IFS NEWS WRITERS

FBI in Major Drug Bust in Dunningan

2011-06-16T14:40:00.000-07:00

By Dunningan News-Press Telegram

DUNNINGAN (IFS) – The little community of Dunningan was shaken up this morning on or around 6:29 am, as the Federal Bureau of Investigation and its’ contingent of approximately 60 officers with several heavily armored attack vehicles and personnel, like something out of a storm troopers movie, with flash-bang grenades rushed the pink painted stucco home located at 3396 Road 88A.

With a coordinated effort by the FBI, Homeland Security, DEA and Yolo County Sheriff’s Department, the raid on the house was over in under one minute. CSI investigators and California Bureau of Investigations agents continued combing the residence’s and its grounds compiling evidence.

FBI Special Agent Russell Custer from the Sacramento bureau led the charge on what appears to be an elaborate marijuana growing operation according to the Yolo County Sheriff’s office. This raid was one of many coordinated efforts by the Department of Justice to clean up the Mexico to USA drug connections.

Havana Parker-Smith of Your Dawg On The Beach TV passes

2011-05-17T17:18:00.000-07:00

Havana Parker-Smith
1992-2011

DUNNINGAN, CA (IFS) – Our dear and beloved Havana has left us and is now in doggy heaven. Havana pasted away on May 16, 2011 on/or about 3:30pm in the afternoon sun under a large Eucalyptus tree in the middle of her property in Dunningan California.

Havana starred in over eighty (80) episodes of her own youtube television show, “Your Dawg On The Beach” Series. Born in Castle Rock Colorado in July 1992, the young Labrador caught the eye of Dr. Karen Andrea Parker-Smith, then married to renown record producer Kenneth Howard Smith.

Havana’s documented trips across America are legendary and will always be remembered.

Havana Parker-Smith, is quietly nosing through the flowers. Havana loved flowers, and there was not a driveway that she did not visit.

Havana we want to thank you for being the best companion ever.

Peyton Grass Range Fire

2010-09-05T18:21:00.000-07:00

Glenn Beck - I Had A Dream or Did I Have a Night Mare

2010-09-01T12:16:00.001-07:00

by Kenneth Howard Smith, IFS

LIMON CO (IFS) Well Mr. Beck, I guess you had a great meeting and so many of your friends did show-up to give you a wonderful rally and you did change American history for yourself. I hope that you sold a lot of books and t-shirts, and helped your television show gain so many more new viewers.

What's this about a "bullet proof vest" at a prayer meeting? Well, well, you created this night mare and you had the vest on the wrong part of your body, it should have been on your foot, because that's where the bullets did land.

We tried to tell you along time ago, what was going to happen to you. We told you that you had better put on the brakes, and repent and change your direction, but you did not listen to us. You had your television show to rely on, and of course you were the only one listening to your own voice, plus the left overs from the election who were going to take back our country. What I could not understand, where were you going to take our country back too?

Every few years, a person like you comes along and has a vision that the masses are going to follow, and you believed in your own publicity!! Fox News and their organization shows how much influence they have on the American public - not much would you say?

The real Americans are the silent majority. They let the "squeaky wheel" get the grease, they sit back and observe and make up their minds in the most heated battles of the talking heads. They very seldom call into a radio show or even participate in a television show -- but they watch with both eyes and they are all ears. When they make a decision, it's usually a very quick decision and they are usually right. The real Americans are not just sitting on the fence, they have an agenda. And when they vote, they shake up the country.

MYSPACE IS GREAT RECORDING COMPANY, LITTLE ELSE

2010-08-28T15:25:00.001-07:00

By Kenneth Howard Smith,
(IFS) SDCOG News-Gazette

LIMON CO (IFS) - It's just a matter of time that Myspace will only be used by musicians, as it continues to lose 20,000 subscribers a week. The lure of Myspace in the early days was just a social networking site, then came the music industry that really makes Myspace the great digital recording label designed by the earlier poineer J-Bird Records that invented the digital online recording label concept.

When its comes to the art of social networking, Facebook is adding news users and former Myspace members at approximately 1,000,000 new subscribers per week worldwide. This not so suttle expandion by Facebook is causing Rupert Murdock alot of heart burn, as the Fox News subsidairy continues to crash and burn.

One could blame it on the practices of Mr. Murdock's News Corporation's parent company and Fox News producers that has lead to it's loosing ground and causing users to abandon their accounts and go to someone else that is not so political with their hands and fingers in everything from degrading the president - to it's partners with Arabic sheiks.

At the present rate of subscriptions, Mysapce will only be a recording label for new music, other then that, it's useless as a networking site.

Google's GMail to Video

2010-08-28T15:24:00.001-07:00

By Kenneth Howard Smith,
(IFS) SDCOG News-Gazette

LIMON CO (IFS) - Skype is going to take a large hit when Google's GMail goes to Video in the next few months. Google's telephone service that has been operating for the past several years teaming with the video conferencing features will put Google over the top and drive Skype to the back seat of the online video/telephone services. What the future will bring for both Google and Skype is only speculation, but the videoing-phone writing is on the wall with Skype being pushed to the side lines.

RIAA Urges Piracy Crackdown In Google-Verizon Net Neutrality Deal

2010-08-21T08:58:00.000-07:00

21 August, 2010,
by ITProPortal Staff

Following open criticism from industry experts, law makers, privacy authorities, and government watchdogs, Google and Verizon's net neutrality plan has found some support.

Almost every music trade group in the US has urged Google to come up with clauses against suspected pirates and child pornography on the web, tech news site Cnet has reported.

In a letter written to Google chief Eric Schmidt, music organisations, including the American Association of Independent Music, the American Federation of Musicians, the Recording Industry Association of America, SESAC, Sound Exchange, and The Recording Academy, have shown interest in Google-Verizon Net Neutrality plan.

The plan is a composition of concepts proposed by both Verizon and Google over the future of the internet in the US.

“The Internet has become a crucial part of the music discovery process and a central platform for commerce. Our ability to invest in and create the next generation of music is grounded on crafting policies that respect intellectual property," the groups wrote in the joint letter.

Read more: http://www.itproportal.com/portal/news/article/2010/8/21/riaa-urges-piracy-crackdown-google-verizon-net-neutrality-deal/#ixzz0xFxvcrcE

The Fintons

2010-08-21T08:29:00.000-07:00

LIMON CO (IFS) – It’s a great thing when you donate your time to giving a little sunshine to the lives of our seniors who are shut-ins and something just forgotten, as most of them are just “warehoused” in these nursing homes. Chaya and Kenny Finton have dedicated their lives to singing and playing for these wonderful poineers that have given so much and who now needs a little entertainment and appreciation in this fast paced world of ours.

Pat Condell on the Ground Zero Mosque

2010-08-19T12:35:00.001-07:00

Pat Condell on the Ground Zero Mosque

On 7/4/2010 9:55 AM, REGINALD GRAVES wrote:

Each day as I grow a little older; I truly question our leadership, ALL of them seemed to have the wrong ideas, but basically it comes back to MONEY, they can be bought as sold as easy as you purchase a Coke, on about the same frequency!

I must say that the major fault of this is our own fellow AMERICANS, they have lost their collective balls, by allowing idiots to frighthen them, weapons of mass destruction, Patriot Act so they can listen into our calls, read our emails. Did anyone take note when they told Bill Gates to hand over all his emails, the worlds richest guy, good or bad guy, could not stop them. I shuddered at that moment, Freedom is dead! Now look at us, We are cancelling Fourth of July Celebrations. Sorry, but to me that is THE MOST IMPORTANT HOLIDAY, PERIOD!!!!!!! THE DECLARATION OF OUR INDEPENDENCE ceremony has been put out. And we seem to have forgotten that only a few years ago, we were told all our bridges and roads are failing, Minnesota, and yet we march on, NO ONE has even marched or staged some form of organization, except for the Latino's about the Flag. We have become a nation of knotheads and well wishers. We are telling our Cops that they cost us too much, jackass, the price of freedom is always high. Fire Teachers, yeah, so that the next generation of Americans will know even less than this group. Stop for a minute and compare the education you received to that of your son or daughter. What do they know? If you know more than them, remember they have the internet, we did not, we had to read a thing called a book. First thing you can do is absolutely, without fail, no bullshit, is to email this to your elected representative and tell THEM NO ONLY NO, BUT HELL NO. I will email you my letter, I am not going to sit on my ass and say, Oh Well.

And while I'm on my soap box, BP. First, if you see a friend going to BP, ask the to stop going there. Yeah the local BP guys will get laid off, but should be be held prisoner for them when we know that there are GOING TO BE LAYOFFS IN ALL SECTORS BECAUSE OF THE SPILL. I could care less if BP goes absolutely broke. Since I have never used BP, we should try to Be American and Buy American, that's the reason there is an Olds, GMC, Caddy sitting in my yard. So what your Whatchumacallit has GreenSync and pushbutton start, we need to support our own industry, BECAUSE they sold more Buicks in China last year than in AMERICA, I challenge you to prove me wrong on that point, and the point is that China can manufacture and sell a million Buicks without exporting one car, Remember, 4.5 BILLION OF THEM WANT A CAR!!! We need to tell our leadership that this is wrong. I mean right a email just as you have taken the time to write this one to me. I got your back, I WILL TELL PARKER GRIFFITH I AM PISSED ABOUT THIS, AND RICHARD SHELBY AND JEFF SESSIONS. I also always hit YOUR Black Lady Of Politic's. If you don't know your reps name, then you are part of the damn promblem. Git off your duff and shake his cage. When I lived in Cali, You bet Leon Pinetta saw my dumbass with a list of HRs that I liked or did not like. I need some help out here shaking cages. Email me what you wrote so I can use it on these grits here.

By the way, Sessions and Shelby are Republicans, so I'm reaching across the aisle, as usual.

Dear Senator Sessions – I have recently viewed a video that I find troubling and outrageous at the same moment. http://www.jihadwatch.org/2010/06/pat-condell-on-ground-zero-mosque-is-it-possible-to-be-astonished-but-not-surprised.html

That WE Americans would allow A Mosque anywhere near Ground Zero, is TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE AND REPREHENSIBLE. I can guarantee that any Politician that supports such an initiative, I personally and I believe all freedom loving citizens and my Fellow Veterans, who have not only the same emotions as our Fellow Americans, but we have actually closed and defeated a member of a foreign nation, we will be absolutely vivid with anger that everything that stands for America is defeated by this building. Listen to what this man says, let’s not totally theosophical, their religion is not about personal freedoms, they subjugate women to a lessor status, the Koran, makes references speaks of Infidels and Pureness and violence for none compliance to its tenets. We have all seen what they stand for, some of us have even been in their countries and there is ONLY one US OF A! The American dream is getting tarnished with all our overt ignorance of the dangers that are STILL out there. Some of us KNOW and knew that the Russian never stopped spying on us. OPSEC. But a lot of us have forgotten and the egregious part is THEY ARE THE ONE TASKED WITH OUR SECURITY!! Fund all the CyberIntell solutions that make Sense; We have allowed something or someone to jeopardize the operations of our Predator Fleet last year, how do you know that they can’t be jammed when necessary, NOW is not the time to demonstrate this capability, but we must be vigilant. Do you think that upon an invasion, shutting down our electric grids will not be paramount?? Take a look around DC, and imagine what a mess that could be if NOT an airliner came, but more than one aircraft? Four interceptors were protecting us back then, HOW many are there now. I know that you can’t give the number, OPSEC, but have we got better at this????

Someone continually yells, Look the Goodyear Blimp on us. We look up and all hell breaks loose on the ground. For some strange and arcane reason, I do not see the Mexicans as a Threat in the same manner that most do, and should do. How many Mexicans have we caught trying to harm our way of life, carrying suicide bombs into our shopping centers, how many have been caught spying on us. Yes, they are a situation, but we need to marshal our resources. In fact, why can’t we let an individual that serves for a honorable tour of duty in any military force, automatically earn their citizenship. Heck, they will have done more for their COUNTRY than a lot of NATIVE AMERICANS (NOT Indians). And IF they are ordered into harms way, to protect American Values and Ideals, I think they should go into combat as an AMERICAN, period!! If you can dodge bullets for America, then you damn sure are an American!!

Bill Wynne

CW3, US ARMY, Retired

I hold all these things near and dear to me. Have they ever even thought about building cars such as OURS any where else????? No Way Jose. There's America, and then there's Second Place

Google targeting Apple iPad with Chrome tablet?

2010-08-19T09:15:00.000-07:00

August 18, 2010 - 7:07 P.M.

Google targeting Apple iPad with Chrome tablet?
by Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

TAGS:Android, Apple, Google, HTC, iPad, Linux, tablet, Verizon

IT TOPICS:Devices, Emerging Technology, Hardware, Laptops & Netbooks, Linux & Unix, Management, Mobile, Operating Systems

Google Android was always going to be the heart of many Linux-based iPad like devices. That's no news. But, what is new and news is that Google and Verizon appear to be working together to create a Chrome operating system based tablet.

According to the first report, from The Download Squad, HTC is building the Chrome OS tablet. The device will be sold in partnership with Verizon starting on November 26th. That date is already engraved in every retailer's heart as Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, and usually the biggest shopping day of the year.
After those nuggets of news, everything else that's been written about the Google Chrome tablet has been pure speculation. That said, I can believe this core of the story. Google already worked with HTC to deliver the one of first Android smartphones: the now for developers only Nexus One.

On the carrier side, everyone who pays any attention to telephone company business buddy relationships knows that Verizon and Google have been working closely together since the announcement of their Net Neutrality plan. So, sure, the business relationships to make a Chrome tablet a reality are in place.
Besides, I think Google wants to jump-start the Android/Chrome tablet market. The very first Android tablets, like the Augsen GenTouch78, have been less than impressive. Just the very hint that Google may be making an iPad competitor already has buzz going.

That last part may also be important in its own right. Lately, Apple and Google have been getting along like cats and dogs I think Google would be very, very, one more time with feeling, very happy to put a spanner in Apple's hopes for an iPad Christmas.

I'd say the odds are good we'll see a Chrome tablet under some of our holidays trees at year's end. What do you think?

Why GOP Rep. Bob Inglis is looking for a new job

2010-08-09T20:32:00.000-07:00

Why GOP Rep. Bob Inglis is looking for a new job.

— By David Corn

Tue Aug. 3, 2010 3:00 AM PDT

It was the middle of a tough primary contest, and Rep. Bob Inglis (R-S.C.) had convened a small meeting with donors who had contributed thousands of dollars to his previous campaigns. But this year, as Inglis faced a challenge from tea party-backed Republican candidates claiming Inglis wasn't sufficiently conservative, these donors hadn't ponied up. Inglis' task: Get them back on the team. "They were upset with me," Inglis recalls. "They are all Glenn Beck watchers." About 90 minutes into the meeting, as he remembers it, "They say, 'Bob, what don't you get? Barack Obama is a socialist, communist Marxist who wants to destroy the American economy so he can take over as dictator. Health care is part of that. And he wants to open up the Mexican border and turn [the US] into a Muslim nation.'" Inglis didn't know how to respond.
As he tells this story, the veteran lawmaker is sitting in his congressional office, which he will have to vacate in a few months. On June 22, he was defeated in the primary runoff by Spartanburg County 7th Circuit Solicitor Trey Gowdy, who had assailed Inglis for supposedly straying from his conservative roots, pointing to his vote for the bank bailout and against George W. Bush's surge in Iraq. Inglis, who served six years in Congress during the 1990s as a conservative firebrand before being reelected to the House in 2004, had also ticked off right-wingers in the state's 4th Congressional District by urging tea-party activists to "turn Glenn Beck off" and by calling on Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) to apologize for shouting "You lie!" at Obama during the president's State of the Union address. For this, Inglis, who boasts (literally) a 93 percent lifetime rating from the American Conservative Union, received the wrath of the tea party, losing to Gowdy 71 to 29 percent. In the weeks since, Inglis has criticized Republican House leaders for acquiescing to a poisonous, tea party-driven "demagoguery" that he believes will undermine the GOP's long-term credibility. And he's freely recounting his frustrating interactions with tea party types, while noting that Republican leaders are pushing rhetoric tainted with racism, that conservative activists are dabbling in anti-Semitic conspiracy theory nonsense, and that Sarah Palin celebrates ignorance.
The week after that meeting with his past funders—whom he failed to bring back into the fold—Inglis asked House Republican leader John Boehner what he would have told this group of Obama-bashers. Inglis recalls what happened:

[Boehner] said, "I would have told them that it's not quite that bad. We disagree with him on the issues." I said, "Hold on Boehner, that doesn't work. Let me tell you, I tried that and it did not work." I said [to Boehner], "If you're going to lead these people and the fearful stampede to the cliff that they're heading to, you have to turn around and say over your shoulder, 'Hey, you don't know the half of it.'"

In other words, feed and fuel the anger and paranoia of the right.

During his primary campaign, Inglis repeatedly encountered enraged conservatives whom he couldn't—or wouldn't—satisfy. Shortly before the runoff primary election, Inglis met with about a dozen tea party activists at the modest ranch-style home of one of them. Here's what took place:

I sat down, and they said on the back of your Social Security card, there's a number. That number indicates the bank that bought you when you were born based on a projection of your life's earnings, and you are collateral. We are all collateral for the banks. I have this look like, "What the heck are you talking about?" I'm trying to hide that look and look clueless. I figured clueless was better than argumentative. So they said, "You don't know this?! You are a member of Congress, and you don't know this?!" And I said, "Please forgive me. I'm just ignorant of these things." And then of course, it turned into something about the Federal Reserve and the Bilderbergers and all that stuff. And now you have the feeling of anti-Semitism here coming in, mixing in. Wow.

Later, Inglis mentioned this meeting to another House member: "He said, 'You mean you sat there for more than 10 minutes?' I said, 'Well, I had to. We were between primary and runoff.' I had a two-week runoff. Oh my goodness. How do you..." Inglis trails off, shaking his head.
While he was campaigning, Inglis says, tea party activists and conservative voters kept pushing him to describe Obama as a "socialist." But, he says, "It's a dangerous strategy to build conservatism on information and policies that are not credible...This guy is no socialist." He continues:

The word is designed to have emotional charge to it. Throughout my primary, there were people insisting that I use the word. They would ask me if he was a socialist, and I would always find some other word. I'd say, "President Obama wants a very large government that I don't think will work and that spends too much and it's inefficient and it compromises freedom and it's not the way we want to go." They would listen for the word, wait to see if I used the s-word, and when I didn't, you could see the disappointment.

Why not give these voters what they wanted? Inglis says he wasn't willing to lie:

I refused to use the word because I have this view that the Ninth Commandment must mean something. I remember one year Bill Clinton—the guy I was out to get [when serving on the House judiciary committee in the 1990s]—at the National Prayer Breakfast said something that was one of the most profound things I've ever heard from anybody at a gathering like that. He said, "The most violated commandment in Washington, DC"—everybody leaned in; do tell, Mr. President—"is, 'Thou shall not bear false witness against thy neighbor.'" I thought, "He's right. That is the most violated commandment in Washington." For me to go around saying that Barack Obama is a socialist is a violation of the Ninth Commandment. He is a liberal fellow. I'm conservative. We disagree...But I don't need to call him a socialist, and I hurt the country by doing so. The country has to come together to find a solution to these challenges or else we go over the cliff.

Inglis found that ideological extremism is not only the realm of the tea party; it also has infected the official circles of his Republican Party. In early 2009, he attended a meeting of the GOP's Greenville County executive committee. At the time, Republicans were feeling discouraged. Obama was in the White House; the Democrats had enlarged their majorities in the House and Senate. The GOP seemed to be in tatters. But Inglis had what he considered good news. He put up a slide he had first seen at a GOP retreat. It was based on exit polling conducted during the November 2008 election. The slide, according to Inglis, showed that when American voters were asked to place themselves on an ideological spectrum—1 being liberal, 10 being conservative—the average ended up at about 5.6. The voters placed House Republicans at about 6.5 and House Democrats at about 4.3. Inglis told his fellow Republicans, "This is great news," explaining it meant that the GOP was still closer to the American public than the Democrats. The key, he said, was for the party to keep to the right, without driving off the road.
Inglis was met, he says with "stony" faces: "There's a short story by Shirley Jackson, 'The Lottery.'" The tale describes a town where the residents stone a neighbor who is chosen randomly. "That's what the crowd looked like. I got home that night and said to my wife, 'You can't believe how they looked back at me.' It was really frightening." The next speaker, he recalls, said, "'On Bob's ideological spectrum up there, I'm a 10,' and the crowd went wild. That was what I was dealing with."
Inglis acknowledges he's intimately familiar with extreme politics. He was part of the GOP gang that went after Clinton and impeached him for the Lewinsky affair:

I hated Bill Clinton. I wanted to destroy him. Then I had six years out [after leaving Congress in 1999] to look back on that, and now I would confess it as a sin. It is just wrong to want to destroy another human being and to spend so much time and effort trying to destroy Bill Clinton—some of it with really suspect information. We went on and on about Whitewater. We had talked about the strange things about Vince Foster's death. The drug dealing at Mena airport. So in the six years I was out, I looked back and realized, "Oh what a waste."

