Catsouras, whose 18-year-old daughter, Nikki, was killed in a devastating car crash in 2006, there was something much, much worse. Two weeks after their daughter's death, on Halloween day, Christos got a phone call from a friend. "Have you seen the photos?" he asked, hesitantly. Nine color close-ups of Nikki's mangled remains, still strapped into her father's crushed car, had been circulating around town by e-mail. Within days, the images went viral, popping up on hundreds of sites. Now a California court has handed the family an important legal victory.
Original Story: One Family's Fight Against Grisly Web Photos
Peter Graves dies at 83; star of TV's 'Mission: Impossible' Death - Harry - 12 Comments Tags: actor, Peter Graves, Biography, Mission: Impossible, Airplane! 03/15/10 - - - (Link) Peter Graves, the rugged actor who starred in the hit TV series "Mission: Impossible" and whose career took a comic turn in the disaster spoof "Airplane!" has died. He was 83.
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