When he returned to the House in 2005, Inglis, though still a conservative, was more focused on policy solutions than ideological battle. After Obama entered the White House, Inglis worked up a piece of campaign literature—in the form of a cardboard coaster that flipped open—that noted that Republicans should collaborate (not compromise) with Democrats to produce workable policies. "America's looking for solutions, not wedges," it read. He met with almost every member of the House Republican caucus to make his pitch: "What we needed to be is the adults who say absolutely we will work with [the new president]."
Instead, he remarks, his party turned toward demagoguery. Inglis lists the examples: falsely claiming Obama's health care overhaul included "death panels," raising questions about Obama's birthplace, calling the president a socialist, and maintaining that the Community Reinvestment Act was a major factor of the financial meltdown. "CRA," Inglis says, "has been around for decades. How could it suddenly create this problem? You see how that has other things worked into it?" Racism? "Yes," Inglis says.
As an example of both the GOP pandering to right-wing voters and conservative talk show hosts undercutting sensible policymaking, Inglis points to climate change. Fossil fuels, he notes, get a free ride because they're "negative externalities"—that is, pollution and the effects of climate change—"are not recognized" in the market. Sitting in front of a wall-sized poster touting clean technology centers in South Carolina, Inglis says that conservatives "should be the ones screaming. This is a conservative concept: accountability. This is biblical law: you cannot do on your property what harms your neighbor's property." Which is why he supports placing a price on carbon—and forcing polluters to cover it.
Asked why conservatives and Republicans have demonized the issue of climate change and clean energy, Inglis replies, "I wish I knew; then maybe I wouldn't have lost my election." He points out that some conservatives believe that any issue affecting the Earth is "the province of God and will not be affected by human activity. If you talk about the challenge of sustainability of the Earth's systems, it's an affront to that theological view."
Inglis voted against the cap-and-trade climate legislation, believing it would create a new tax, lead to a "hopelessly complicated" trading scheme for carbon, and harm American manufacturing by handing China and India a competitive edge on energy costs. Instead, he proposed a revenue-neutral tax swap: Payroll taxes would be reduced, and the amount of that reduction would be applied as a tax on carbon dioxide emissions—mainly hitting coal plants and natural gas facilities. (This tax would be removed from exported goods and imposed on imported products—thus neutralizing any competitive advantage for China, India, and other manufacturing nations.)
Here was a conservative market-based plan. Did it receive any interest from House GOP leaders? Inglis shakes his head: "It's the t-word." Tax. He adds, "It's so contrary to the rhetoric we've got out there, to what Beck, Limbaugh, and others are saying."
For Inglis, this is the crux of the dilemma: Republican members of Congress know "deep down" that they need to deliver conservative solutions like his tax swap. Yet, he adds, "We're being driven as herd by these hot microphones—which are like flame throwers—that are causing people to run with fear and panic, and Republican members of Congress are afraid of being run over by that stampeding crowd." Inglis says that it's hard for Republicans in Congress to "summon the courage" to say no to Beck, Limbaugh, and the tea party wing. "When we start just delivering rhetoric and more misinformation...we're failing the conservative movement," he says. "We're failing the country." Yet, he notes, Boehner and House minority whip Eric Cantor have one primary strategic calculation: Play to the tea party crowd. "It's a dangerous strategy," he contends, "to build conservatism on information and policies that are not credible."
Asked if there are any 2012 GOP contenders who can lead the party in a more credible direction, Inglis points to Rob Portman, a former House member who was President George W. Bush's budget director. But Portman is now running for Senate in Ohio. He's not 2012 material. What about Sarah Palin? Inglis pauses for a moment: "I think that there are people who seem to think that ignorance is strength." And he says of her: "If I choose to remain ignorant and uninformed and encourage people to follow me while I celebrate my lack of information," that's not responsible.
After winning six congressional elections since 1992, Inglis is now a politician without a party, a policy maven without a movement. And in a few months, he will be without his present job. He has no specific plan yet for his future. He mentions looking for "private sector opportunities" in a sustainable energy field—or an academic or think tank position. Becoming a lobbyist is another option he has started to mull.
Inglis is a casualty of the tea party-ization of the Republican Party. Given the decisive vote against him in June, it's clear he was wiped out by a political wave that he could do little to thwart. "Emotionally, I should be all right with this," he says. And when he thinks about what lies ahead for his party and GOP House leaders, he can't help but chuckle. With Boehner and others chasing after the tea party, he says, "that's going to be the dog that catches the car." He quickly adds: "And the Democrats, if they go into the minority, are going to have an enjoyable couple of years watching that dog deal with the car it's caught."

Glenn Beck: Obama's America is like 'Planet of the Apes'

2010-08-09T12:21:00.000-07:00

LIMON CO (IFS) - I feel sorry for Mr Glenn Beck. You have to stupe so low into the slime to generate a few viewers for your show? Don Imus did the same thing, and lost his show for a couple of months. But Beck is still on the air. Why? Money!! For the love of good old "green energy" that keeps Beck and people like him of the edge of hate. Russ Lambaugh and his "kind" are just a couple of race baiters that are out to get ratings. What if no one listened to them?

Glenn Beck: Obama's America is like 'Planet of the Apes'

By Boyce Watkins, PhD on Aug 9th 2010 11:33AM

It appears that Glenn Beck enjoys the idea of comparing black people to monkeys. Beck's latest rant featured him comparing President Barack Obama's America to "the damn 'Planet of the Apes.'" Beck made these comments in response to the president's statements against the AFL-CIO.Beck seems to feel that the support of strong union pensions in the presence of a high-unemployment rate doesn't make any sense. His alleged confusion about Obama's actions forms the basis of Beck's comparison to 'Planet of the Apes,' where a man is pushed in to another segment of time/space to find that apes run the world and humans are their pets.

"Special interest! What planet have I landed on? Did I slip through a worm hole in the middle of the night and this looks like America? It's like the damn 'Planet of the Apes.' Nothing makes sense! The guy who's helped destroy all these pensions, Andy Stern, he is now on the financial oversight committee. Is this who we want to take advice from?

"The unions who have collapsed all of the businesses, who have collapsed all of their pensions, they are bankrupting everything they touch and we go to them and we say, yes, tell me, what should we do? It's like any marital tips from Tiger Woods."

I was once tempted to take Glenn Beck seriously, but now I just see him as a cute little monkey himself who seems to live off of attention. Making one outrageous statement after another is his way of keeping his ratings high, so that Fox will pay him more money. Perhaps his scheme is working, since I am writing about him right now.

While Beck's outrageous words (it was no accident that he compared Obama to an ape, which is highly offensive to black people) may gain him attention right now, he must also realize that he loses credibility with each ridiculous statement. I personally find myself less and less shocked by anything he says, and I hardly consider him to be a serious political figure.

Additionally, his ironic comparison of Obama's America to "Planet of the Apes" is interesting in that it seems to imply that he feels our nation has (as in the movie) shifted roles, where the apes are running the world and the humans are being subjected to their abuses.

Beck reflects the sentiments of many white Americans, who believe that a nation being run by black people is going to turn into a zoo.

With regard to the meat of Beck's disagreement with Obama's support of the AFL-CIO, his reaction is natural. Republicans tend to be pro-business, typically at the expense of working Americans.

Labor unions reduce corporate profits by demanding that rank and file Americans get their share of company revenue. Such a fight is important in light of the fact that undermining labor unions, business de-regulation and irresponsible globalization is part of the reason that the wage of the American worker has remained stagnant for the last decade.

The bottom line is this: Obama is right to support labor unions, since they need additional help. Beck is right to get angry over Obama's support for workers, since Beck's constituents have little incentive to back the idea of wage increases for working Americans (some say that this is why the Republicans have always turned a blind eye to cheap labor via illegal immigration).

What always confuses me, however, is how the Republican Party is able to recruit working class people who vote for interests that directly conflict with their own. While Beck and other Republicans reel in the poor on issues like guns, gay marriage and affirmative action, they are ultimately focused solely on keeping their pockets full at our expense. That's why they will never appreciate labor unions.

Ousted HP CEO settles with accuser

2010-08-08T08:20:00.000-07:00

AP source: Ousted HP CEO settles with accuser

By JORDAN ROBERTSON (AP) – 1 hour ago

SAN FRANCISCO — Ousted Hewlett-Packard Co. CEO Mark Hurd has settled allegations of sexual harassment lodged against him by a female contract worker for HP, a person with intimate knowledge of the case told The Associated Press late Saturday.

The harassment accusations set off a chain of events that led to the discovery of allegedly falsified expense reports about Hurd's meetings with the woman and culminated in Hurd's stunning resignation this week that left a hole in the world's largest technology company.

The person familiar with the case told the AP that Hurd agreed to pay the woman, but this person wouldn't reveal the size of the payment. The settlement was between Hurd and his accuser and did not involve a payment from HP, this person said.

This person requested anonymity because of not being authorized to speak publicly about the issue.

The deal was reached Thursday, a day before Hurd's resignation.

The Wall Street Journal reported earlier on the settlement.

Hurd engineered a stunning turnaround of the Silicon Valley stalwart before his ouster.

Under Hurd, HP has spent more than $20 billion on acquisitions to transform itself from a computer and printer maker dependent on ink sales for profits to a well-rounded seller of hardware and lucrative business services. HP's market value nearly doubled during his five years.

The company is suddenly leaderless as it stands at a turning point to integrate some of those acquisitions, the most recent of which was the purchase of smart phone maker Palm Inc. for $1.4 billion in June.

Hurd was forced to resign Friday after HP's board of directors said Hurd falsified expenses to hide numerous private dinners with a woman who was paid up to $5,000 per event to greet people and make introductions among executives attending HP events that she helped organize.

The expenses were scrutinized when the woman recently accused Hurd of sexual harassment. The nature of the complaint could not be learned. Hurd and a lawyer representing the woman, whose identity could not be learned, all said the relationship was not sexual.

Hurd insists they were legitimate business expenses. Hurd doesn't know the total value of expenses being disputed or have a full accounting of them, the person briefed on the situation said.

Hurd's departure leaves it to find another leader to keep HP on the course he mapped out.

HP's stock fell nearly 10 percent to $41.85 in after-hours trading, when the news was released after the close of markets Friday.

The company has a deep bench in management and the stock drop was reactive and doesn't reflect the company's prospects, an analyst said.

"I don't view his departure as catastrophic," said Dinesh Moorjani, an analyst with Gleacher & Co. "The strategy is working fine. The level of uncertainty for me is relatively low just given the circumstances. This wasn't a one-man company."

Hurd, who spent 25 years at ATM maker NCR Corp. before coming to HP in April 2005, became a Wall Street darling. The $13.9 billion acquisition of Electronic Data Systems made HP a major player in technology services, challenging archrival IBM Corp.

HP also now offers computer networking, helped by the $2.7 billion takeover of 3Com Corp., racheting up the rivalry with Cisco Systems Inc. The Palm acquisition catapulted the company into the fast-growing smart phone business.

The additions also broadened the pool of people who could replace Hurd. It's a deep bench, and internal candidates could have an edge, given that Hurd and predecessor Carly Fiorina — who got the boot in 2005 over concern about her management style and her decision to buy Compaq Computer — both came from outside HP.

Inside candidates could include Todd Bradley, who oversees personal computers and mobile devices at HP; Vyomesh Joshi, who leads the printer division; Ann Livermore, in charge of servers, services, software and storage; and Shane Robison, leader of HP's corporate strategy and marketing. Chief Financial Officer Cathie Lesjak, now interim CEO, took herself out of the running for the permanent job.

In recent weeks, Hurd had started talks for a three-year contract that could have been worth $100 million, the person close to the case said. Those went off track when the woman accused him and HP of sexual harassment, this person said.

The company determined Hurd didn't violate its sexual harassment policy but broke its rules of conduct.

The woman's lawyer, celebrity attorney Gloria Allred, declined to describe the harassment. Allred would not identify her client or make her available for an interview.

Hurd will get about $28 million in cash and stock just to walk away. The person said Hurd realized he could no longer lead HP in part because at least two board members were convinced he had had a sexual relationship with the woman and was trying to cover it up.

Hurd is accused of listing other people as his dinner partners on expense reports when he'd been out with the woman. HP also claimed Hurd arranged for her to be paid for work she didn't do.

There was only one instance in which that occurred, the person close to the case said, but it was for an event that was canceled at the last minute and the woman's contract required that she would be paid unless an event was canceled 30 days in advance.

Hurd says the errors in the reports may have been entered unwittingly by an assistant, according to the person close to the case. Hurd hasn't gotten a full accounting from HP of the expenses he is alleged to have falsified or a total, though he has agreed to refund the company, this person said.

This person said Hurd met the woman, who is in her 40s, when interviewing her in 2007 for a job greeting and introducing executives at corporate events that she also helped organize.

They talked at a luxury hotel and met for a second time in Denver when she was flown in for a final interview at an HP event Hurd was attending, according to this person. Hurd approved the hire then, the person said.

Hurd and the woman often shared dinner after events she was hired for, said the person, who described the relationship as an acquaintance that became friendly.

Hurd's ouster is the third in five years at HP's top echelon. First was Fiorina's in 2005, then former Chairwoman Patricia Dunn was ousted in 2006 amid a boardroom spying scandal that involved spying on reporters' and directors' phone records to suss out the source of leaks to the media.

"It says they're off track in some fundamental way," said Stephen Diamond, associate professor at Santa Clara University School of Law and an expert on business law.

"The first thing is, they have to find the right kind of CEO," he added. "And I think what that CEO needs to do is come in and say, 'How many board members were here during the last two scandals? If you were, please resign now."

RANDY WEAVER: SIEGE AT RUBY RIDGE

2010-08-07T09:59:00.000-07:00

RANDY WEAVER: SIEGE AT RUBY RIDGE

By David Lohr

GOVERNMENT GONE WRONG

Ruby Ridge cabin, aerial view (AP)

In August of 1992 Americans tensely watched as events began to unfold on a remote ridge in Northern Idaho, involving a white separatist family and the FBI. Eleven days after it had begun, a 14-year-old boy, a 42-year-old mother, a federal marshal, and one yellow Labrador retriever had all been shot dead.

The incident ultimately led to one of the most intensive and controversial investigations in recent history. The FBI faced widespread resentment and Attorney General Janet Reno established a Justice Department task force to investigate what had happened. National debates on the case were said to have fueled anti-government sentiments, which eventually played a role in the Waco, Oklahoma City, and the Freemen conflict. Timothy McVeigh's bombing of the government building in Oklahoma City is said to be at least partially motivated by revenge for what happened at Ruby Ridge.

Prior to the incident, the Weaver family had moved to the remote mountaintop to escape what they viewed as a sinful world. Randy Weaver lived with his wife and four children in a cabin he himself built on Ruby Ridge, just 40 miles south of the Canadian border. The cabin had no electricity or running water. According to friends, the Weavers simply wanted to be left alone as they awaited Armageddon. While many may have viewed their intent as unusual, it appeared to be quite harmless to most who knew them.

Almost a decade later many questions remain: What went wrong at Ruby Ridge? Why did over 400 members of the FBI, military and local law enforcement converge on the mountain? Why did so many have to die? These and similar such questions are not easily answered, however; some answers may lay hidden within the details provided.

Text Messaging for the rest of us

2010-08-03T14:16:00.001-07:00

Fox News Replaces Helen Thomas and AP in the front row seat

2010-08-02T14:07:00.000-07:00

FCC, FDA Partner on Wireless Health IT

2010-07-29T10:37:00.000-07:00

FCC, FDA Partner on Wireless Health IT
By Kenneth Corbin
July 27, 2010

The Federal Communications Commission and Food and Drug Administration have joined forces in an effort to promote the development and deployment of wireless technologies to improve health care and lower costs while also taking care to protect patients' safety.
Through the partnership, the agencies aim to streamline the approval process and regulatory requirements for wireless health IT device makers, spurring innovation and investment in an emerging sector of the medical industry.
Wireless health applications offer the potential to provide remote consults with specialists from distant medical centers, delivering a level of care beyond the reach for many rural Americans.
Similarly, medical monitoring applications can provide remote diagnostic information, such as a crop of smartphone apps that can check glucose levels in diabetics.
"The benefits that wireless technologies can provide to healthcare are clear, but to harness the full power of those benefits, we must navigate a delicate balance between innovation and safety and effectiveness," FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said in a statement. "Working alongside the FCC, we can improve the efficiency of regulatory processes in areas where our jurisdictions overlap."
The agencies developed a set of operating principles (PDF available here) and a memorandum of understanding (PDF) clarifying that the agreement is limited to areas that come under the regulatory purview of both the FCC and FDA.
Under the agreement, each agency will establish a liaison officer who will be responsible for sharing information of mutual interest.
The joint effort on wireless health IT marks the first partnership between the two agencies, and broadly aims to pair the FCC's technical expertise overseeing areas such as spectrum with the FDA's focus on consumer safety.
"The FCC is responsible for overseeing the efficient use of the airwaves, and the FDA is responsible for the safety and efficacy of medical devices," FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said in a speech at a health IT event announcing the partnership this week. "It's vitally important that we work together on issues where wireless meets medical."
The wireless health IT push builds on a set of recommendations included in the national broadband plan the FCC delivered to Congress in March, and extends the administration's advocacy of tapping advanced technology to overhaul the country's medical system.
In addition to the nearly $20 billion allocated to health IT initiatives in last year's economic stimulus bill, the administration has taken several steps to drive the adoption of electronic health records (EHR) and other similar initiatives.
Earlier this month, the Department of Health and Human Services issued the final set of rules to reward providers for using EHRs with Medicare and Medicaid payment bonuses.
EHRs are widely viewed as a path to reduce manual errors in patients' records and improve the coordination of care, while helping to flag for harmful drug interactions and reduce duplicate or unnecessary tests.
The new rules aim to clarify the certification criteria that vendors' EHR systems will have to meet in order to qualify for the incentives, and provide similar guidelines for doctors and hospitals.
HHS said it could pay out as much as $27 billion in Medicare and Medicaid bonuses to providers that adopt EHR systems that satisfy the requirements for "meaningful use" under the new regulations.
The same week, the FCC announced a major initiative to expand broadband access to doctors and health facilities operating in remote and rural areas. The program would reallocate as much as $400 million annually under the FCC's Universal Service Fund to deliver high-speed connectivity to more than 2,000 rural health-care facilities.
The commission noted that nearly 30 percent of rural clinics receiving federal funding don't have broadband service that's either fast or secure enough to handle health IT applications such as a remote consultation with a specialist or the transmission of data-intensive records like X-rays or MRIs.

Kenneth Corbin is an associate editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of Internet.com, the network for technology professionals.

Criminals to be weeded out of medical marijuana centers

2010-07-28T09:43:00.000-07:00

written by: Jeffrey Wolf Deborah Sherman
21 mins ago

DENVER - More than half of the medical marijuana
center owners in Colorado have criminal arrest or
conviction records for crimes like dealing drugs,
sexual assaults, burglaries and weapons, according
to statistics by the Drug Enforcement Agency
obtained by 9Wants to Know, but that will all change
on Sunday.
- Broomfield bans marijuana centers

The DEA says 18 percent of medical marijuana
center owners have been convicted of felonies.

"This business seems to have an inappropriate
number of people with criminal backgrounds
involved as business owners," Kevin Merrill,
assistant special agent in charge for the Denver field
division of the DEA, said. "I would be hard-pressed
to find any other business group where their
members have so many criminal violations, arrests
and convictions."

DEA statistics show while 8 percent of Colorado's
adult population has been arrested for drug crimes,
28 percent of the medical marijuana center owners
have drug histories.

The charges include 77 cases of assault, 22
burglaries, 34 cases of domestic violence, 11 rapes,
29 weapons charges and four arrests for murder,
attempted murder and/or involvement in a
homicide.

Those felons will be weeded out of the medical
marijuana business this weekend when new rules
take effect Sunday that prohibit anyone with a drug
felony conviction or anyone with a felony sentence
within the last five years from obtaining a medical
marijuana center license in Colorado.

Businesses that sell medical marijuana have been
commonly referred to as dispensaries, but the state
now official calls them centers.

Matt Obrochta, owner of Burnzwell Medical
Marijuana Center on Broadway in Denver, is now
scrambling to figure out what to do since he
received a five-year suspended sentence for
possessing pot, a felony, in 1998.

Obrochta did not want to comment on his old
conviction, but a representative of the medical
marijuana industry agreed to speak on behalf of
owners with criminal histories.

"They don't think it's fair," Sensible Colorado
Executive Director Brian Vicente said. "A lot of
people have been convicted of felonies or any crime
and they have done their time, they've paid their
debt to society and now want to move on and work
in this field and aren't able to do so."

Vicente believes someone with a criminal record for
marijuana may be best suited to work in the industry
because it shows they have experience working with
the drug.

"Many of those people the DEA arrested themselves
for growing marijuana legally under Colorado law,
so I don't think they're a credible source for
providing information about folks who are following
state law," Vicente said.

The DEA used public records, advertisements and
property records to collect the names of the owners
of medical marijuana centers. Then agents ran
criminal background checks to gather the data.

"The DEA investigates all drug crimes and marijuana

is still a schedule one and our job is to know who
we are dealing with because we may come into
contact with them at some time," Merrill said.

The state expects the new rules about felons along
with high licensing fees and in-state residency
requirements will reduce the number of medical
marijuana centers in the state by about 50 percent.

There are currently 1,100 medical marijuana centers
operating in Colorado, according to the Department
of Revenue.

DOR Senior Director Matt Cook is leading a team of
investigators for the Medical Marijuana Enforcement
Division that will be conducting an "exhaustive"
check of arrest records, business associations and
tax returns for anyone who applies for a medical
marijuana license.

"Anybody who has a prohibited conviction will not
be eligible to hold a license," Cook said. "They want
to make sure that the public has confidence in the
people that they're doing business with and that it's
not a drug cartel selling tainted medicine to them
they could harm them when they ingest it."

One of Cook's biggest concerns with the new
requirements is that some owners with criminal
backgrounds or drug cartels may try to hide their
ownership in a medical marijuana center.

"Those persons typically that would not qualify to
hold a license often times try and find somebody
else to front the business for them. They will fund
them through very elaborate lending schemes and
reap the benefits of the business," Cook said.

"It potentially may just push the true owners under
the carpet behind the closed door and make it even
more difficult for investigators to determine who
truly owns this," Merrill said.

The most abundant supply of marijuana is Mexican-
grown and is brought into and through Colorado by
poly-drug trafficking organizations, according to
the Office of National Drug Control Policy data in
June 2008.

In March, Erie Police arrested two suspected drug
runners on charges that they moved 64 pounds of
marijuana between Colorado and California
involving dispensaries. One suspect, Max
Hernandez, owned the Denver dispensary

Colorado Compassionate Caregivers', according to Colorado

Secretary of State Records.

Hernandez and Bryan Mark Manard have been
charged in Weld County with possession of
marijuana and intent to distribute, both felonies.

Anyone who lies on their Colorado medical
marijuana center application will be arrested and
charged for filing a false instrument, Cook said.

The state application is 22 pages long and asks for
bank account numbers, education and marital
information.

"I don't even know what my high school diploma has
to do with providing medicine to patients, but
apparently it's one of the requirements," Carl
Wemhoff, president of Herbal Remedies Inc. in
Westminster, said.

Wemhoff says the application is so long and
complicated he has taken some of his employees off
of other projects to get it done.

"We've got a four-man team working day and night
for three weeks to get this done. It's that involved,"
Wemhoff said.

Wemhoff, who does not have a criminal history,
hopes to benefit from the new regulations by buying
up a couple of medical marijuana centers that will
be forced to shut down. In addition to no prior felony drug convictions,
there are several other automatic disqualifiers for
holding a license: if you haven't paid student loans
or are in arrears for your taxes or child support.

The state says any dispensary caught operating
without having applied for a state license as of Aug.
1 will be prevented from ever holding a Colorado
license.

Even though the change is coming over a weekend,
the Department of Revenue will be open on Saturday
and Sunday to accept and start processing business
applications.

The first license will be issued on July 1, 2011. Until
then, medical marijuana centers are allowed to
operate with their application paperwork.

If you have any news tips, please e-mail 9Wants to
Know Investigator Deborah Sherman at Deborah.
Sherman@9NEWS.com.

(KUSA-TV © 2010 Multimedia Holdings Corporation)

New gov't rules allow unapproved iPhone apps

2010-07-26T10:34:00.000-07:00

By JOELLE TESSLER,
AP Technology Writer Joelle Tessler, Ap Technology Writer

1 hr 15 mins ago

WASHINGTON – Owners of the iPhone will be able to legally break electronic locks on their devices in order to download software applications that haven't been approved by Apple Inc., according to new government rules announced Monday.
The decision to allow the practice commonly known as "jailbreaking" is one of a handful of new exemptions from a 1998 federal law that prohibits people from bypassing technical measures that companies put on their products to prevent unauthorized uses. The Library of Congress, which oversees the Copyright Office, reviews and authorizes exemptions every three years to ensure that the law does not prevent certain non-infringing use of copyright-protected material.
In addition to jailbreaking, other exemptions announced Monday would:
• allow owners of used cell phones to break access controls on their phones in order to switch wireless carriers.
• allow people to break technical protections on video games to investigate or correct security flaws.
• allow college professors, film students and documentary filmmakers to break copy-protection measures on DVDs so they can embed clips for educational purposes, criticism, commentary and noncommercial videos.
• allow computer owners to bypass the need for external security devices called dongles if the dongle no longer works and cannot be replaced.

‘Keep the Negroes Out of Most Classes Where There Are a Large Number of Girls’: The Unseen Power of the Ku Klux Klan and Standardized Testing at The University of Texas, 1899-1999

2010-07-11T18:45:00.000-07:00

Thomas D. Russell
University of Denver Sturm College of Law

March 22, 2010

U Denver Legal Studies Research Paper No. 10-14
Abstract:
The paper’s title is a quotation from The University of Texas registrar nine days after the decision in Brown v. Board of Education. This paper examines 20th-century techniques of racial domination at The University of Texas by crosscutting two narratives.

The first narrative that the paper presents is one of the development of bureaucratic or institutional forms of racial exclusion. The paper describes the university’s efforts to limit the application of the Brown v. Board of Education.

In the immediate years after the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education, The University of Texas developed and instituted entrance exams that university officials knew would exclude a disproportionate number of African-American applicants. Publicly, the university presented the testing as race-neutral. The university stalled post-Brown integration until the exclusionary admissions testing was in place.

An explicit concern of the university in seeking to exclude African-American students during the 1950s was a racialized sexual concern about the university’s white women.

The second narrative is the story of William Stewart Simkins, a law professor at The University of Texas from 1899 to 1929. Professor Simkins helped to organize the Ku Klux Klan in Florida at the conclusion of the American Civil War, and he advocated his Klan past to Texas students.

Like the university registrar during the 1950s, Professor Simkins was explicitly concerned with the sexual defense of white women. Relying upon the analysis of historian Grace Elizabeth Hale, the paper links Professor Simkins’s advocacy of the Klan to the early 20th-century history of lynching and white supremacist violence.

During the 1950s, the memory and history of Professor Simkins supported the university’s resistance to integration. As the university faced pressure to admit African-American students, the university’s faculty council voted to name a dormitory after the Klansman and law professor. The dormitory carries his name to the present day. During this time period, alumni also presented the law school with a portrait of Professor Simkins. Portraits and a bust of Professor Simkins occupied prominent positions within the law school through the 1990s.

The sources for the paper are drawn largely from primary materials of the university’s archives, including the papers of the university’s Board of Regents, Chancellor, President, and faculty committees. The author completed this research during the 1990s while a member of The University of Texas School of Law faculty.
Keywords: legal history, University of Texas, Simkins, Ku Klux Klan, legal education, law professor, race, racism, standardized testing, admissions, integration, segregation, Brown v. Board of Education, Sweatt v. Painter, USSC, Supreme Court, Thomas D. Russell, Tom Russell
Working Paper Series

Date posted: April 05, 2010 ; Last revised: May 19, 2010

Suggested Citation

Russell, Thomas D., ‘Keep the Negroes Out of Most Classes Where There Are a Large Number of Girls’: The Unseen Power of the Ku Klux Klan and Standardized Testing at The University of Texas, 1899-1999 (March 22, 2010). U Denver Legal Studies Research Paper No. 10-14. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1583606

NY Times July 11 2010 Headline News

2010-07-11T09:54:00.000-07:00

Sunday, July 11, 2010
Compiled 2 AM E.T.

In This E-Mail:

World \| U.S. \| Politics \| Business \| Technology \| Sports \| Arts \| New York/Region \| Magazine \| Editorials \| Op-Ed \| Customize Today's Headlines \| Search

TOP STORIES

Wall St. Hiring in Anticipation of an Economic Recovery
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While much of the country remains fixated on the bleak employment picture, hiring is beginning to pick up in the place that led the economy into recession.

Bank Bailout Is Potent Issue for Both Parties in Fall Races
By CARL HULSE and DAVID M. HERSZENHORN
Lawmakers who backed the Troubled Asset Relief Program to rescue the banking system in 2008 are haunted by the vote.

In Haiti, the Displaced Are Left Clinging to the Edge
By DEBORAH SONTAG
Six months after an earthquake, only 28,000 of 1.5 million displaced Haitians have new homes, and Port-au-Prince remains a tableau of life in the ruins.

• NYTimes.com Homepage

QUOTATION OF THE DAY

"Don’t they have a heart, or a suggestion?"
JUDITH GUILLAUME, who lives with her children in a shanty on a median strip in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and rarely receives help from passers-by.

WORLD		OPINION

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WORLD

Severed Trees in Orchards Mirror Afghan History
By ALISSA J. RUBIN
Gul Abbas grew up with olive trees in Bati Kot district and spent his life nurturing them. He hopes they can flourish again.

Arid Australia Sips Seawater, but at a Cost
By NORIMITSU ONISHI
After its worst drought, the country is turning to desalination plants, but environmentalists worry about the energy-hungry plants’ effect on climate.

For Final, South Africans Put Past Aside
By JERÉ LONGMAN
South Africa’s colonial link to the Netherlands and the racist policy of apartheid will not preclude some from rooting for the Dutch team in the final.

• More World News

U.S.

Ambitious Effort Begins to Contain All Spill Oil
By HENRY FOUNTAIN
Engineers removed a cap that had been diverting about 15,000 barrels of oil a day, planning to replace it with a new one to collect more oil.

Synthetic Marijuana Spurs State Bans
By MALCOLM GAY
Eight states have banned K2, a blend of herbs treated with synthetic marijuana that is sending users to emergency rooms across the country.

Enigmatic Jobless Man Prepares Senate Campaign
By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE
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Paris couture shows

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Enigmatic Jobless Man Prepares Senate Campaign
By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE
Alvin Greene was catapulted out of obscurity a month ago when he won South Carolina’s Democratic primary.

Lawmakers Defend Social Security’s Chief Actuary in Clash With Commissioner
By ROBERT PEAR
Members of Congress made clear that Stephen C. Goss should not be reassigned or demoted as they prepared for a re-examination of the social benefits program.

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BUSINESS

Volcker Pushes for Reform, Regretting Past Silence
By LOUIS UCHITELLE
Despite his efforts on financial legislation aiming to correct years of deregulation, Paul Volcker is concerned that banks will still have too much wiggle room.

Factory Efficiency Comes to the Hospital
By JULIE WEED
Seattle Children’s Hospital says it has improved patient care, and its bottom line, by incorporating practices made famous in manufacturing.

Ambitious Effort Begins to Contain All Spill Oil
By HENRY FOUNTAIN
Engineers removed a cap that had been diverting about 15,000 barrels of oil a day, planning to replace it with a new one to collect more oil.

• More Business News

TECHNOLOGY

EVERYBODY’S BUSINESS
Online, We Pay With Our Time Spent Searching
By DAMON DARLIN
Even if you don’t pay for TV shows, they aren’t exactly gratis: you can spend 5 to 10 minutes searching, on sites like Hulu.com or Clicker.com.

Students, Meet Your New Teacher, Mr. Robot
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DIGITAL DOMAIN
Computers at Home: Educational Hope vs. Teenage Reality
By RANDALL STROSS
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SPORTS

For Final, South Africans Put Past Aside
By JERÉ LONGMAN
South Africa’s colonial link to the Netherlands and the racist policy of apartheid will not preclude some from rooting for the Dutch team in the final.

GERMANY 3, URUGUAY 2
Germans Find Way to Leave Happy
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Germany rallied from a one-goal deficit, then had to hold its breath in the final seconds as a Uruguay shot hit the crossbar.

In Tour de France, Slower Ascents May Mean Progress
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ARTS

High-Tech Matisse
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“Matisse: Radical Invention, 1913-1917,” an exhibition that opens next week at the Museum of Modern Art, offers a new understanding of how Matisse made significant revisions as he painted.

TELEVISION
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NEW YORK/REGION

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CITY CRITIC
Cool Air, if You Can Get to It
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MAGAZINE

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EDITORIALS

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A Climate Change Corrective
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Security Council Blinks
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Officer Johannes Mehserle - Oakland BART Officer Found Guilty Of Manslaughter In Oscar Grant Killing

2010-07-09T08:22:00.000-07:00

LIMON CO (IFS) - Oscar Grant, a young 22 year old black male who was cooperating with the police as bystanders videos does show, was shot dead with his hands in cuffs and the bullet shot to his back. With is fellow officers standing there, they appears to be in shock as to what has happen, all while Mr. Grant was seated on the floor. Once again, a police officer, Johannes Mehserle gets off with cold blooded murder and the system has failed again when it comes to young black man and the police force. This will not go away. Oscar Grant will be the rallying cry heard all over the United States of America. For once, the police and the people are going to have a mass gathering and this meeting will not be a nice one. People are ready to die for the "cause", for they have had enough of this "justice" from ignorant and crazy police personnel. This officer will go to prison for four to 14 years, but Mr. Grant will never get a chance to fulfill his dream, and prison is a very bad place for ex police officers. Mr. Johannes Mehserle will meet his match with no gun and no support when he comes up against a lot of the people he help place there. Officer Johannes Mehserle life expectancy in prison? I'll give him three months in general population. And if he gets out of prison, his life on the streets is nil and none. He may get a witness protection deal, but there is a bounty on his head. That poor bastard, I feel sorry for him. He will pray to God for death. Prison will not be his friend. Officer Johannes Mehserle's plea on the stand is that "I made a mistake." Well well, we have untrained police personnel on the force, and he made a mistake? The city will pay dearly for that bullet. -KHS

The defense will focus on those aspects of the case as he presents evidence and makes arguments to the jury that the death, while tragic, was nothing more than an accident sparked by Mehserle believing he had a Taser in his hand when he pulled the trigger.Rains said in court documents filed last month he will not argue that Mehserle acted in self-defense. Rains said while Mehserle might have believed Grant possessed a gun, he did not believe Grant had opportunity to use it. Instead, Rains wrote, he will provide evidence that Mehserle was permitted, under the circumstances, to use a Taser to subdue Grant.
The fact that Mehserle used a gun and killed Grant was simply an accident, Rains argued, and does not merit a conviction of murder, either first degree, second degree or a conviction of manslaughter or involuntary manslaughter.
"So, the relevant question in this case turns out to be very simple: Can the state supply proof beyond a reasonable doubt that Mehserle formed an intent to use the gun as opposed to his Taser," Rains wrote. "(Mehserle's) defense will rather be that he believed Grant might be armed, that Grant continued to resist, and that (Mehserle) properly concluded the appropriate response was to use his Taser."
In fighting that defense, Stein will have to convince the jury that Mehserle believed officers were losing control of the situation on the BART platform and therefore pulled out his gun.
If the jury believes the evidence shows Mehserle knew he was pulling out his gun, then it must decide if Mehserle purposely pulled the trigger or if the gun was fired by accident.
A decision by the jury that Mehserle purposely pulled the trigger would likely result in a second-degree murder conviction and at least 15 years in prison. A decision by the jury that the gun was fired by accident could result in an involuntary manslaughter finding and, at a minimum, a two-year stay in prison for Mehserle.
In addition to the videos and testimony from both BART officers who responded to the scene and passengers on the Dublin-Pleasanton-bound train, both attorneys will present the jury with detailed evidence about police officer training and responses to crowd control, court documents show.
Both attorneys will use the evidence about police training to show what Mehserle thought as he reached to his hip and pulled out his gun.
While presenting that evidence, Rains will have to walk a fine line of showing that the situation on the BART platform was chaotic enough for the officers to justify the use of a Taser while not completely out of control to warrant the use of a gun.
"To be sure, defense expert witnesses will explain that under the circumstances, and in light of Mehserle's training, BART policies, law and common sense, Mehserle was justified in his intention to use his Taser," Rains wrote.
Meanwhile, Stein will have to prove to the jury that Mehserle misread the situation on the platform as dangerous and in need of him pulling out a gun to gain control.
"The People contend that in order for the jurors to properly consider these questions, they must be informed about what the defendant knew about firearms and how he was trained," Stein wrote in a court pleading. "(Mehserle's) training in the academy as well as his training after becoming a sworn BART police officer is relevant to show not only his knowledge of firearms but such training is also circumstantial evidence of his state of mind at the time he fired the gun that killed Oscar Grant."

Mehserle: What was he thinking?

By Paul T. Rosynsky
Oakland Tribune

Posted: 05/30/2010 12:01:00 AM PDT

Updated: 05/30/2010 09:01:10 AM PDT

OAKLAND — The central question in the murder case against former BART police Officer Johannes Mehserle will probably never be directly answered.

What was Mehserle thinking in the four seconds it took him to grab his handgun, point it at the back of an unarmed and prone Oscar Grant III, and pull the trigger?
While Mehserle, 28, is not expected to answer that question during the murder trial against him that begins this week, a jury's interpretation of his thoughts in the early morning hours of Jan. 1, 2009, will determine if Mehserle — who served as a police officer for 22 months — is sent to state prison.
A prosecutor and defense attorney will spend at least the next four weeks trying to convince a jury of a dozen Los Angeles residents that they know what Mehserle thought when he killed Grant, 22, of Hayward.
For deputy district attorney David Stein, the answer lies in six videotapes of the shooting and the events that led to it. It can also be found in the actions of BART officers who, some argue, used excessive force in an attempt to detain Grant and four friends for fighting on a train, and in the training Mehserle received before and while he was an officer.
For defense attorney Michael Rains, Mehserle's thoughts can be found in the actions of Grant, a parolee who resisted arrest during what some described as a near riot on the BART platform, and from Mehserle's unfamiliarity in using a Taser. Rains said in court documents filed last month he will not argue that Mehserle acted in self-defense. Rains said while Mehserle might have believed Grant possessed a gun, he did not believe Grant had opportunity to use it. Instead, Rains wrote, he will provide evidence that Mehserle was permitted, under the circumstances, to use a Taser to subdue Grant.will focus on those aspects of the case as he presents evidence and makes arguments to the jury that the death, while tragic, was nothing more than an accident sparked by Mehserle believing he had a Taser in his hand when he pulled the trigger.The fact that Mehserle used a gun and killed Grant was simply an accident, Rains argued, and does not merit a conviction of murder, either first degree, second degree or a conviction of manslaughter or involuntary manslaughter. "So, the relevant question in this case turns out to be very simple: Can the state supply proof beyond a reasonable doubt that Mehserle formed an intent to use the gun as opposed to his Taser," Rains wrote. "(Mehserle's) defense will rather be that he believed Grant might be armed, that Grant continued to resist, and that (Mehserle) properly concluded the appropriate response was to use his Taser."
In fighting that defense, Stein will have to convince the jury that Mehserle believed officers were losing control of the situation on the BART platform and therefore pulled out his gun.
If the jury believes the evidence shows Mehserle knew he was pulling out his gun, then it must decide if Mehserle purposely pulled the trigger or if the gun was fired by accident.
A decision by the jury that Mehserle purposely pulled the trigger would likely result in a second-degree murder conviction and at least 15 years in prison. A decision by the jury that the gun was fired by accident could result in an involuntary manslaughter finding and, at a minimum, a two-year stay in prison for Mehserle.
In addition to the videos and testimony from both BART officers who responded to the scene and passengers on the Dublin-Pleasanton-bound train, both attorneys will present the jury with detailed evidence about police officer training and responses to crowd control, court documents show.
Both attorneys will use the evidence about police training to show what Mehserle thought as he reached to his hip and pulled out his gun.
While presenting that evidence, Rains will have to walk a fine line of showing that the situation on the BART platform was chaotic enough for the officers to justify the use of a Taser while not completely out of control to warrant the use of a gun.
"To be sure, defense expert witnesses will explain that under the circumstances, and in light of Mehserle's training, BART policies, law and common sense, Mehserle was justified in his intention to use his Taser," Rains wrote.
Meanwhile, Stein will have to prove to the jury that Mehserle misread the situation on the platform as dangerous and in need of him pulling out a gun to gain control.
"The People contend that in order for the jurors to properly consider these questions, they must be informed about what the defendant knew about firearms and how he was trained," Stein wrote in a court pleading. "(Mehserle's) training in the academy as well as his training after becoming a sworn BART police officer is relevant to show not only his knowledge of firearms but such training is also circumstantial evidence of his state of mind at the time he fired the gun that killed Oscar Grant."

Former BART officer convicted of involuntary manslaughter

Prosecutors accused Johannes Mehserle of intentionally firing his handgun as he tried to handcuff Oscar J. Grant III on New Year's Day 2009. Mehserle testified that he thought he was pulling out his electric Taser weapon and not a firearm.

By Jack Leonard
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
4:11 PM PDT, July 8, 2010

<p>&amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/click%3Bh%3Dv8/39d2/3/0/%2a/w%3B226159175%3B0-0%3B0%3B12926869%3B4307-300/250%3B37355445/37373323/1%3Bu%3Dhttp%3A//www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-bart-verdict-20100709%2C0%2C4079503%2Cprint.story%3B%7Eokv%3D%3Bptype%3Dps%3Bslug%3Dla-me-bart-verdict-20100709%3Brg%3Dur%3Bref%3Dlatimescom%3Bpos%3D1%3Bdcopt%3Dist%3Bsz%3D300x250%3Btile%3D1%3Bu%3Dhttp%3A//www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-bart-verdict-20100709%2C0%2C4079503%2Cprint.story%3B%7Eaopt%3D2/0/8d66/0%3B%7Esscs%3D%3fhttp://clk.atdmt.com/ANY/go/245331818/direct/01/2369197" target="_blank"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;img src="http://view.atdmt.com/ANY/view/245331818/direct/01/2369197"/&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;noscript&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/click%3Bh%3Dv8/39d2/3/0/%2a/w%3B226159175%3B0-0%3B0%3B12926869%3B4307-300/250%3B37355445/37373323/1%3Bu%3Dhttp%3A//www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-bart-verdict-20100709%2C0%2C4079503%2Cprint.story%3B%7Eokv%3D%3Bptype%3Dps%3Bslug%3Dla-me-bart-verdict-20100709%3Brg%3Dur%3Bref%3Dlatimescom%3Bpos%3D1%3Bdcopt%3Dist%3Bsz%3D300x250%3Btile%3D1%3Bu%3Dhttp%3A//www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-bart-verdict-20100709%2C0%2C4079503%2Cprint.story%3B%7Eaopt%3D2/0/8d66/0%3B%7Esscs%3D%3fhttp://clk.atdmt.com/ANY/go/245331818/direct/01/2369197" target="_blank"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;img border="0" src="http://view.atdmt.com/ANY/view/245331818/direct/01/2369197" /&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/noscript&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;gt;</p>

A former transit police officer who fatally shot an unarmed man at an Oakland train station was convicted of involuntary manslaughter Thursday, capping a racially charged case that raised fears in the Bay Area of possible violence after the verdict.

Prosecutors accused the ex-officer of intentionally firing his handgun as he tried to handcuff Oscar J. Grant III on New Year's Day 2009. Johannes Mehserle, 28, tearfully testified that the shooting was a tragic accident caused when he mistakenly grabbed his firearm instead of an electric Taser weapon during a struggle with Grant.

The shooting was captured on video by several witnesses. Mehserle, who is white, fired a single round into the back of Grant, who was black and was lying face-down on the station platform. Mehserle resigned a week after the shooting.

The killing provoked protests and violence in Oakland. The case, which has drawn comparisons to the videotaped beating of Rodney G. King that ultimately triggered riots in Los Angeles in 1992, was moved to Los Angeles for trial amid concern about the extensive media coverage of the slaying in the Bay Area.

Many civil rights activists considered the case a test of how the justice system treats police officers accused of abusing minorities. The trial also captured the attention of law enforcement officers who feared that a guilty verdict could raise the stakes for cops who make mistakes.

The shooting occurred soon after police responded to reports of a fight on a train stopped at the Fruitvale Station. Grant and four friends were detained by a different police officer who prosecutors said used excessive force against the men. Mehserle arrived on the platform after the men had been detained.

Alameda County Deputy Dist. Atty. David R. Stein rejected the idea that the shooting was a mistake, telling jurors that Mehserle's holster was specially designed to prevent easy release of his firearm. The prosecutor contrasted the light, bright yellow Taser gun with the heavier black Sig Sauer handgun that Mehserle fired.

"He let his aggression dictate his conduct," Stein told jurors.

The prosecutor urged jurors to find Mehserle guilty of second-degree murder, pointing out that the officer never told his colleagues that night that the shooting was an accident.

Prosecutors in Los Angeles have not won a murder conviction in a police shooting case since 1983.

Mehserle testified that he intended to use his Taser because he believed Grant, 22, might be reaching for a gun in his pants pocket. While the officer's firearm was on his right side, the Taser was in a holster on the left side of his belt but angled so that it could be pulled out with his right hand.

Two people, including a friend of Grant's, testified that they heard the officer say he intended to use his Taser shortly before the shooting. In at least six other instances, officers have said they made the same mistake of firing a handgun when they intended to use a Taser.

Numerous witnesses said Mehserle looked shocked after the gunshot. Defense attorney Michael L. Rains said video footage shows his client holding his head in his hands in despair.

"He's sick to his stomach," Rains told jurors, "because he has shot a man who did not deserve to be shot."

jack.leonard@latimes.com

OAKLAND CA (IFS) - A former BART officer was found guilty of manslaughter in the slaying of Oscar Grant on January 1, 2009.

Prosecutors said that officer Johannes Mehserle, 28, deliberately shot his gun into Oscar J. Grant III’s back as he attempted to handcuff him on New Year's Day 2009. Mehserle testified in court that he thought he was unleashing his taser, not a gun.

The killing was video taped by several witnesses in Oakland. Mehserle, a White man, shot a round into the back of Grant, a Black man, who was face down on a train station platform. Police were working 12-hour shifts in preparation for riots and crowd control.

Mehserle resigned from the transit force a week after the shooting.

Alameda County Deputy Dist. Atty. David R. told jurors that Mehserle's holster was designed to avert discharge of the handgun, reports the L.A. Times. "He let his aggression dictate his conduct," Stein told jurors. Lawyers for Mehserle charged the gun and the taser had similar weight.

A friend of Oscar Grant testified that he heard Mehserle proclaim that he was going to use the taser to in the infraction that occurred with 22-year-old Grant and three other men. Grant was unarmed.

Others testified that Mehserle expressed immediate grief and despair after the killing of Grant.

Detractors of the police system and the case continue to express discontent with the verdict, considering it too light for Mehserle.

"He's sick to his stomach, because he has shot a man who did not deserve to be shot,” a defense attorney told the jury. A group of protesters expressed a unified discord after the verdict was announced.

Several members of Oscar Grant's family and friends have filed multimillion-dollar lawsuits against the BART transit agency.

Johannes Mehserle faces two to four years in jail for involuntary manslaughter.

Limon Colorado Storm - July 4 2010

2010-07-07T08:57:00.001-07:00

LIMON CO (IFS) - Limon Colorado endured some nasty hail storms and 70 mile per hour winds on the eastern plains that did damage estimated at $10 Million throughout the community. On the western part of town, little damage was recorded and corp failure was minimum. The eastern part of town, crop failure was intense along with glass breakage and heavy tree damage with water overflowing the banks of the drainage ditches.

New Citizen Broadcasters - Thomas Paine and the anonymous authors of the Federalist Papers gained prominence by printing their own publications

2010-06-30T09:36:00.000-07:00

LIMON CO (IFS) - I had to go back several years and research the new citizen broadcaster. This new citizen has been around for over 300 years - Thomas Paine and the anonymous authors of the Federalist Papers gained prominence by printing their own publications when the printing press was the latest "thing" in journalism. Now it's the internet with blogs, video blogs, blogtalk radio stations, billions of reader written web pages. CNN's IReport and other copycat ideas have created a new type of news reporting where the writer gets his 15 minutes of fame over and over again. So the issue comes up about "fake news and videos" for news related articles. I had to go all the way back to Thomas Paine and his "Common Sense" pamphlet. So in putting this piece together to answer several question from my girlfriend, this is what I put up as an argument to the defense of the New Citizen Journalist/Broadcaster who does not have to worry about "market shares" or even who pays him or her. One thing is for sure, as with our blogtalk radio shows, our music stations and video outlets, we really generate alot of "noise" and attention, if we wanted it or not. -KHS

Citizen Journalism, or The Decline of Standards, or 15 Minutes of Fame, Instead of Actual Money

At work we have been talking about ways to streamline our processes in an effort to add immediacy to our products. What good is news, if the content is a week old? A day old? Now...my boss and I have had some rather good debate on the issue. (Suck up time!) I like him! He's able to hear my opinion for what it is, and not attack the the person (usually me) delivering it when he disagrees. I also like the fact that this dude is SMART! I can't blow smoke in any direction without him calling my bluff. SO...I've done my research to support my point of view.

Adnan Hajj took this picture. At first glance, it looks harmless. Media giants the world over started running the picture as proof of what was going on in Beirut. Hajj is a free-lance photojournalist. He has submitted some great photos...Not anymore! You see unlike me, Hajj has no QC process. He, like any citizen journalist simply submits, and we the people...ACCEPT! The above picture was "photoshoped!" It is not an accurate representation of what really was happening in Beirut.

Citizen Journalism is not new! According to Dan Gillmor's "We the Media,"(another kiss-up opportunity for my boss who is a huge history buff) The roots of citizen journalism can be traced to the founding of the United States in the 18th century, when pamphleteers such as Thomas Paine and the anonymous authors of the Federalist Papers gained prominence by printing their own publications. Further advances such as the postal system — and its discount rates for newspapers — along with the telegraph and telephone helped people distribute news more widely.

What is new...is the internet! Well relatively new...According to Frank Beacham's article "Corporations Co-opt Citizen Journalism, "Advertising forecasters predict double-digit growth for online media outlets in the new year. Traditional media, including television and newspapers, are slated for flat growth, at best, during 2007.

My boss suggested we don't need to worry about quality so much because our society has accepted a lack in quality in favor of immediate reports. He's right! In "The Customer Is Always Right," Harlan Neugeboren says:During the past year, we have seen many changes in the way that viewers use and consume news. Viewers know that they can search Google Video, YouTube and MySpace and find news content that they want. The key words are "what they want." Many viewers will search and find any type of news content--it does not necessarily have to be from traditional sources.

Viewers are also willing to trade content for quality and don't know or care that it was shot on a Sony XDCAM or Panasonic P2, for example.There are two problems with this...especially for military journalists.

1) According to Neugeboren, To compete with these other sources, broadcasters need to be in the content business and to provide viewers with as rich an experience as possible. We're not in the content business, some would argue, we're not in the news business. We're in the business of changing hearts and minds, by telling the Air Force story. (Side note...we're not doing this so well, and I feel we're trying to grasp at straws and implement change for the sake of change...and for some civilians to keep their kooshie jobs.)

2) When I write a story, it goes through a very lengthy qc process...hence the reason for the topic to begin with...how to streamline. Bottom line, like it or not, when my product does hit the web, TV, or radio...it better be accurate. Not the case in Citizen Journalism... There is no QC process. Sometimes this is great. Like when the first photos of the tsunamis emerged and a global outcry for help was answered. However, sometimes this happens: Probably not! Tracy Johnson in "Morning Radio," claims that anyone can be a radio DJ, (or broadcaster for the context of this post) but to be really good, you have to always strive to be the best...that is what will seperate you from everyone else. This will also be true in Citizen Journalism v. Professional Journalism. Dan Gillmor recently predicted in an online blog that:...professional photographers and videographers will soon see their ranks dwindle as the "the ability to make a living at it will crumble soon." He said. "They can't possibly compete in the mediasphere of the future. We're entering a world of ubiquitous media creation and access. When the tools of creation and access are so profoundly democratized, and when updated business models connect the best creators with potential customers, many if not most of the pros will fight a losing battle to save their careers." The good news is according to Gilmore...there will always be in demand by a group of discriminating consumers who will pay for their services.

Social media is rapidly changing the way we discover, consume and share information.

Transforming online monologues into engaging dialogues, social media platforms enable people to connect and communicate in new and innovative ways. Smart companies are joining the discussion and leveraging this emerging and highly-effective channel to grow their businesses. BlogTalkRadio helps the world’s leading brands, such as Ford, PepsiCo, Allstate Insurance, and Wal-Mart, ensure they are a part of the conversation.

Citizens demand end to fake news, FCC responds

Commission tells newscasters they must reveal sources of 'video news releases'

WASHINGTON -- The Federal Communications Commission called on all television newscasters to clearly disclose the origin of video news releases (VNRs) used on their programs. "Listeners and viewers are entitled to know who seeks to persuade them with the programming offered over broadcast stations and cable systems," the FCC stated in a public notice unanimously approved by all four FCC commissioners.

The FCC issued the public notice in response to a "large number of requests" to investigate the use of VNRs, specifically citing the more than 40,000 concerned citizens who signed a petition circulated by Free Press and the Center for Media and Democracy. On March 21, the two groups filed a complaint (available at http://www.freepress.net/docs/final_vnr_letter_5.pdf) with the FCC, urging Chairman Kevin J. Martin to investigate news fraud and enforce existing laws against payola and the use of federal funds to create "covert propaganda."

"The broadcast industry's use of video news releases and other government- and corporate-funded fake news continues to enrage Americans," said Josh Silver, executive director of Free Press. "We welcome the FCC's statement and will continue to monitor local newscasts. Unless broadcasters take immediate action to cease or disclose their use of this material, we will pressure the government to take stronger action."

"Not labeling VNRs constitutes news fraud and violates the most basic ethical standards of journalism," said John Stauber, executive director of the Center for Media and Democracy. "It's now time for TV news producers to own up their responsibility to the viewing public and fully disclose their use of fake news."

The FCC instructed all newscasters abide FCC sponsorship identification rules when they air "video news releases' (VNRs) and called for comments from license holders and cable operators about their use of VNRs.

"Recently tens of thousands of citizens contacted the FCC demanding an investigation into the failure of broadcasters to disclose their use of government-generated 'news' stories. They were right to do so," said FCC Commissioner Michael J. Copps in a statement. "This Commission should investigate each such case. And it should strenuously enforce the rules against inadequate sponsorship identification."

In a separate statement, FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein said: "Today's Public Notice is in response to these developments, and reminds broadcast stations, cable operators, and others of their disclosure obligations under our rules, if and when they choose to air VNRs, and to reinforce that we will take appropriate enforcement action against stations that do not comply with these rules."

A March 13 article in the New York Times identified 20 federal agencies that used taxpayer funds to produce television news segments promoting Bush administration policies. These VNRs were broadcast on hundreds of local news programs without disclosing their source.

At least three investigations by Congress' Government Accountability Office (GAO) previously concluded that these segments constitute illegal "covert propaganda." Yet the White House recently instructed all executive branch agencies to ignore the GAO findings and continue to produce VNRs. Sens. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) and John Kerry (D-Mass.) are expected to introduce legislation today that would require all government agencies to disclose their role in producing VNRs.

Free Press and the Center for Media and Democracy are also working with local groups to establish "citizen agreements" with local stations, under which broadcasters pledge to clearly identify or label pre-packaged reports produced by the government or corporations.

To learn more about news fraud, payola pundits and government propaganda, read the in-depth report from Free Press at http://www.freepress.net/propaganda.

On FCC's Genachowski’s first year:

“The Commission has appeared active, but very little of this activity has yet to produce actual policy changes that positively affect the public. At the one-year mark, Free Press is giving the chairman a grade of ‘Incomplete, needs improvement’ across the board. Genachowski needs to be willing to pursue critical policies that protect consumers, even if the largest telecommunications companies don’t like those policies.

“Thus far, the agency has largely failed to adopt policy changes that are not widely supported by the industries it oversees. There have been no efforts to address the real problems of our broadband market -- high prices and slow service due to a lack of meaningful competition -- and instead the Commission has seemed preoccupied with focusing on policies that will benefit the major wired and wireless companies. The public needs a champion willing to challenge those entrenched interests.”

On comparing Genachowski to his predecessors:

“The first-year contrast between Genachowski and his two Republican predecessors is stark. Former Chairmen Kevin Martin and Michael Powell quickly pursued the Bush administration’s policy agendas during their first year in office. In Martin’s first few months, he deregulated wireline broadband by classifying it as an information service, resulting in the FCC’s current existential crisis, and approved the massive Verizon-MCI and SBC-AT&T mergers.

Those misguided actions forever closed the door on the last vestige of the 1996 Telecommunications Act’s promise of competition and changed the political dynamic in a way that has entrenched the cable and telecom industry’s dominance over our broadband marketplace, leaving consumers with few choices, poor service and high prices.

“It’s not too late to turn things around. Chairman Martin eventually pursued a few public interest strategies at the end of his term, including the white spaces order and the enforcement against Comcast's Internet blocking practices. To his credit, Genachowski has laid some of the groundwork needed to enact meaningful change, but now he must follow through with decisive action.”

On next steps for the chairman:

“In the short term, Chairman Genachowski must make what will likely be the toughest call of his tenure and move forward with his plan to reverse the Bush-era mistakes that put the FCC’s ability to protect consumers in jeopardy. He must restore the agency’s authority to protect the open Internet and implement the National Broadband Plan. History will show that this is the right action to take, and pursuing this path in the face of intense industry pressure will earn Genachowski a place in history as a chairman who did what he had to do to promote the public interest.”

What is the Impact on Broadcasters of Supreme Court Decision that Corporations Can Buy Political Ads? More Money, More Ad Challenges and the Return of the Zapple DoctrineThe Supreme Court Decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, freeing corporations to use their corporate funds to take explicit positions on political campaigns, has been mostly analyzed by broadcast trade publications as a good thing - creating one more class of potential buyers for broadcaster's advertising time during the political season - which seems to almost be nonstop in these days of intense partisan battles in Washington and in the statehouses throughout the country. What has not been addressed are the potential legal issues that this "third party" money may pose for broadcasters during the course of political campaigns. Not only will an influx of money from non-candidate groups require that broadcasters review the contents of more commercials to determine if the claims that they make are true, but it may also give rise to the return of the Zapple doctrine, one of the few remnants of the Fairness Doctrine never specifically repudiated by the FCC, but one which has not been actually applied in over a quarter of a century. Public file obligations triggered by these ads also can not be overlooked.

First, the need for broadcasters to vet the truth of allegations made in political ads sponsored by non-candidate advertisers. As we have written before(see our post here), the political broadcasting rules enforced by the FCC allow broadcasters to run ads sponsored by the candidates themselves without fear of any liability for the claims made in those ads.

In fact, the Communications Act forbids a station from censoring a candidate ad. Because the station cannot censor the candidate ad (except in the exceptionally rare situation where the airing of the ad might violate a Federal felony statute), the broadcaster has no liability for the contents of the ad. So candidates can say whatever they want about each other - they can even lie through their teeth - and the broadcaster need not fear any liability for defamation based on the contents of those ads. This is not so for ads run by third parties - like PACs, Right to Life groups, labor unions, unincorporated associations like MoveOn.org and, after the Citizens United case, corporations.

Stations are not required to accept third party ads and, even where these ads address a candidate, the station has full rights to accept or reject the ads based on the ad's content (perhaps subject to Zapple discussed below). However, because the station can choose whether or not to run the ad, the station can also be held liable for the content of those ads. While the standard for liability under the rules of defamation are very high for public figures such as a political candidate, there still can be liability if the station runs an ad with "malice", meaning that they either know that the content of the ad is false, or run it with reckless disregard of the truth of the claims made (where those claims later prove to be false). That malice standard is what forces stations to become political researchers - tasked with determining if there is a reasonable basis for a claim made in an ad so that the candidate being attacked cannot later come back against the station and accuse the station of recklessly running a false ad. We've written before (here and here) about the typical scenario that arises - a third party group buys an attack ad against a political candidate, the candidate or his or her lawyer sends the station a letter saying that claims made in the attack ad are false and the station will be liable if the station continues to run the ad. At that point, the station has an obligation to investigate the truth of the statements made in the ad. If the station just continues to run the ad with no investigation, and the ad proves to be false and the candidate that is attacked can prove injury, the station can be held liable. How much investigation is necessary? That is a question that cannot be answered in a few paragraphs on this blog. But suffice it to say that stations need to be prepared to call their attorneys and discuss the issue with their owners in making these assessments - as each station may have a different tolerance for risk, and a different willingness to allow questionable third party ads to run.

The other potential issue that this decision may bring to the fore is the status of the Zapple Doctrine. Section 315 of the Communications Act imposes the Equal Opportunities doctrine (otherwise known as "Equal Time") on stations, which the FCC has interpreted to mean that stations need to treat all candidates running for the same office in the same way - allowing them to buy equal amounts of advertising time on a station, and giving them equal amounts of free time on a station if the candidate appears outside of an exempt program (e.g. news or news interview programs, or on-the-spot coverage of a news event, including most debates). But the Equal Opportunities Doctrine applies only to candidates and their appearances on stations (or "uses", in the language of the FCC).

What about the purchase of time by third party groups, which are technically not subject to the Equal Time rule? Well, more than 30 years ago, the FCC adopted the Zapple Doctrine, or "quasi-equal opportunities" as an outgrowth of the Fairness Doctrine. The Zapple case, as we wrote here and here, held that where supporters of a candidate are allowed to buy time on a station, supporters of the opposing candidate should also be allowed to buy roughly equivalent amounts of time. While the remainder of the Fairness Doctrine has been declared by the FCC or by the Courts to be unconstitutional over the last 25 years, Zapple has never been

officially overturned. When the Swift Boat documentary was about to be run on some television stations during the Kerry-Bush campaign, the Kerry campaign invoked Zapple in claiming that all stations that ran that documentary would need to air equal amounts of time from pro-Kerry groups. While that matter was settled before the FCC ruled, some FCC officials have from time to time implied that they would have invoked Zapple had it gone to a decision. With an influx of corporate money into political campaigns, Zapple issues are more likely to find their way to the FCC in coming elections.

Finally, the Citizens United case did not upset the record-keeping and disclosure requirements of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act ("BCRA"). BCRA imposed many such obligations on broadcasters. Thus, the sale of time to corporate groups, just like the sale of time to any other third-party group, requires a full public file disclose when such purchases are made to address a Federal issue or election. We wrote about those obligations here and here. Essentially, all the same information about the purchase that would be kept for a candidate buy must be kept for a third-party buy - including the class of spots purchased, the schedule run, the price paid, and the identity of the purchaser.

Even advertising buys dealing with state and local elections require an identification of the buyer and its principal officers or directors. Thus, while more money may flow into broadcast stations as a result of the Citizens United decision, that money may come with some additional headaches for broadcasters. All of these issues and more are addressed in the Davis Wright Tremaine Political Broadcasting Guide, available here.

CITIZEN JOURNALISM: Radio legislation ignites royalties battle

This debate has one side seeing green and the other singing the blues.On one side stand the Christian Music Trade Association and such superstars as Bruce Springsteen, Chaka Khan, Tony Bennett, Bono, BeBe and CeCe Winans, Miley Cyrus, Kenny Rogers and Martha Reeves. On the other side stand the National Religious Broadcasters, Christian Broadcasting System Ltd., National Public Radio, CBS Radio, College Broadcasters Inc., National Association of Broadcasters, National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters and several Hispanic groups, including the Latino Coalition and the Hispanic Alliance for Progress. In the middle perches the Performance Rights Act, legislation that one side calls royalties and the other calls a tax.

Gospelmusicchannel.com said the "debate is shaping up as a battle royale."

The Performance Rights Act is bipartisan legislation that was introduced in the House in February by Democratic Rep. John Conyers of Michigan and Republican Rep. Darrell Issa of California and in the Senate by Democratic Sen. Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont and Republican Orrin G. Hatch of Utah. It calls for AM and FM radio stations to pay to play, as their satellite, Internet and cable counterparts already do.

The House Judiciary Committee, whose chairman is Mr. Conyers, voted 21-9 on the measure last month.

The legislation, among other things, would amend federal copyright law to remove a compensation exemption for AM and FM stations and establish fees that would be paid by commercial stations and noncommercial outlets such as religious, college and public radio.

The purpose of the bill is to provide parity for performers whose music is and has been heard on the radio for decades without compensation, supporters say. Proponents often cite the fact that satellite, Internet and cable broadcasters already pay performance royalties. Performers as disparate as Dionne Warwick, Sheryl Crow and will.i.am back the legislation as individual performers and as members of the group musicFirst.

Some performers point out that in other nations, including England, France, Poland and America's neighbors to the north and south, Canada and Mexico, performers are paid for airplay. "Every time I hear one of my recordings played on the radio, it breaks my heart to know that I will not get any compensation," Miss Reeves told The Washington Times. "The man who sweeps the floor, radio station owners and advertisers are all compensated. Our music is being used for revenue, yet I don't get one penny. When our records were selling, we got a third of a penny. Now everybody is listening from home [and] we are still not compensated.

"It is important that some of us get paid because some of us don't have any other income," said Miss Reeves, who, as the headliner on Motown's Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, recorded such hits as "Heat Wave," Dancing in the Street" and "Jimmy Mack." Opponents say the Performance Rights Act would hurt religious programming, minority-owned stations and noncommercial stations.

From Citizen Journalism To User-Generated Content

Establishment media organizations with user-generated content

A media revolution occurred on July 7, 2005, though not many realized it at the time.

That was the day when terrorist bombings struck the London Underground. Citizens on the scene flooded newspapers and broadcasters with pictures, recordings, and reports of what had happened. Many media outlets were quick to use the consumer-generated content.

But perhaps an even greater watershed occurred on December 11, 2005, when the Buncefield oil depot explosion in the United Kingdom prompted an unprecedented response from citizen journalists who sent thousands of e-mails, photographs, and video clips of the disaster to

news Web sites long before professional journalists reached the scene of the early morning blast about 43 kilometers from London.

The BBC, for example, received more than 6,500 e-mails with videos and photographic coverage of the explosion and the oil fires, compared with 1,000 in the aftermath of the London train bombings. The first pictures and video footage came in minutes after the explosion.

The head of BBC News Interactive, Pete Clifton, had this to say to the news Web site MediaGuardian about the impact of the citizen-produced content: "The range of material we received from our readers was absolutely extraordinary. Videos, still pictures, and e-mails poured in from the moment the blast happened, and it played a central part in the way we reported the unfolding events."

On the day of the explosion, half a million users logged on to the BBC Web site to view the pictures and videos. Citizen media had become a permanent and essential part of the mix.

Democratizing the Media

Today, rare is the media outlet that is not in the process of expanding the two-way street that digital media have created between news outlets and their users. The multitude of new electronic distribution channels has put everybody just a keyboard away from producing news content themselves — true in the developed world and growing in the developing world as well.

Or, as citizen journalism pioneer Dan Gillmor puts it, "in a world of ubiquitous media tools, which is almost here, someone will be on the spot every time." Year by year, the growth of digital media has democratized the publication of words and pictures of all kinds, once the monopoly of the printed press and the broadcasters.

Consider:

• During a rampage by an armed student at Virginia Tech University in the United States, major broadcasters, including CNN, frequently opened the airwaves directly to student blogs and other eye-witness accounts, producing an immediacy in coverage impossible through other sources.

• More and more bloggers are invited to sit in media-reserved seats at a variety of news events. About 10 percent of people on the media list for New York Fashion Week this year were bloggers.

• The developer of the Big Brother reality TV series, Endemol, has started producing daily, user-generated, TV news shows in the Netherlands. Citizen reporters submit news videos that are compiled into a news report on IK OP TV (Me on TV).

• In Pune, India, the Sakaal Group of newspapers has created a weekly "citizen supplement" that is entirely written by readers. "People want positive news and positive things to read about," says sub-editor Deendayal Vaidya. "They are already mired in their own lives and crises. They want to be inspired." Nearly a thousand readers, the majority of whom were never published before, have written for the supplement.

• The influential French daily Le Monde is providing blogs to its subscribers. Among other things, the paper encourages readers to keep electronic journals on their travels, the best of which can be accessed through the travel pages of the newspaper Web site.

• In Chile, the national tabloid Las Ultimas Noticias (the Latest News) saw a 30 percent growth in circulation after its editors began checking which stories were most read on their Web site and then used the information, in part, to determine what stories appeared in print. Although this isn't user-generated content, it shows how users are increasingly influencing media's editorial choices of content.

The notion of "citizen journalism" was first proposed in Dan Gillmor's book in 2003, We the Media: Grassroots Journalism By the People, For the People, with this now well-known assertion: "News is no longer a lecture, it's a conversation." Gillmor's argument, similar to the philosophy of online encyclopedia Wikipedia, was that "collective knowledge and wisdom greatly exceeds any one person's grasp of almost any subject."

During this period, start-up grassroots projects were gaining momentum and credibility. It was said that if newspapers ignored them, they risked alienating some of their established — and a large part of their future — readership.

Whom Do You Trust?

Nowadays though, the appellation "citizen journalism" is increasingly disappearing, to be replaced by the more comprehensive notion of user-generated content. There is no more reference to "journalism," a specialized profession with a unique set of rules and ethics, different from those of bloggers, who are no longer competing journalists but complementary content producers.

The wording "user-generated" also casts off the notion of citizenry and civic engagement. Content can be produced by consumers, readers, and commentators alike, but professional editors are needed to turn the content into "journalism."

The resulting magnitude of sources presents a challenge dating from the dawn of journalism: deciding which source is trustworthy. According to the Saturday editor of The Times of London, George Brock, "The most important question the consumer of news and opinion will ask herself or himself is the question they have always asked: Do I trust this source? Some [sources] will pass that test; some will fail. Open societies that want to stay open should

keep setting that test." The emergence of user-generated content, a true cultural revolution, brings both opportunities and also considerable dangers that require society's vigilance.

On the plus side, citizens now have much greater control over how and when they receive information. They can react to it and participate in it if they choose.

The news business is becoming more of a dialogue between the providers and receivers of information, rather than an imposition of opinions and perspectives by an elite caste. On the negative side, the Internet has opened up extraordinary new possibilities for the widespread and sometimes dangerous manipulation of information, which is difficult, if not impossible, to stem.

This phenomenon will increasingly place a heavy responsibility on professional journalists to maintain high standards of fact-checking, honesty, and objectivity. Editors are already spending enormous amounts of time verifying and authenticating user-generated pictures and text, and this will only become a more time-consuming part of their jobs. Blog posts and comments require careful and regular scrutiny.

If bloggers may not be bound to strict ethical codes, at the level of "professional blogs, ” there is a good deal of community-induced regulation. The Huffington Post scandal involving American actor George Clooney in March 2006 illustrated the vigorous checks and balances of the blogging community. When Ariana Huffington's crew posted an article based on a mishmash of Clooney's television interviews and passed them off as his writings, the actor did not hide his disapproval. Although site founder and author Arianna Huffington originally downplayed the affair, she was ultimately obliged to apologize, due to the overwhelming disdain arising from the blogosphere.

The very fundamentals of our democratic societies and the credibility of established media will be lost if we are unable to distinguish between true and false information.

The responsibility of news businesses is thus considerable. For the moment, there remains a significant preference of the majority of readers to access their information through traditional print products, with 1.6 billion readers of daily newspapers worldwide. Public opinion polls consistently show that news consumers are more likely to trust well-known and established news brands and to treat blogs and citizen-generated materials with more skepticism.

For example, a study of news consumers by the French free newspaper 20 minutes found that two-thirds of respondents consider news published in online participatory outlets "can't be considered as news" and they doubt the "veracity of their (the outlets') news."

It is essential to increase the media literacy of journalists, in particular, and citizens, in general, to help them assess the value and truthfulness of the information they receive.

At the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) and World Editors Forum (WEF), we strive to keep our industry apprised of these developments and how they will affect our businesses and society at large.

We periodically run campaigns to remind the public about the fundamental issue at stake when we talk about media freedom. One of the campaign slogans, "Freedom of the Press is Freedom of the Citizen," was never truer than it is today.

The WAN and WEF represent publishers and editors in more than 100 countries, working for 18,000 publications, including thousands of Internet news and information sites and blogs — editorsweblog.org, sfnblog.org, trends-in-newsrooms.org — that are now an integral part of the news business.

Google Voice

2010-06-29T08:59:00.001-07:00

From Mi2n News Blogger

2010-06-17T09:01:00.000-07:00

PRS For Music Waive Charges For World Cup; Trial Launched For Workplaces Showing Matches

Adva Mobile Presents Mobile Marketing Solutions At Boston Technology And Innovation Events; Leading Mobile Marketing Service For Music Artists Firm Is A Key Contributor To Boston/s Thriving Innovation Industry

Nettwerk Music Group Inks U.S. Distribution Deal With ADA And Announces Key Executive Appointments; ADA Will Handle The U.S. Physical And Digital Distribution Of Current And Upcoming Nettwerk Releases

"MTV Zhen Live" Becomes One Of The Top Rated Live Music Programs In China; Original Production Attracting Record Audiences On-Air And Online

Grace Digital Audio Brings Premium Radio Content To Their Line Of Internet Radios And Wireless Media Players With Iheartradio; Iheartradio Streams 750+ Of America's Top Local Radio Stations Right To Your IPhone, IPod Touch, Blackberry, Android, And Now Grace Digital Audio Devices

The Composer Robin Gibb And Artist Herv� Di Rosa To Front Fight To Protect Creators' Rights; Extension Of Robin Gibb As President Of The Organisation And The Election Of Herv� Di Rosa As Vice- President

Dada Presents Play.me, The New Digital Music Service; Play.me Is The First Web And Mobile Music Service In Italy To Offer Unlimited Access To Its Catalogue

INDIE WEEK IS LOOKING FOR A BAND TO TAKE TO IRELAND; Deadline For INDIE WEEK CANADA Artist Applications Is July 2, 2010.

The U.S. Band Whitehouse To Release New EP And New Album; WHITEHOUSE Is Going To Release Their New EP In November 2010, Followed By The New Album Which Will Be Released January 2011.

MarilynMusic In The Studio With Jonny Rosch, Dorie Colangelo & D. Magic; MarilynMusic's Casey Conrad And Michael Gaines Hooked Up At The Vertical Room In NYC To Work On Four New Tracks With Several Artists

The best of Digg

2010-05-24T09:59:00.000-07:00

I just want you to hold me
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New World Record for parking like a Douche: (Pic)
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The Sad Reality Behind Ronald McDonald (w/ PICS)
topcultured.com — Ronald McDonald has long been an admired figure. Kids the world over brighten up when they see the affable clown, with his unmistakable red hair, yellow jumpsuit and striped shirt. But little does anyone know the true and sad story behind the clown. Wipe away the makeup and you'll find something not so pretty.
4430 Diggs in Top Image - Submitted May 21, 2010 06:24 am

7x13=28
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Panic Time at Fox as Glenn Beck Loses 50% of His Viewers
politicususa.com — Glenn Beck has been in denial about his ratings slide for weeks now. First, he claimed that there is no ratings decline for his Fox News show, and then he claimed that the weather was to blame for his 33% drop in viewership. However by attracting only 1.7 million viewers on Friday, Beck hit a new all time low which is now 50% off of his peak.
3365 Diggs in World & Business - Submitted May 17, 2010 06:51 pm

Google gets Pac-Man fever
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Best LOST Finale Party Invitation Ever [PIC]
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Google TV is Here. Whoa.
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Quantum teleportation achieved over ten miles of free space
arstechnica.com — Scientists have recently had success teleporting information between photons over a free space distance of nearly ten miles, an unprecedented length.
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Nike's "Write The Future" World Cup Ad Is Epic [Video]
sportingnews.com — Drogba, Rooney and Ronaldo are all featured getting a taste of what could happen if any of them win (or lose) the World Cup. I particularly like Rooney with the giant beard living in a trailer.
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KDTN Radio One Widget

2010-05-22T10:26:00.001-07:00

Barbara Holmes - Viewed With Suspicion

2010-05-13T18:15:00.000-07:00

LIMON CO (IFS) - It's been along time coming for this exciting storyteller of Limon, Colorado. Holmes wastes no time in getting down and dirty in her new novel "Viewed With suspicion" by SDC Books. She is a terrific storyteller without a doubt. Holmes leaves no stone of emotion turned over as she diggs deep into the international spy game of the major countries. It all starts with the prologue, which should be a part of the chapters, then you're hooked and can't put the book down.

BARBARA L. HOLMES, The author hails from Quincy, Massachusetts. She is a descendant of Miles Standish, the first military man to set foot on the soil of New England. From her Pilgrim forbearers she developed a love of the sea. and she followed in the footsteps of her father and joined the Navy. Upon completing her four year hitch she went to work for the federal government. Twenty four years later she retired from federal service and after kicking around Florida for a spell she decided to take Horace Greeley’s advise and “Go West.” Well the west ended at the Pike’s Peak region. Now far from the madding crowd of life in the big city of Tampa, Florida she found a haven working on an internationally renowned cattle ranch. She gave that life a couple of years of her time and then the writing bug took root. Viewed With Suspicion is her first endeavor but this will not be the last. The adventures of Greg Wilson and Pamela Olson will go on. However, Barbara could not escape the lure of the prairies and she is hard at work on a mystery. The character Sherry “Sherlock” Baker should tickle the fancy of the most discriminating of critics.

Officer, you've got the wrong person

2010-03-18T19:42:00.000-07:00

By Stephanie Chen, CNN
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Mistaken identity arrests likely happen every day, experts say

Name similarities, identity theft and computer typos can cause errors

Improved fingerprinting technology can minimize mistakes

(CNN) -- Three police cars pulled into Christina FourHorn's front yard one afternoon just before she was supposed to pick up her daughter at school. The officers had a warrant for her arrest.

"What do you mean robbery?" FourHorn remembers asking the officers. Her only brushes with the law had been a few speeding tickets.

She was locked up in a Colorado jail. They took her clothes and other belongings and handed her an oversize black-and-white striped uniform. She protested for five days, telling jailers the arrest was a mistake. Finally, her husband borrowed enough money to bail her out.

"They wouldn't tell me the details," she said.

Later, it became clear that FourHorn was right, that Denver police had arrested the wrong woman. Police were searching for Christin Fourhorn, who lived in Oklahoma.

Their names were similar, and Christina FourHorn, a mother with no criminal record living in Sterling, Colorado, had been caught in the mix-up.

FourHorn went public about her case more than two years ago, filing a lawsuit that alleged the arrest violated her constitutional rights. The Fourth Amendment protects citizens from arrest without probable cause.

The problem of mistaken arrests continues, said attorneys with the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado. The group, which represented FourHorn, calls Denver's police work "recklessly sloppy." An ACLU mistaken identity lawsuit on behalf of four other people is pending against Colorado police agencies.

A mistaken identity arrest occurs almost every day, said policing experts and officials at the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. But most people taken into custody are released shortly after the mistake is realized.

Since the FourHorn case, the ACLU found at least 237 cases in Colorado in which police may have arrested the wrong person. The figure is likely a small sample since police often release those wrongfully arrested before the first court appearance, the ACLU said.

"We are trying to demonstrate that this is a widespread practice," said Mark Silverstein, an ACLU attorney who filed FourHorn's suit in 2008. FourHorn's case was settled, and the terms remain confidential.

"This is not some fluke in a rational system," Silverstein said. "It's something that happens regularly, predictably, and therefore the city should be doing more to ameliorate the problem."

Silverstein said his search of Colorado court records showed repeated examples of police arresting the wrong person:

"Defendant states this is not him and he has never driven a car!!!!" said one.

"Dismissed, wrong defendant. Sister used her ID," another said.

In 2009, Denver's Department of Safety found 51 cases in which a person claimed the warrant naming them was incorrect -- a number that's a small fraction of the 46,864 people arrested that year. A Denver police spokesman declined to comment on the mistaken identity arrests.

"While no one should be misidentified and incorrectly held in jail, we realize it can happen," said Mary Dulacki, records coordinator for Denver's manager of safety.

Experts at the Legal & Liability Risk Management Institute said name similarities such as in the FourHorn case are a common reason for errors. The group, based in Indianapolis, Indiana, trains police departments across the country on how to avoid mistaken arrests.

Other times, police may be relying on a person's alias. Suspects often give officers false names, which remain on their records as an alias. Also computer typos and glitches lead to mistaken identity arrests, policing experts said.

An alias mistake allegedly occurred in March 2007 when Denver police arrested Muse Jama, a college student studying for an exam, under a warrant for a person named Ahmed Alia. Jama's name had popped up as one of Alia's aliases.

Jama protested and showed the officers his identification cards. Still, he was arrested and remained behind bars for eight days. His lawsuit against the Denver Police Department, filed in 2008, is pending.

"Naturally police think people are lying when the person says they didn't do it," said Jack Ryan, an instructor at the Legal & Liability Risk Management Institute and police officer for two decades.

"But that doesn't change the fact that there needs to be an investigation," he added. "The overall philosophy of justice in this country is that an innocent person shouldn't be locked up."

In Christina FourHorn's case, she was about 100 pounds heavier than the suspect, Christin Fourhorn. Her middle name is Ann, while the suspect's middle name is Blue. She was also seven years older and didn't have a tattoo on her left arm, which the suspect did.

But the problem doesn't exist solely in Colorado.

In New York this month, a 37-year-old man filed his second lawsuit against the New York Police Department, alleging he was wrongfully arrested twice -- even after receiving a $120,000 settlement for an earlier mistaken arrest.

In Florida, several mistaken identity arrest cases made headlines in 2009. One case included a Naples high school coach who was arrested on drug charges because of identity theft.

Advances in fingerprinting technology have made it faster for police to identify the right person. But police departments across the country continue to face obstacles. An agency that issues the warrant may not be the same agency that makes the arrest and puts a person in jail, according to criminal justice experts. Even when faced with protests, jail officials can't get to the bottom of things until they get in touch with the warrant-issuing agency, attorneys said.

Arrests can cross state lines, which can take weeks or months to clear up, said William Buckman, co-chair of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers' Law Enforcement and Prosecutorial Committee.

"Too often law enforcement doesn't reinvestigate, doesn't call for a superior," he said. Buckman, who practices in New Jersey, said he gets several calls a month from people caught up in mistaken identity arrests.

The growing frequency of identity theft also has put a strain on officers, said Jay Foley, head of the Identity Theft Resource Center in California. One part of Foley's job is to help victims of identity theft and mistaken identity arrests clear records.

Police need to keep a database that not only lists a suspect's aliases but also includes information about the people who have been wrongly arrested, he said.

"You will have fewer people in jail, sitting and waiting," Foley said.

In Denver, the police have developed a process to report when someone protests an arrest, claiming a case of mistaken identity.

Fourhorn is now 36 and still living in the same Colorado home where police arrested her. She recently had her record expunged of the mistaken robbery and assault charges. The process took almost two years, even though she should have never even been arrested in the first place.

The arrest almost cost her her nursing job, she said.

She said her family won't get back $3,500 her husband borrowed to pay a bondsman to get her out of jail.

When FourHorn sees a police car, she says she gets uneasy. She knows she shouldn't. But then again, she reasons: "If it happened once, it can happen again."

Mexican Drug gangs hushes killings with news blackout

2010-03-16T08:55:00.000-07:00

Powerful Mexican cartel buys off journalists to work as spies

By Robin Emmott

March. 15, 2010

REYNOSA, Mexico - A powerful drug cartel is buying off journalists in northern Mexico to work as spies and smother coverage of a spike in killings on the U.S. border in the latest attack on the media in Mexico.

Hitmen from the Gulf cartel based over the border from Texas are paying reporters around $500 a month and showering them with liquor and prostitutes to intimidate and silence colleagues at radio stations and newspapers in towns near the Laredo-Brownsville area, journalists and editors say.

A turf war that has erupted over the past three weeks around the manufacturing city of Reynosa has gone almost completely unreported despite more than 100 deaths, in a news blackout made more notable by the intense media coverage of other drug war flashpoints around the country.

Across Mexico, nearly 19,000 people have been killed in drug violence since President Felipe Calderon came to power in late 2006 and launched a military-backed campaign against drug cartels. The bloodshed worries Washington and is scaring off foreign investment and tourists as Mexico's economy tries to recover from its worst recession in decades.

For years, ill-paid Mexican reporters have occasionally been forced by cartel gunmen to take money to report favorably on traffickers or hush up killings, but the Gulf cartel now appears able to impose an almost total muzzle on reporting violence from Nuevo Laredo to Matamoros.

'Narcos'
Reporters at news radio stations and dailies including El Manana and La Prensa say they have little choice but to ignore the fight over smuggling routes that has broken out between the Gulf gang and its former armed wing the "Zetas."

"Our newsrooms have been infiltrated by these reporters, they monitor what we write, they know where we live. With this system, the narcos have direct control over us," said a local newspaper editor who declined to be named for safety.

Many of the rogue journalists do little to hide their dealings with traffickers and have been seen arriving at news conferences or crime scenes in flashy new SUVs accompanied by armed men, often to prevent news of any killings getting out.

One reporter in the border town of Nuevo Progreso said his job involved talking cash from corrupt local police in the pay of the Gulf cartel and distributing it to local reporters.

Others caught by the army at sporadic checkpoints have struggled to explain the hundreds of dollars bulging in their wallets when most local reporters earn less than $400 a month.

Directors at El Manana and La Prensa in Reynosa were not immediately available for comment.

'No trouble here'
The U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists, or CPJ, said it is aware some journalists are working for cartels.

"We know this is happening. It is a consequence of the huge level of influence these criminals exert," said Carlos Lauria, the committee's senior coordinator for the Americas.

Desperate to spread news of the new outbreak of violence, residents in and around Reynosa have turned to social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to post cell phone videos of shootouts and report suspicious activity.

"One of the fundamental human rights has been taken away in this part of Mexico and the federal government is not speaking out about it," said Alberto Islas, an independent security analyst in Mexico City.

Some honest reporters choose not to report the violence out of fear for their safety. Cartel attacks have made Mexico one of the world's most dangerous countries for the media, the CPJ says, with at least 24 journalists killed here since 2006.

So-called narco-reporters may be at an even greater risk of getting caught up in the turf wars. Five reporters suspected of working for the Gulf cartel went missing two weeks ago in Reynosa.

"We don't know who they angered but it wasn't because of their journalism. Two of the reporters hadn't published anything in months," said a colleague of the missing journalists.

Local politicians say the Gulf cartel, which controls a third of narcotics shipments into the United States, is keeping its war with the Zetas as quiet as possible to avoid provoking army deployments that could disrupt its smuggling operations.

Calderon has sent thousands of troops across Mexico to curb drug gang operations, but the army presence around Nuevo Laredo, Reynosa and Matamoros is still relatively light.

"The Gulf cartel's message is: there's nothing happening here," said a town councilor in Rio Bravo next door to Reynosa. "The hitmen even pick up their dead after gunfights so there's no evidence of what's going on," he added.

Fake Weed, Real Drug: K2 Causing Hallucinations in Teens

2010-03-12T12:48:00.000-08:00

Fake Weed, Real Drug: K2 Causing Hallucinations in Teens

by Jeanna Bryner
LiveScience Managing Editor
LiveScience.com jeanna Bryner
livescience Managing Editor
livescience.com Thu Mar 4, 6:50 am ET

Teens are getting high on an emerging drug called "fake weed," a concoction also known as K2 and "spice" that is also causing hallucinations, vomiting, agitation and other dangerous effects.

In the last month, Dr. Anthony Scalzo, a professor of toxicology at Saint Louis University, has seen nearly 30 cases of teenagers experiencing these adverse effects after smoking the fake weed, a legal substance that reportedly offers a marijuana-like high.

"K2 use is not limited to the Midwest; reports of its use are cropping up all over the country," Scalzo said. "I think K2 is likely a bigger problem than we're aware of at this time." For instance, Atlanta has seen about 12 cases recently.

K2 has been sold since 2006 as incense or potpourri for about $30 to $40 per three gram bag - comparable in cost to marijuana.

"K2 may be a mixture of herbal and spice plant products, but it is sprayed with a potent psychotropic drug and likely contaminated with an unknown toxic substance that is causing many adverse effects," said Scalzo, who also directs the Missouri Regional Poison Control Center.

Origin of K2

This K2 compound was first created in the mid-1990s in the lab of organic chemist John W. Huffman of Clemson University, who studies cannabinoid receptors. He's not sure how the recipe for what is named JWH-018 (his initials) got picked up, but he did publish details on a series of compounds including JWH-018 in a book chapter. Even before that book came out, he recalls learning that in China and Korea people were selling the compound as a plant growth stimulant.

As for where it was first smoked or used as a recreational drug, Huffman thinks perhaps somewhere in Europe.

"Apparently somebody picked it up, I think in Europe, on the idea of doping this incense mixture with the compound and smoking it," Huffman told LiveScience. "You can get very high on it. It's about 10 times more active than THC," the active ingredient in marijuana.

From a chemist's perspective, that means K2 has an affinity for the cannabinoid brain receptor (CB1) that's about 10 times greater than THC. For the less chemically inclined, it means you can smoke a lot less K2 to get just as high.

The compound works on the brain in the same way as marijuana's active ingredient THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol. Both compounds bind to the CB1 receptors, which primarily affect the central nervous system. JWH-018 also binds to the peripheral brain (CB2) receptors, which are involved in the immune system, Huffman said.

Hallucinations and delusions

Since JWH-018 or K2 acts like marijuana, you'd expect to see the same effects, including sleepiness, relaxation, reduced blood pressure, and at high doses, hallucinations and delusions.

While some patients between the ages of 14 and 21 were showing up with hallucinations, other symptoms, such as increased agitation and elevated blood pressure and heart rates, didn't match up with marijuana.

Scalza speculates either another compound is responsible for the nasty side effects, or the concentration of JWH-018 is too high.

To answer this question, Scalzo is having doctors test patients' urine for JWH-018 and other compounds, but he is having trouble getting patients to agree to the test.

"This is not something that people are agreeing to," Scalzo said during a telephone interview. "Here's a legal substance that we don't know really that much about that people are putting into their bodies without quality control."

And even though doctors like Scalzo say they'd like to help the teens, that's not enough. "Phenomenally, people are saying no. They're afraid someone is going to find something," though Scalzo has no idea why they'd be afraid.

Dangerous drug

Both Scalzo and Huffman agree the drug is dangerous.

Further testing is needed, but Scalzo says the symptoms, such as fast heart beat, dangerously elevated blood pressure, pale skin and vomiting suggest that K2 is affecting the cardiovascular system of users. It also is believed to affect the central nervous system, causing severe, potentially life-threatening hallucinations and, in some cases, seizures.

"It's like playing Russian roulette. You don't know what it's going to do to you," Huffman said. "You're a potential winner of a Darwin award," referring to the tongue-in-cheek awards given to people who "do a service to humanity by removing themselves from the gene pool."

In addition to the compound being made without strict quality control or any regulation, as far as anyone knows, the compound itself has never been tested on humans. And when it was tested on mice, Huffman said, the animals were euthanized at the end of the experiment, so scientists don't even know how it affects mice long-term. "And mice are not humans," Huffman said.

* 5 Habits You Should Still Quit
* Your Skin Produces Marijuana-Like Substance
* Understanding the 10 Most Destructive Human Behaviors

* Original Story: Fake Weed, Real Drug: K2 Causing Hallucinations in Teens

LiveScience.com chronicles the daily advances and innovations made in science and technology. We take on the misconceptions that often pop up around scientific discoveries and deliver short, provocative explanations with a certain wit and style. Check out our science videos, Trivia & Quizzes and Top 10s. Join our community to debate hot-button issues like stem cells, climate change and evolution. You can also sign up for free newsletters, register for RSS feeds and get cool gadgets at the LiveScience Store.

Obama Gives Away the Internet to the World

2010-02-02T10:44:00.000-08:00

Obama Surrendering Internet to Foreign Powers

Sunday, 31 Jan 2010 06:41 PM

Article Font Size

By: Bradley A. Blakeman

Without the ingenuity of America’s brightest minds and the investment of U.S. taxpayer dollars, there would be no Internet, as we now know it today.

Now, the Obama administration has moved quietly to cede control of the Web from the United States to foreign powers.

Some background: The Internet came into being because of the genius work of Americans Dr.Robert E. Kahn and Dr. Vinton G. Cerf. These men, while working for the Department of Defense in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in the early 1970s, conceived, designed, and implemented the idea of "open-architecture networking."

This breakthrough in connectivity and networking was the birth of the Internet.

These two gentlemen had the vision and the brainpower to create a worldwide computer Internet communications network that forever changed the world and how we communicate in it.

They discovered that providing a person with a unique identifier (TCP/IP)that was able to be recognized and interact through a network of servers would allow users to communicate with others.

The servers woulduse a series of giant receivers to recognize the identifier and connect networks to networks, passing on information from computer to computer in a seamless real-time exchange of information. This new process of communication became know as the "information super highway," aka, the Internet.

Now for the bad news: In an effort to show the world how inclusive, sharing, cooperative, and international America can be, the Obama administration set off on a plan to surrender control and key management of the Internet by the U.S. Department of Commerce and its agents.

The key to the control America has over the Internet is through the management of the Domain Name System (DNS) and the giant servers that service the Internet.

Domain names are managed through an entity named IANA, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority. The IANA, which operates on behalf of the U.S. Department of Commerce, is responsible for the global coordination of the DNS, IP addressing, and other Internet protocol resources.

In short, without an IP Address or other essential Internet protocols, a person or entity would not have access to the Internet.

For years, the international community has been pressuring the United States
to surrender its control and management of the Internet. They want an international body such as the United Nations or even the International Telecommunications Union, (an entity that coordinates international telephone communications), to manage all aspects of the Internet in behalf of all nations.

The argument advanced for those seeking international control of the Internet is that the Internet has become such a powerful, pervasive, and a dependent form of international communications, that it would be dangerous and inequitable for any one nation to control and manage it.

Just this past spring, within months of Obama's taking office, his administration, through the Department of Commerce, agreed to relinquish some control over IANA and their governance. The Obama administration has agreed to give greater representation to foreign companies and countries on IANA.

This amounts to one small step for internationalism and one giant leap for surrendering America's control over an invention we have every right and responsibility to control and manage.

It is in America's economic and national security interests not to relinquish any control. We are responsible for the control, operation, and functionality of one of the modern world's greatest inventions and most powerful communications network.

What better country to protect the Internet than the United States?

We invented it, and we paid for the research and implementation that made it
possible. We are the freest, most tolerant nation on earth, we believe in the
fundamental right of free speech, and we practice a free market of commerce and ideas.

America has always been against censorship and has shared its invention with the world without fee or unreasonable or arbitrary restriction. The user fee to operate on the Internet is not one paid to the U.S. government; a consumer pays it to private Internet companies, who provide access to the Internet through servers for their subscribers.

Look no further than China's recent move against Google to censor the
Internet, and you can envision what can happen when other nations less free
than the United States seek to control the Internet beyond even their own borders.

America needs to wake up. If we lose control over the management of the
Internet, we have given away one of our nation's greatest assets with nothing
in return to show for it.

The Obama administration's actions will set in motion a slow and complete takeover of the Internet by the United Nations or some other equally U.S.-hostile and unfriendly international body. And once it is gone, it will be gone forever.

The surrender of the Internet will spell disaster for our nation, financially, as well as for safety, security and our standing as a great power that values freedom and the free exchange of ideas and information.

As far as I am concerned, America is still the last best hope for a more
peaceful and prosperous world and our president should not be looking for
ways to weaken us. Rather, his job is to work to strengthen us and protect our nation's greatest asset our people's creativity and ingenuity.

Bradley A. Blakeman, who was a deputy assistant to President George W. Bush from 2001-2004, teaches public policy and politics and international affairs at Georgetown University.

WebCaster Broadcasting Television Software

2010-02-01T19:59:00.000-08:00

WebCaster Software for Creating Your Own Televison Channel For Free

2010-02-01T19:44:00.001-08:00

Serial Rapist Targeting Elderly Women Terrifies Rural Texas Towns

2010-01-18T10:30:00.000-08:00

Monday , January 18, 2010

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YOAKUM, Texas —

With a serial rapist on the loose, Cassandra McGinty has developed a new routine when she arrives home: search room to room, a handgun or stun gun drawn.

The predator has been assaulting older women in central Texas over the past year, terrifying residents and frustrating investigators who have only a vague description of the suspect.

Pepper spray has been flying off the shelves in the towns where the attacks have occurred, and McGinty said her landlord in Marquez handed out stun guns as Christmas gifts. Nearly 200 miles away in Yoakum, elderly volunteers at the local museum have been locking its doors during business hours.

"I used to think I was too old for anybody to mess with," said McGinty, 55. "I can't say that any more."

Beginning with the rape of a 65-year-old woman in Yoakum last January, authorities have linked eight sexual assaults or attempted sexual assaults to the suspect, who has been dubbed the "Twilight Rapist" because most of the attacks occurred around dawn. They also believe he robbed or attempted to rob four other women.

The victims have all been women, ranging in age from 65 to 91. One rape victim played piano at her church on Sundays. An 81-year-old woman scared off an intruder with a gun, firing several rounds for good measure. A 66-year-old woman was attacked twice, despite having moved across town following the first assault.

The attacks occurred in seven rural towns, the largest of which has 6,000 residents.

Two women were attacked — one of them twice — in Yoakum, a quiet town surrounded by wide-open ranches about 100 miles east of San Antonio.

"It does make me sick," Yoakum Police Chief Arthur Rogers said. "We all take it personal. We all visualize this could have been my mother or my grandmother."

Mela Walker, who has a ranch in nearby Cuero, organized a community meeting last spring after the Yoakum attacks and handed out pepper spray as a door prize for the nearly 300 people who showed up.

"They're freaked out," Walker said. "These elderly women are buying Mace and not knowing how to use it. They talk about buying guns, and they don't know how to use guns."

Authorities say the attacks appear to have been planned — phone lines were cut and porch lights were unscrewed outside some of the victims' homes. All the victims lived alone, and one had more than $10,000 stolen.

Yoakum residents say the two victims there had predictable routines that made them easy targets.

"Nobody opens the door for nobody anymore," said Armiro Gomez, 57, who lives across the street from one of the Yoakum victims. "After midnight, people have no rights to be walking the streets anymore."

Just across the interstate in Luling, where the last attack occurred in November, a neighbor said it's no coincidence the victim was the only woman in his retirement village with a job.

A year into the case there is still no sketch of the suspect, only a vague description of a thin, young and dark-skinned man who is between 5 1/2- and 6-feet tall. Authorities wrongly arrested one man early in their investigation, and he has since sued over it.

The assailant left behind DNA and other forensic evidence after some attacks, but authorities have not been able to link the DNA to anything in the state system, said Texas Department of Public Safety spokesman Tom Vinger. In addition to the difficult task of investigating attacks that happened as far as 200 miles from each other, authorities have found that some victims don't have the best memories.

"The fact that he is targeting elderly woman at night does make it a little more difficult (to investigate)," Vinger said. "It's a traumatic situation for any age. It's even potentially more traumatic for the elderly."

Walker said a year since the first attack, the fear in Yoakum hasn't waned. Last week, volunteers took down Christmas decorations inside the Yoakum Heritage Museum.

It was the middle of the morning, but the doors were locked. Visitors were let in, one by one, and the door locked behind them.

"These are frail, elderly women. Tiny little things," Walker said. "You just can't imagine why anyone would want to take advantage of them."

Taliban Direct Hit on Film in Kabual

2010-01-18T10:23:00.000-08:00

God Bless You Janet Reno - Child Killer - Waco Revised

2009-12-06T16:39:00.000-08:00

LIMON,CO(IFS)- The Documentary Channel for the past several nights have been reviewing the Congressional Investigation of the Branch Davidian Massacre.

It goes to show that "Only the Winners write history; losers get nothing to say." Minute after minute, you find the ATF Directors, along with Janet Reno saying one thing, and the video evidence shows something else completely different.

These people then lied to Congress under oath, and what we find, nothing was done to these agents.

Ruby Ridge is another hot point of contention, as we see that certain people are above the law.

For 51 days, the ATF and the FBI held these people hostage, and then lied to Congress. I just want to let everyone know that I too, remember these Americans, these little children and old people that Janet Reno had gunned down, mutilated and burnt in the name of justice. I remember that one male report, who would come to the microphone and TV camera, and report that - there was no food for the children, or the next time, the kids were being molested, or the very next time, the kids were being held as hostages, etc. I wonder how his career is during these days. America will never forget Janet Reno and her friends that kill children, mothers and old people. I know she will live a long fruitful life. After all one day she will meet each and everyone of those victims again. And at that time, there are no laws, police and anything thing else that will save her from the raft of hell.

Janet Reno, the former attorney general in the Clinton administration, received a lifetime achievement award Friday, April 18, 2009, from the American Judicature Society, a non-partisan justice advocacy network.

Speaking slowly because of the effects of Parkinson Disease, Reno praised violence prevention programs and the current direction of the Justice Department. “Now I can look at America and think this is a nation that is responding in the most intelligent way possible to deal with violence, especially domestic violence,” Reno said.

Speakers supported Reno’s controversial actions during her time as attorney general, including the Justice Department’s siege of a religious sect’s compound in Waco, Texas.

Waco occurred under the presidency of Bill Clinton, with Janet Reno, Wesley Clark and current Attorney General Eric Holder running the show. The US government demonstrated its contempt for the American people by carrying out a massacre in order to “demonstrate” (on prime time TV) its supposed “authority” (a tactic favored by fascist governments).

On February 28, 1993, the United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) launched the largest assault in its history against a small religious community in America. Approximately eighty armed agents invaded the compound, purportedly to execute a single search and arrest warrant. The raid went badly; six Branch Davidians and four agents were killed.

Attorney General Janet Reno asked for and received military support. The U.S. Army showed up with tanks.

After a fifty-one-day standoff, the United States Justice Department approved Reno’s plan to use CS gas and break down the walls with tanks to “save the children” of those barricaded inside.

On the 51st day tanks carrying the CS gas broke through the concrete walls and entered the compound. A fire broke out, and all seventy-four men, women and children inside perished. One third of them from gunshot wounds, the rest crushed by debris or burned to death.

After the compound had burned down the ATF flag was hoisted aloft to signify ‘victory’. At Janet Reno’s award ceremony today it was only mentioned that 74 “cult members” were killed.

After the BATF and FBI learned that the American Justice Federation had released a press release stating that the use of military troops against United States citizens violated federal law, specifically, the Posse Comitatus act, the ATF released a cover story, claiming that the tanks were “really” not Army, they were national guard, and had been brought in under the “Drug interdiction act” because they had heard there was a “methamphetamine lab” — three weeks after the FBI had already publicly announced there was never any question whatsoever of drug involvement.

The compound was immediately demolished and the land was cleared leaving no chance for the Attorney’s of the family members of those who died to retrieve any evidence of what had happened.

God Bless you Janet Reno - you Child killer!!

Branch Davidian Victims

Died February 28, 1993 in initial BATF assault on Mount Carmel
Winston Blake 28 British
Peter Gent 24 Australian
Peter Hipsman 28 American
Perry Jones 64 American
Michael Schroeder 29 American
Jaydean Wendell 34 Hawaiian American

Died April 19, 1993
burnt or shot to death during FBI assault

Katherine Andrade 24 American
Chanel Andrade 1 American
Jennifer Andrade 19 American
George Bennett 35 British
Susan Benta 31 British
Mary Jean Borst 49 American
Pablo Cohen 38 Israeli
Abedowalo Davies 30 British
Shari Doyle 18 American
Beverly Elliot 30 British
Yvette Fagan 32 British
Doris Fagan 51 British
Lisa Marie Farris 24 American
Raymond Friesen 76 Canadian
Sandra Hardial 27 British
Zilla Henry 55 British
Vanessa Henry 19 British
Phillip Henry 22 British
Paulina Henry 24 British
Stephen Henry 26 British
Diana Henry 28 British
Novellette Hipsman 36 Canadian
Floyd Houtman 61 American
Sherri Jewell 43 Asian American
David M. Jones 38 American
David Koresh 33 American
Rachel Koresh 24 American
Cyrus Koresh 8 American
Star Koresh 6 American
Bobbie Lane Koresh 2 American
Jeffery Little 32 American
Nicole Gent Little
and unborn child 24 Australian
Dayland Gent 3 American
Page Gent 1 American
Livingston Malcolm 26 British
Diane Martin 41 British
Wayne Martin, Sr. 42 American
Lisa Martin 13 American
Sheila Martin, Jr. 15 American
Anita Martin 18 American
Wayne Martin, Jr. 20 American
Julliete Martinez 30 Mexican American
Crystal Martinez 3 Mexican American
Isaiah Martinez 4 Mexican American
Joseph Martinez 8 Mexican American
Abigail Martinez 11 Mexican American
Audrey Martinez 13 Mexican American
John-Mark McBean 27 British
Bernadette Monbelly 31 British
Rosemary Morrison 29 British
Melissa Morrison 6 British
Sonia Murray 29 American
Theresa Nobrega 48 British
James Riddle 32 American
Rebecca Saipaia 24 Asian British
Steve Schneider 43 American
Judy Schneider 41 American
Mayanah Schneider 2 American
Clifford Sellors 33 British
Scott Kojiro Sonobe 35 Asian American
Floracita Sonobe 34 Philipino
Gregory Summers 28 American
Aisha Gyrfas Summers
and unborn child 17 Australian
Startle Summers 1 American
Lorraine Sylvia 40 American
Rachel Sylvia 12 American
Hollywood Sylvia 1 American
Michelle Jones Thibodeau 18 American
Serenity Jones 4 American
Chica Jones 2 American
Little One Jones 2 American
Neal Vaega 38 Asian New Zealander
Margarida Vaega 47 Asian New Zealander
Mark H. Wendell 40 Asian American

Imprisoned
Renos Avraam 31 British 40 years
Brad Branch 35 American 40 years
Jaime Castillo 24 American 40 years
Graeme Craddock 31 Australian 20 years
Livingstone Fagan 35 British 40 years
Paul Fatta 35 American 15 years
Ruth Riddle 31 Canadian 5 years
Kathryn Schroeder 35 American 3 years
Kevin Whitecliff 33 American 40 years

DAVIDIAN PRISONERS INFORMATION

In The Davidian trial judge sentenced five Davidians to the maximum sentence of 30 years each; one to 20 years; one to 15; one to 5 years and one to 3 years. On June 4, 2000 the Supreme Court cut 25 years from 4 Davidians' sentences and 5 years from one. On September 9, 2000 Judge Walter Smith followed the Court's instructions and cut those sentences, as well as the 25 year sentence of Livingstone Fagan who had not appealed.

All were released as of July 2007.

Americans must demand prosecution of all responsible agents and financial reparations to the Davidian prisoners who spent more than a dozen years in prison, victims of government crimes against them.

Information on the Davidian trials and appeals
Documents Illustrating Prosecutorial Misconduct

Davidian Suprme Court arguments at attorney Steve Halbrook's home page: http://www.stephenhalbrook.com

Each of the prisoner's "allocution" made just before sentencing in 1994
Stories about the prisoners' appeals, instances of abuse of some prisoners, and Waco Justice protests are scattered throughout Waco News and Updates.

Welcome to Mi2N's B2N, BUSINESS NET NEWS

2009-12-02T13:54:00.001-08:00

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=> LIVE NATION HIRES NEW PROMOTER
TEAM IN FRANCE; Angelo Goppe, Formerly
With Nous Productions, Will Join Live
Nation As Senior Vice President Promotions
http://www.mi2n.com/press.php3?press_nb=125365

=> GRAMMY AWARD WINNER & FOUNDING
MEMBER OF THE FLECKTONES HOWARD LEVY TO
LAUNCH ONLINE HARMONICA SCHOOL; Levy Announces
Partnership With ArtistWorks, Inc.
http://www.mi2n.com/press.php3?press_nb=125356

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THE 7 ESSENTIALS TO WRITING A PRESS RELEASE

Writing a press release may prove to be a challenge to
those whose focus is solely on their musical ability
and efforts, but it doesn't have to be. There's an art
to writing a good press release just like there's an
art to making good music. In fact, a well written press
release is simply you on paper. There are many tricks
to the trade, and I'm going to share some of several of
them with you: The Seven Essentials of Press Release
Writing.

http://www.musicdish.com/mag/?id=12524

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~~~~~~~~~~~~BUSINESS NEWS~~~~~~~~~~~

Submit Your Music News To Mi2N
http://www.mi2n.com/input.php3

=> REDEYE DISTIRBUTION BOOSTS SALES
FOR ARTISTS AND LABELS BY EXPANDING
THE HUMAN ELEMENT OF DIRECT-TO-FAN
SERVICE; Redeye Provides Its Artists And
Labels The Benefit Of Its Award-winning
Staff And Expansive Facilities
http://www.mi2n.com/press.php3?press_nb=125362

=> REVERBNATION & SOUNDEXCHANGE
PARTNER TO GET ARTISTS PAID; SoundExchange
Has Engaged ReverbNation To Educate Artists
And Labels Owed Royalties For Satellite,
Internet And Cable Play
http://www.mi2n.com/press.php3?press_nb=125361

=> BUG MUSIC SONGS IN 3Q '09 BILLBOARD
HOT 100 GROW BY 12% OVER 2Q '09; Company Ranks
#1 In 3Q Top Independent Publisher Spot For
Co-Published Songs In Billboard Top 10
Publisher Airplay Chart
http://www.mi2n.com/press.php3?press_nb=125360

=> 7DIGITAL'S INTERNATIONAL EXPANSION
CONTINUES WITH THE LAUNCH OF NEW DOWNLOAD
STORES IN FINLAND AND NORWAY; Partners At
Launch Include Spotify, Last.fm And AOL's Winamp
http://www.mi2n.com/press.php3?press_nb=125376

=> TRADEBIT.COM LAUNCHES NEW MUSIC
CONTENT THROUGH A PARTNERSHIP WITH
7DIGITAL; DRM-free Music Downloads With
No Registration
http://www.mi2n.com/press.php3?press_nb=125302

=> ATLANTIS INTERNET GROUP AND EMI
MUSIC PUBLISHING INK DEAL FOR JUKEBOX
SLOTS; The World's Largest Music Publishing
Company, EMI, To License Over 1.5 Million Songs
For Jukebox Slots
http://www.mi2n.com/press.php3?press_nb=125371

=> MU ENCOURAGES VENUES TO PUT ON
LIVE MUSIC WITHOUT A LICENCE; Premises
Can Put On Small Scale Live Music Without
Needing To Apply For A Licence
http://www.mi2n.com/press.php3?press_nb=125355

=> BIG APPLE STYLE MARKETING PARTNERS
WITH JAPAN MUSIC WEEK TO BECOME THEIR
INTERNATIONAL SOCIAL MEDIA LIAISON; Japan
Music Week Gears Up For Another Exciting Year
By Focusing On New Press And Sponsorship
Opportunities
http://www.mi2n.com/press.php3?press_nb=125324

=> SNOOP DOGG & VOICESKINS.COM ANNOUNCE
SNOOP'S TOMTOM GPS VOICE; Multiplatinum
Hip-Hop Artist Snoop Dogg Lends His Iconic
Voice And Distinctive "Snoop Speak" To TomTom
GPS Navigation Systems
http://www.mi2n.com/press.php3?press_nb=125318

=> FMG UK LTD: LIVE MUSIC VENUE TOPS
1/4 MILLION FANS; The Venue Recently Awarded
The Godiva Award For Best Live Performance
Venue
http://www.mi2n.com/press.php3?press_nb=125375

=> THE UK'S FIRST MUSIC PRICE
COMPARISON AND COMMUNITY SITE
LAUNCHED; Music-spy.com Saves Consumers
Money By Searching The Leading Music Stores
To Find The Best Prices For Songs And Albums
http://www.mi2n.com/press.php3?press_nb=125374

=> RCS AND PLAY MPE ENTER INTO GLOBAL
PARTNERSHIP; RCS Radio Clients Will Have
Access To New Music Powered By Play MPE Under
The Musicpoint Brand
http://www.mi2n.com/press.php3?press_nb=125373

=> LAWSUIT DEMANDS ANSWERS ABOUT
SOCIAL-NETWORKING SURVEILLANCE;
Government Agencies Withholding Information
On Data-Gathering From Facebook, Twitter, And
Other Online Communities
http://www.mi2n.com/press.php3?press_nb=125369

=> EUROPEAN BORDER BREAKERS AWARDS
LAUNCHES NEW WEBSITE; The Online Voting
Starts For The New Public Choice EBBA On
The New EBBA Website
http://www.mi2n.com/press.php3?press_nb=125354

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MI2N LAUNCHES PR WRITING SERVICE

With a dozen years at the forefront of music PR, Mi2N
announced the launch of MI2N-PRESS. MI2N-PRESS provides
a complete PR solution for independent artists, labels
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release writing and the option to combine the service
with selected Mi2N Music PR marketing packages for a
complete music-oriented press release service.

http://mi2n.com/services/mi2n_press.php3

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Follow MusicDish Tweets
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=> ROLAND SHIPS SP-404SX LINEAR WAVE
SAMPLER; This Offers 44.1kHz/16-Bit Sound
Quality, Improved DSP Effects, A More Versatile
Pattern Sequencer, And Easier Data Management
http://www.mi2n.com/press.php3?press_nb=125363

=> BLACK MIRROR REFLECTS ON THE FUTURE
WITH EUPHONIX; New, State-of-the-Art Recording
Studio Installs Two Euphonix Systems
http://www.mi2n.com/press.php3?press_nb=125353

=> SHAZAM LAUNCHES ENHANCED APPLICATION
ON OVI STORE BY NOKIA; New Version Offers Extra
Features, Unlimited Tagging And Integration With
Nokia Music Store
http://www.mi2n.com/press.php3?press_nb=125351

=> SECURENET SYSTEMS ANNOUNCES
NEW PLAYER CAPABILITIES FOR STREAMING
CUSTOMERS; Securenet Systems Has Just Released
Some New Radio Player Features For Streaming
Customers, Including The Ability To Stream
Live Or Pre-recorded Video
http://www.mi2n.com/press.php3?press_nb=125314

=> FIVE TOWNS COLLEGE PURCHASES 16
TELEFUNKEN MICROPHONES; Long Island's
Five Towns College Has Chosen 16 TELEFUNKEN
Elektroakustik Microphones For It's Recording
Studios And Sound Stages For Film And
Television
http://www.mi2n.com/press.php3?press_nb=125320

=> AVIOM'S A-16II PERSONAL MIXERS
KEEP ROCK BAND 'JUMP THE GUN' ON TARGET;
Independent Rock Group Jump The Gun Is Finding
Its Performances To Be Spot On With The Help Of
Aviom's Personal Mixers
http://www.mi2n.com/press.php3?press_nb=125335

=> GIBSON GUITAR AND PUDDLE OF MUDD JOIN
FORCES TO LAUNCH GIBSON'S DUSK TIGER, THE
MOST ASTOUNDING INNOVATION IN THE HISTORY
OF THE GUITAR
http://www.mi2n.com/press.php3?press_nb=125352

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National Day of Listening - Great Questions Generator

2009-11-27T11:22:00.000-08:00

http://www.nationaldayoflistening.org/great-questions/

Great Questions

What was the happiest moment of your life?
What are you most proud of?
What are the most important lessons you've learned in life?
What is your earliest memory?
How would you like to be remembered?

Welcome to StoryCorps’ section devoted to great questions. You can use our Question Generator tool (below) to create a list of questions for your interview. You can also print out and use our great questions list.

The process takes about 15 minutes. Before you begin using the Question Generator, make sure you have either a valid email address or access to a printer on the computer you’re working on now, because you’ll have to print out the list when you’re done or have us email the list to you.

Let’s start with your basic information. (We’ll use this to customize your question list.)

Will you be talking to your interview partner about his or her life, or will you and your partner be remembering someone who has passed away?

"Kindle for PC" Now Available -- The Free Application for Reading Kindle Books Available

2009-11-15T12:08:00.000-08:00

<< Back
"Kindle for PC" Now Available -- The Free Application for Reading Kindle Books Available on the PC Today for Readers Around the World

Latest Kindle application brings more than 360,000 Kindle books, including New York Times Bestsellers and New Releases, to the PC

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 10, 2009-- Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) today announced the availability of "Kindle for PC," the free application that lets readers around the world enjoy Kindle books on their personal computers (PC). The U.S. Kindle Store (www.amazon.com/kindlestore) currently offers more than 360,000 books, including New Releases and 101 of 112 New York Times Bestsellers, which are typically $9.99 or less. The Kindle Store is the only place to find some of today’s most popular books in digital format. Kindle books can now be read on the Kindle, Kindle DX, iPhone, iPod touch and PC. Kindle for PC is now available as a free download to readers in over 100 countries at www.amazon.com/KindleforPC.

Kindle for PC features Amazon’s Whispersync technology that automatically saves and synchronizes bookmarks and last page read across devices. Whether you read Kindle books on a Kindle, Kindle DX, or one of the free Kindle applications, you can always have your reading with you and never lose your place. With Kindle for PC, you can read some on your PC, read some on your Kindle, and always pick up right where you left off. Whispersync helped make the Kindle for iPhone application the most popular books app in the Apple App Store.

"Kindle for PC is the perfect companion application for customers who own a Kindle or Kindle DX," said Ian Freed, vice president, Amazon Kindle. "Kindle for PC is also a great way for people around the world to access a huge selection from the Kindle Store and read the most popular books of today even if they don’t yet have a Kindle."

With Kindle for PC, readers can take advantage of the following features:

* Purchase, download and read hundreds of thousands of books available in the Kindle Store
* Read the beginning of any book for free before they buy
* Access their library of previously purchased Kindle books stored on Amazon’s servers for free
* Read books in full color including children’s books, cookbooks, travel books, textbooks and graphic novels
* Choose from more than 10 different font sizes and adjust words per line
* Add and automatically synchronize bookmarks and last page read
* View notes and highlights marked on Kindle, Kindle DX, iPhone, and iPod touch
* Zoom in and out of text with a pinch of the fingers (Windows 7 users only)
* Turn pages with a finger swipe (available in a future release for Windows 7 users)

Microsoft demonstrated Kindle for PC for the first time ever at the Windows 7 launch event last month in New York City. Kindle for PC takes advantage of capabilities in the new Windows 7, including Windows Touch technology. In addition to Windows 7, Kindle for PC is also compatible with Windows XP and Windows Vista.

Kindle for PC is available for free download at www.amazon.com/KindleforPC.

About Amazon.com

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), a Fortune 500 company based in Seattle, opened on the World Wide Web in July 1995 and today offers Earth's Biggest Selection. Amazon.com, Inc. seeks to be Earth's most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices. Amazon.com and other sellers offer millions of unique new, refurbished and used items in categories such as Books; Movies, Music & Games; Digital Downloads; Electronics & Computers; Home & Garden; Toys, Kids & Baby; Grocery; Apparel; Shoes & Jewelry; Health & Beauty; Sports & Outdoors; and Tools, Auto & Industrial.

Amazon Web Services provides Amazon’s developer customers with access to in-the-cloud infrastructure services based on Amazon's own back-end technology platform, which developers can use to enable virtually any type of business. Examples of the services offered by Amazon Web Services are Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), Amazon SimpleDB, Amazon Simple Queue Service (Amazon SQS), Amazon Flexible Payments Service (Amazon FPS), Amazon Mechanical Turk and Amazon CloudFront.

Amazon and its affiliates operate websites, including www.amazon.com, www.amazon.co.uk, www.amazon.de, www.amazon.co.jp, www.amazon.fr, www.amazon.ca, and www.amazon.cn. As used herein, “Amazon.com,” “we,” “our” and similar terms include Amazon.com, Inc., and its subsidiaries, unless the context indicates otherwise.

Forward-Looking Statements

This announcement contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Actual results may differ significantly from management's expectations. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that include, among others, risks related to competition, management of growth, new products, services and technologies, potential fluctuations in operating results, international expansion, outcomes of legal proceedings and claims, fulfillment center optimization, seasonality, commercial agreements, acquisitions and strategic transactions, foreign exchange rates, system interruption, inventory, government regulation and taxation, payments and fraud. More information about factors that potentially could affect Amazon.com's financial results is included in Amazon.com's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent filings.

Source: Amazon.com, Inc.

Amazon media hotline, 206-266-7180

Droid - What's In A Name?

2009-11-11T03:38:00.000-08:00

LIMON, CO (IFS) It is an ULTRA MASCULINE NAME that TURNS OFF WOMEN is the talk on the town about Verizon's new iPhone clone. It really makes a differences according to the most recent sales debut put at 200,00 plus units sold on the first day. Now comparing that to the iPhone debut -- it was in the millions. They say give it time.

Theodore Alexander Smith - Early Days of Polyfoam Construction

2009-09-17T13:00:00.000-07:00

EXCERPTS FROM THE BOOK - MAGNET -THEODORE ALEXANDER SMITH

LIMON, CO (IFS) - It was once said, that if it was not for the impossible construction feats of Theodore Smith, many of us would not have a cellphone in our hands, but a tin can and string between us. Smith pioneered many of the construction standards in the early days of wireless tower construction and protocols in the industry that we just take for granted.
But everyone and everything has a beginning, and Smith was no exception.

Wireless Construction's once King of installation setups and Impossible Missions Expert, Professor Theodore Alexander Smith's demostration and Construction of then superstar writer and artist for the Rocky Mountain News building one of his first homes, and he 's having problems, with boulders, water and a mountain. One of the possibilities is using PolyFoam Construction, with great new inovations in the manufacturing process --back in the early days.

Among Smith's other accomplished first's included the new "Radical Design" when working in the engineering department of Boeing as an intern, at the age of 15 years old.

As told by his daughter, Sherry Smith, a retired VP from the Airborne days, ". . . Theodore was not helping.

He didn't know.

No inspiration.

Couldn't feel the spirit.

Spirit or no spirit, time was up.

It was now.

". . . I was told once by our crossing guard, a real gentleman sitting on the park bench in Rosamond, California waiting for the school bus, as a kid around the age of 10 years old. . . I was very late in turning in my class assignment. . ."I don't know what they wanted, or even what I wanted. . ."

No Clue. ". . .My picture was a must -- right now."

". . . We didn't even have enough money to buy thing like crayons, coloring pencils, with six brothers and sisters, from a box, each one of the children got two colors-- it was only once in a while that we got alot of art supplies and other fun stuff. Mother had some old brown shopping bags, that were really big sized. So she sit out a pair of scissors, and one of these brown bags.

The teacher was on her way to deliver them to the Kern County Fairgrounds Committee, and that was 75 mile drive on a two lane blacktop road , in the mountains, the grade at Techachapi Mountains -- The delivery trucks -- before the Eisenhower freeway systems.

The crossing guard was sitting there enjoying the evening sun, and Theodore began telling the elder about this painting he had to turn in. "He said, get you an old shopping bag. Just a piece of craft paper and anything, stove charcoal -- heck just start drawing. . . "

Within some time on it, the paper began to come alive.

As the young Smith got off the bus and walked into the dinning soom, there sit his teacher with cup in hand, and that look. After school came to the house and having coffee with Mrs. Rillie Louise Sellers-Smith, and she began to tell her that Theodore has refused to turn in a drawning. The Principal Dr J.A. Lawson was the Superindent of our small Southern Kern County School District school, and he wanted 100 PER CENT PARTICIPATION. The end.

So with the teacher sitting at the dinner table, drinking coffee, telling mother, that she was headed up to Bakersfield, and she need "Something" from Teddy. As she put it, "NOW!"

As every other family during those times as a kid, when a loaf of bread only costed Eight (8) cents. And a Taco Bell taco was only Fifteen (15) cents.

With two women sitting at the same table with a brown paper bag, some scissors, glue, and some art stuff. Theodore said, the talk with the senior began to play in his head. He said, "So, did you know that a Fool and a Genius usually sit side-by-side. He said, "One carries the books of knowledge in a sack on his back, while the other one is reading the books."

At that instant, the young Smith went to the house stove and dug into the ashes and came across some wood charcoal. He broke off several inches of this semi soft and yet very light and yet firm piece. One of his instructors in the art class was taking about Spain.

So that would be his subject.

With the charcoal, with Mother sister there and the teacher looking down at him, Theodore made several lines on to the cut brown paper bag, and after several shadowings and more curvy, straight lines, more shadowing and he was finished in five minutes.

The teacher had Teddy sign his drawing at the bottom of the picture, and she said that she would place it in a frame.

It's now two weeks later, Rosamond school grade kids had 100 per cent participation. Period.

50,000 grade school entries from every school district in Kern County. And Teddy's painting that he did on the brown paper shopping bag, was now in a frame and sitting out in front of every mom and dad in the county looking at Theodore's drawing.

The first drawing picked the winners from each school distrcit, and Teddy was the winner for the Kern County Schools District to represent the entry to the California State Arts Festival.

On The last day of the two weeks of the State Fair, Theodore's Charcoal painting of a Spanish Galleon took the State's first Prize for this age group. After that, his teacher never asked Theodore for another drawing. He had received an A plus for the school year.

Elected two times from the Kern County School District to the California State band under the direction of Zabin Meta, as the groups conductor.

This film shows Professor Smith at the Home and Garden Show in 1993, demostrating the product. Short film by SDC Pictures.

Gov. Palin Gets It Wrong Again

2009-06-12T10:21:00.000-07:00

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Denver (IFS) - Governor Palin just keeps getting it wrong, time after time. Remember she called Canidate Obama a person who "hung-out" with terrorists and all sorts of crazy names during the election. She always wants to exploit both sides of the argument, or at least dominate them to her advantage. Mr. Letterman's joke was about the "nothing" -- but Palin wants to tie it to her youngest kid -- a big stretch Governor!

AOL Spin-Off

2009-05-29T09:11:00.000-07:00

Time Warner Approves AOL Spin-Off

By Zachary Rodgers , May 28, 2009

Earlier this year, Time Warner took the first steps toward spinning off AOL. Yesterday the board endorsed that plan and authorized CEO Jeff Bewkes to move forward to jettison its Web advertising and Internet access businesses.

After a separation, AOL would be an independent, publicly traded company. It would consist of a dial-up access business that is still among the largest in the U.S.; the AOL.com portal and other in-house properties such as Bebo and TMZ; and ad network Platform-A, which boasts a greater than 90 percent reach among U.S. Web users, according to Comscore.

"The separation will be another critical step in the reshaping of Time Warner that we started at the beginning of last year," Bewkes said in a statement. "The separation will also provide both companies with greater operational and strategic flexibility."

For advertisers, who were exposed to few if any synergies between AOL and other Time Warner businesses, the changes resulting from a spin-off will likely be few.

However, AOL CEO Tim Armstrong is reportedly preparing some significant structural transformations at the company, including the creation of a Ventures unit to house the company's Bebo social networking platform and other recently acquired sites and services. According to BoomTown, the new unit is meant to attract outside investments.

Armstrong stated AOL will leverage its independent status to accelerate its recruiting efforts. "We play in a very competitive landscape and will be using our new status to retain and attract top talent," he said. "Although we have a tremendous amount of work to do, we have a global brand, a committed team of people, and a passion for the future of the Web."

As part of the preparations for a spin-off Time Warner will re-acquire the 5 percent of the AOL business it sold to Google in 2006. The remaining 95 percent of AOL already belongs to Time Warner shareholders. Time Warner said it hopes to complete the legal and structural separation of AOL by end of year.

Back to Article

H1N1 Upclose

2009-05-24T18:58:00.000-07:00

By Tina Hesman Saey Friday, May 22nd, 2009

Components of the H1N1 swine flu virus have been circulating undetected for years, but the virus combines the bits and pieces in a way never before seen, a detailed genetic analysis reveals.

The analysis, published online May 22 in Science, pinpoints the origins of each of the virus’s components. It suggests that current influenza vaccines probably won’t provide protection from the virus, but that the virus is susceptible to some antiviral drugs and will be amenable to new vaccine development. A separate study of the virus’s neuraminidase protein (the N in H1N1), published May 20 in Biology Direct, also shows that the virus is sensitive to some drugs but that parts of the protein important for vaccine development and antibody therapies are already changing.

Pigs are the likely origin of the virus, says Nancy Cox, chief of the influenza division at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and a coauthor of the Science paper. But it is still unclear whether the virus jumped directly from pigs into humans or infected an intermediate host first.

In the United States, 6,552 probable and confirmed cases of H1N1 influenza, including nine deaths and more than 300 hospitalizations, have been reported to the CDC as of May 22, says Anne Schuchat, CDC’s interim deputy director for the science and public health program. But public health officials estimate that more than 100,000 Americans may have already been infected with the virus.

Overall the number of new cases in the United States is falling, Schuchat says, but the virus is still active in some pockets of the country and is expected to produce more new cases over the summer. “We don’t want people to think we’re out of the woods yet,” she says. “It could come back in the fall in the worst way.”

CDC is already testing two candidate vaccine viruses and expects to send the viruses to manufacturers by the end of May, Schuchat says.

Genetic analysis of the new H1N1 virus reveals that three of its genes, including the hemagglutinin gene (the H in H1N1), originally came from the 1918 Spanish influenza virus and have been present in pigs ever since. The genes have not changed much, likely because pigs do not live long enough to get reinfected with the same virus, Cox says. Reinfection would have favored changes that could have allowed the virus to evade the immune system. Now that the virus has entered humans, researchers expect it to mutate at the same rate as currently circulating seasonal influenzas.

The new virus does not contain the genetic changes thought to have helped the 1918 flu virus and the H5N1 virus (avian flu) adapt to humans, the researchers report. That means that other genetic components of the new virus must be responsible for its ability to pass from person to person.

Both studies find that the closest relative of H1N1’s neuraminidase gene is from a Eurasian swine flu virus that probably leaped from birds to pigs in about 1979.

The new virus differs in 21 of 387 amino acids from the H5N1 virus and the 1918 Spanish flu (also an H1N1 virus), researchers from Singapore’s Agency for Science and Technology Research report in the study in Biology Direct. Viruses isolated from patients during the first two weeks of the current outbreak already have changes on the outer surface on the neuraminidase protein that could interfere with antibodies against the virus or alter the effectiveness of future vaccines. But none of the changes have altered the parts of the protein targeted by antiviral drugs, such as Tamiflu or Relenza.

2009-05-21T14:12:00.000-07:00

mmm

Broncos' Jay Cutler says he can't trust McDaniels

2009-03-18T15:14:00.000-07:00

DENVER (IFS) - The Colorado Rockies head coach Clint Hurdle said it best. "You have got to be truthful, clear and direct". Mr. McDaniels has lost the handle to directing the Broncos, and they have yet to play a scrimmage game. This is going to be one hellva season in D-Town. Denver may get to .500 again -- but most likely - NOT! Yes, these guys make loads of money, and they are still kids. Very fragile and you can hurt their feelings. But the last straw, it's still the respect clause. No matter what, you have got to respect the people that you are working with. If Bowlen and McDaniels wanted to trade Cutler in the beginning, they should have called him up and told him -- that he's on the trading block. Not problem. But Cutler found out on a TV news show -- not man-to-man. He was disrespected and one can not blame him. The only other problem that Denver is going to have, is when Jay Cutler is in another uniform and is across the line of scrimmage and it's a vital game for Denver -- the Broncos will loose. Cutler should sit out this year until Mike Shanahan gets his new team and go there. If you watched the movie "Any Given Sunday", when the coach left town, he took the starting QB with him. Look out now! -KHS
---------------------

By Chris Mortensen
ESPN.com

Broncos quarterback Jay Cutler said Sunday night he has formally asked Denver to trade him and confirmed that a Saturday meeting with first-year coach Josh McDaniels ended badly from his perspective, while McDaniels offered another viewpoint on Sunday night. "I went in there with every intention of solving the issue, being a Bronco, moving forward as a Bronco," Cutler said. "We weren't in there but about 20 minutes, [McDaniels] did most of the talking and as far as I'm concerned, he made it clear he wants his own guy. He admitted he wanted Matt Cassel because he said he has raised him up from the ground as a quarterback. He said he wasn't sorry about it. He made it clear that he could still entertain trading me because, as he put it, he'll do whatever he feels is in the best interest of the organization.


	Jay Cutler said while new Denver coach Josh McDaniels hasn't been critical of him, Cutler can no longer trust McDaniels.

"At the end of the meeting, he wasn't like, 'Jay, I want you as our quarterback, you're our guy.' It felt like the opposite. He basically said that I needed to tell him if we can't work this out, to let him know," Cutler added. "I thought he was antagonizing me and that was disappointing because I was ready to move on, committed as a Bronco. Really, I figured we'd hash things out, shake hands, laugh a little and move forward. What happened [Saturday] was the last thing I expected. If I didn't think it could be fixed, I never would have come back to Denver. It was painfully obvious to me and Bus [Cook, his agent] it's not something they want to fix." Consequently, Cutler instructed Cook, who also attended the meeting, to formally request a trade. The quarterback said he left town late Sunday and would skip McDaniels' first (nonmandatory) team meeting Monday as the Broncos begin their offseason program. "The Denver Broncos confirm that Jay Cutler has requested a trade," team spokesman Jim Saccomano told The Associated Press on Monday. Broncos owner Pat Bowlen told The Denver Post on Sunday that he was disappointed with how Cutler has handled the situation. In a telephone interview with ESPN, McDaniels was reluctantly expansive on the story. "I really have wanted to avoid a he-said, she-said thing but it's only fair for us to present the Bronco side of the story rather than let things get taken out of context," McDaniels said. "There's been a pattern here for the past two weeks the way things [have been represented] in our communications. I don't think anything that happened [Saturday] was out of the ordinary. At the end of the meeting, Jay said he had thought about things quite a bit and requested a few more hours to mull things over. He said he wanted to talk to Bus on how to proceed. He was gonna call me on my cell phone and that never happened. Instead, Bus called [GM] Brian [Xanders]. "Again, I think that's been a pattern. I couldn't get [Cutler] to talk to me for two weeks or to talk to Mr. Bowlen. Then when he came here this weekend, we couldn't get a one-on-one meeting, just me and him alone. He wanted Bus in there, so I had Brian sit in, too. And it was the four of us. There wasn't any yelling, none of that. I can't believe we get to a totally different [interpretation]. "It's an unfortunate set of circumstances that has cropped up, a potential distraction and we've done our best to limit that. The main message I want to get out is that we're excited to start our offseason program [Monday]. It's an exciting time for us." Cutler was not present for Monday's team meeting. "I certainly went back there, expecting I'd be there [Monday] but not now," Cutler said. "It's not mandatory. I'll attend every mandatory minicamp and training camp but that's it. Really, it's best for me to move on. As Coach said, he needs every eye in the meeting room to be on him and not me." McDaniels briefly addressed his broiling quarterback controversy when he gathered his team as a group for the first time Monday morning. "He just addressed it and said, 'I'll take care of it," recounted defensive lineman Kenny Peterson. As McDaniels pointed out, Cutler had a completely different expectation when he left their private meeting on Saturday. Cutler said: "You know, even after the meeting, I hung around town, kind of expecting him to call me and say, 'Hey, let's just me and you get away and have lunch or a cup of coffee' and mend things, but that didn't happen. So, I get it, really, it's a business. I'm disappointed because I love being a Bronco but I think it's run its course." Cutler denied recent reports that he had asked to be traded when the Broncos fired offensive coordinator Jeremy Bates. "Yes, I was upset when they let Jeremy go because Mr. Bowlen had assured me when Mike [Shanahan] was fired that the offense wouldn't change because it was the second-ranked offense in football," Cutler said. "But I didn't push for a trade then." McDaniels and Cutler agreed on at least one element of the controversy, knocking down a Sunday report on NFL Network that the coach had criticized the quarterback's play in 2008. "That just isn't true," McDaniels said. "Not a word has been said about that." Cutler added: "Josh has never said anything negative to me about my play or anything else, for that matter." McDaniels admitted that the team got involved in trade discussions for Cassel, who instead was dealt to the Kansas City Chiefs. However, he said any perception Cutler felt that the team could still trade him was misleading. "That's what we have communicated ever since the deal with Cassel didn't happen," McDaniels said. "Other teams have called but we're not interested in getting draft picks for Jay. I never made a statement [Saturday] that 'you can be traded at any time.' They asked a question and I told them it was the time of year when people inquire about your team. Your job, as a head coach and general manager, is to listen and not bypass any opportunity to help your team improve. I think most people [in the NFL] feel the same way. You make smart, educated decisions that are best for your football team." Cutler feels like McDaniels lost his credibility with him when he initially denied to the quarterback that the Broncos tried to acquire Cassel only to admit it later. "Before this trade for Cassel thing ever came up, in the two weeks or so I had spent with McDaniels, he was basically telling me that he came to Denver because he wanted to coach me and that we needed to trust each other," Cutler said. "He's never been critical to me. But trust now? How can I trust him now?" He also explained that his house being put up for sale was "nothing more than a coincidence." "I had already shown my house privately to some interested buyers a couple of months ago," Cutler said. "I've really been looking to buy 40 to 70 acres of land there." As for ignoring phone calls from McDaniels and Bowlen, Cutler said: "Josh and I have exchanged text messages. We had a conference call. And if Pat wanted to speak to me, why didn't he come to the meeting on Saturday?" Cutler will miss out on a $100,000 bonus if he doesn't attend 90 percent of the workouts. Cutler is entering the fourth season of a six-year, $48 million contract he signed as a rookie. Even though it's voluntary, the coaches expect everyone to attend the team's offseason program unless players have an excused absence such as newcomer Brian Dawkins, who helped the NFL Players Association elect a new executive director in Hawaii on Sunday. "Right now we're just running and lifting," Peterson said. "You'd like to see everybody here. ... But we'll be all right. I mean, I got faith in the people upstairs and everything else that we'll be just fine." The Broncos' first minicamp is April 17-19, a week before the draft. Newly signed cornerback Andre' Goodman said McDaniels asked the players not to talk about what he said in the meeting regarding Cutler. Still, there was a major void in the room with Cutler missing, Goodman said. "I think the quarterback is the face of the team," Goodman said. "You take the coach out of it and he is the face of the team." Cook said that as an agent he was "totally in shock" that it has gotten so ugly. "I would have bet my house going into Saturday's meeting that everyone would be shaking hands and smiling," Cook said. "I thought it was going to get worked out. But it was very clear to me that Jay Cutler is not their choice to be quarterback of that team." Yet Cook admitted that when he called Xanders to request a trade on Saturday night, the team's general manager said it wasn't going to happen and that "Jay should show up Monday." That wasn't going to happen, either.

Chris Mortensen is a senior NFL analyst for ESPN. Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

U.S. pays millions to help Mexico fight vicious cartels

2009-03-03T15:13:00.000-08:00

By Ramon Bracamontes / El Paso Times

Posted: 02/07/2009 11:01:52 PM MSTEL PASO - Mexico's vicious drug war - a bloody conflict that has claimed the lives of thousands of people throughout the country - is now costing U.S. taxpayers $465 million so far.

Whether the U.S. will get a return on the investment is the topic of a fiery debate. Locally, some say the so-called Merida Initiative, which will provide $1.4 billion to Mexico and other countries over three years, will not do enough to help reduce the violence that is crippling Mexico and border cities like Juárez.

Others say the U.S. has no business spending one dime in Mexico and argue that improving security along the U.S.-Mexico border should be the priority.

Now, the United States has a $465 million stake in Mexico's brutal drug war.
Whether that is enough or merited remains a point of contention. Some El Paso officials want the U.S. to do more because the violence is beginning to cripple Juárez and, to a lesser degree, El Paso.

As of last month, the U.S. began spending the $465 million that Congress approved last year in the Merida Initiative, a three-year counter-drug and anti-crime package for Mexico and Central America.

Most of the money, $400 million, will be spent on scanners, helicopters, boats and computers in Mexico. Mexican President Felipe Calderón is trying to implement systemic changes he hopes will change a culture that permits powerful drug cartels to thrive.

Mexico's ambassador to the U.S., Arturo Sarukhan, strongly rebuts any insinuation that Mexico isn't sound or is on the verge of collapsing, as some U.S. military officials claim. Mexican officials make it clear that the Merida plan is a joint cooperating agreement, not the U.S. stepping in.
Wait-and-see approach

Overall, the Merida Initiative, as proposed by the Bush administration, will spend $1.4 billion on initiatives in Mexico over three years. However, only $465 million has been approved, and several congressmen have said they want to see how the first phase goes before they approve spending any more money to help Mexico fight the cartels.

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said he is extremely concerned about the rising violence in Mexican border towns and its dangerous implications for Texas border towns.
"He is currently examining ways to best use federal resources to quell border violence and keep families and businesses in El Paso and all border communities safe," said Jessica Sandlin, Cornyn's Texas press secretary. "He supports assisting the Mexican government in fighting narco-terrorism due to its serious implications for our national security but believes any U.S. assistance should be grounded by strict accountability measures to ensure those funds are being used effectively and responsibly."

Before any money is spent, the U.S. Department of State produced several reports justifying the use of the money. One report issued in January by the Congressional Research Service states that the U.S. has a shared responsibility for combating crime in Mexico because 90 percent of the cocaine consumed in the United States moves through Mexico.

"The Merida Initiative envisions strengthening and integrating security from the U.S. Southwest border to Panama," the federal report states. "The desired end state is to produce a safer and more secure hemisphere where criminal organizations no longer wield the power to destabilize governments nor threaten national and regional security and public safety; as well as to prevent the entry and spread of illicit drugs."

In December, the United States and Mexico signed a letter of agreement allowing $197 million in Merida funds to be disbursed. While President Barack Obama has not officially said whether he will continue to support the Merida plan, the fact he met with Calderón before his inauguration bodes well for future funding, officials said.

"It supports the systemic change that President Calderón is after," said William McGlynn, deputy assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement.

Goals of initiative

The International Narcotics and Law Enforcement bureau of the U.S. State Department is assigned to oversee most of the Merida Initiative money.

McGlynn said the initiative does not call for sending cash or U.S. troops into those countries. All of the money will be used on products bought in the U.S. or on programs the State Department can monitor.

The initiative has four principal goals:
Break the power of criminal organizations.

Help Mexican and Central American governments strengthen their borders and air and sea controls.

Improve justice systems in the region.

Curtail gang activity in Mexico and Central America, and diminish the demand for drugs in the region."This is Mexico's plan, not ours," McGlynn said. "A lot of the tactics and techniques in the Merida Plan are theirs, not ours. We are just supporting what Calderón is doing."

McGlynn said the main reason the U.S. chose to help Mexico is that Calderón is already spending $3 billion of Mexico's money to combat the cartels. And Calderón asked for help.
"The U.S. and Mexico now have a different relationship," he said. "This is the top priority for Mexico right now. It will take a long time for the system to change, but this has not been done before."

Ray Walser, a public policy analyst with the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C., said that anyone who expects this three-year plan to change the historically corrupt culture in Mexico is expecting too much.

"It is not designed to do that," he said. "But it is a start that will tip the balance of that country in the direction we want it to go. Ending the corruption in that country will be a long battle, but the process is starting."

U.S. Rep. John Culberson, R-Texas, said he would rather see all of the money in the Merida Initiative used on the U.S. side of the border to help the Border Patrol and Texas border sheriffs. He is from Houston.

"It is inexcusable, it is intolerable for us to send one dime to the Mexican government when they can afford to pay for this equipment themselves," Culberson said. "But even more importantly than that, our southern border is not secure."

No immediate relief

El Paso city Rep. Beto O'Rourke does not question the use of the money in Mexico or the plan's strategic goal. His concern is that the plan does not provide any immediate relief and does nothing to quickly end the violence.

More than 1,800 people in Juárez have been killed in the past 13 months. Officials estimate that 93 percent of those slain had ties to the cartels. In Mexico, more than 6,000 people have been killed so far.

"The implication that we are not going to do anything, that we are going to let the cartels duke it out is unbelievable especially when innocent people are being killed, businesses are being extorted and everyday Juarenses are being kidnapped," O'Rourke said. "We know the violence is affecting more than just the cartels."

And it will soon affect El Paso, if it hasn't already, officials said. More than 54,000 jobs in El Paso are directly connected to Juárez.

Raymond McGrath, the U.S. consul general in Juárez, said the seriousness of the problem in Juárez is easily evident and increasing daily. As an example, McGrath said, in 2007, Juárez officials were concerned because more than 300 murders had occurred. It was a number they found unacceptable at that time.

"That murder number has quintupled," said McGrath, whose office provides security updates to U.S. officials. "Not only has the murder rate increased dramatically, the level of violence has created an environment in which other forms of criminality have been increasing."

Daily life for the 1.2 million people in Juárez has been disrupted, he said.

"People are going to school and work and back home and that is it," he said. "If they go shopping, they shop for the basics and nothing else. They are not going out at night and they are staying indoors."

He said the service industry has been affected the most. Restaurants are mostly empty, and the occupancy rate for hotels is less than 40 percent.

Bob Cook, president of El Paso Regional Economic Development Corp., which recruits businesses to this region, said the drug violence now comes up in every conversation that his office has with out-of-town companies.

"One hundred percent of the time, the Juárez violence comes up," he said. "And they are now taking an extra 90 to 120 days before deciding if they come here. They are concerned and doing risk assessment, but they have yet to say no to coming to this area.

"Strong commerce is taking place, but we need (the violence) to stop because what is happening is not sustainable."

More being done

U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, who met with Calderón in January, said the Merida Initiative does as much as it can within the limits placed on it by the Mexican government.
"I can assure you that the U.S. government is not sitting on its hands doing nothing," he said. "There aren't any guarantees that we are going to eliminate the drug cartels and the problems. But everything that we can do, we are doing."

Reyes, chairman of the House intelligence committee, also said that more is being done by the U.S. than what has been made public, but that he is not at liberty to talk about it. Reyes also said that he knows how much in aid, programs and equipment is coming to the U.S.-Mexico border as part of the Merida plan, but he cannot talk about that either.

Luis Garcia, a retired INS district director who once was to be stationed in Mexico, said the Merida plan is coming at the right time because systemic changes are occurring in Mexico. He bases his observation on the fact that the relationship between U.S. and Mexican agencies has changed in the past 25 years.

The two countries are now cooperating and talking daily, a change from when he was a federal agent.

"Relationships between the two countries before were based on personal relationships," Garcia said. "It was based on who knew each other, not on who was in office. Now, those relationships are institutionalized. All the agencies work together; they talk and work to solve problems.
"This plan is a start, a step in the right direction."

Ramon Bracamontes may be reached at rbracamontes@elpasotimes.com; 546-6142.

Merida money

In June 2008, the 110th Congress appropriated $465 million in supplemental assistance for Mexico, Central America, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic.

On Dec. 3, 2008, the United States and Mexico signed a letter of agreement, allowing $197 million in Merida funds to be disbursed.

Since President Felipe Calderón took office in December 2006, Mexico has increased security spending to $4 billion.

The Bush Administration designed the Merida Initiative as a $1.4 billion, three-year counter-drug and anti-crime package for Mexico and Central America that would begin in fiscal year 2008 and last through fiscal year 2010.

Funding for 2010 has not been approved.

2 big satellites collide 500 miles over Siberia

2009-02-12T01:16:00.000-08:00

By MARCIA DUNN,
AP Aerospace Writer Marcia Dunn,
Ap Aerospace Writer – 2 hrs 1 min ago

AP – CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Two big communications satellites collided in the first-ever crash of its kind in orbit, shooting out a pair of massive debris clouds and posing a slight risk to the international space station.

NASA said it will take weeks to determine the full magnitude of the crash, which occurred nearly 500 miles over Siberia on Tuesday.

"We knew this was going to happen eventually," said Mark Matney, an orbital debris scientist at Johnson Space Center in Houston.

NASA believes any risk to the space station and its three astronauts is low. It orbits about 270 miles below the collision course. There also should be no danger to the space shuttle set to launch with seven astronauts on Feb. 22, officials said, but that will be re-evaluated in the coming days.
A spokesman for the Russian civilian space agency Roscosmos, Alexander Vorobyev, said on state-controlled Channel I television that "for the international space station, at this time and in the near future, there's no threat."

The collision involved an Iridium commercial satellite, which was launched in 1997, and a Russian satellite launched in 1993 and believed to be nonfunctioning. The Russian satellite was out of control, Matney said.

The Iridium craft weighed 1,235 pounds, and the Russian craft nearly a ton.
No one has any idea yet how many pieces were generated or how big they might be.
"Right now, they're definitely counting dozens," Matney said. "I would suspect that they'll be counting hundreds when the counting is done."

As for pieces the size of micrometers, the count will likely be in the thousands, he added.
This was the first high-speed impact between two intact spacecraft, NASA officials said.
There have been four other cases in which space objects have collided accidentally in orbit, NASA said. But those were considered minor and involved parts of spent rockets or small satellites.

Nicholas Johnson, an orbital debris expert at the Houston space center, said the risk of damage from Tuesday's collision is greater for the Hubble Space Telescope and Earth-observing satellites, which are in higher orbit and nearer the debris field.

At the beginning of this year there were roughly 17,000 pieces of manmade debris orbiting Earth, Johnson said. The items, at least 4 inches in size, are being tracked by the U.S. Space Surveillance Network, which is operated by the military. The network detected the two debris clouds created Tuesday.

Litter in orbit has increased in recent years, in part because of the deliberate breakups of old satellites. It's gotten so bad that orbital debris is now the biggest threat to a space shuttle in flight, surpassing the dangers of liftoff and return to Earth. NASA is in regular touch with the Space Surveillance Network, to keep the space station a safe distance from any encroaching objects, and shuttles, too, when they're flying.

"The collisions are going to be becoming more and more important in the coming decades," Matney said.

Iridium Holdings LLC has a system of 65 active satellites that relay calls from portable phones that are about twice the size of a regular mobile phone. It has more than 300,000 subscribers. The U.S. Department of Defense is one of its largest customers.

The company said the loss of the satellite was causing brief, occasional outages in its service and that it expected to have the problem fixed by Friday.

Iridium also said it expected to replace the lost satellite with one of its eight in-orbit spares within 30 days.

"The Iridium constellation is healthy, and this event is not the result of a failure on the part of Iridium or its technology," the company said in a statement.

Initially launched by Motorola Inc. in the 1990s, Iridium plunged into bankruptcy in 1999. Private investors relaunched service in 2001.

Iridium satellites are unusual because their orbit is so low and they move so fast. Most communications satellites are in much higher orbits and don't move relative to each other, which means collisions are rare.

Iridium Holdings LLC, is owned by New York-based investment firm Greenhill & Co. through a subsidiary, GHL Acquisition Corp., which is listed on the American Stock Exchange. The shares closed Wednesday down 3 cents at $9.28.
___
AP science writer Seth Borenstein in Washington and AP technology writer Peter Svensson in New York contributed to this report.
___
On the Net:
NASA: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/ap/ap_on_sc/storytext/satellite_collision/30936877/SIG=10lb6edco/*http://www.nasa.gov

Open Letter to: Rachael Maddow c/o MSNBC and Others From Gene Zelinger

2009-01-30T14:33:00.000-08:00

Open Letter to: Rachael Maddow c/o MSNBC and Others From Gene Zelinger

Denver (IFS) This email and letter was addressed to Rachael Maddow by one of Colorado leading judges (back in the 1970-80's). But first, equal time. If you have never seen Ms. Maddow's show or listen to her on radio -- below get a chance to know a little bit about her.

Rachel Maddow

Host, "The Rachel Maddow Show"

msnbc.com

updated 4:48 p.m. MT, Wed., Aug. 20, 2008

Rachel Maddow hosts MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show,” featuring Maddow’s take on the biggest stories of the day, political and otherwise, including lively debate with guests from all sides of the issues, in-depth analysis and stories no other shows in cable news will cover. Maddow also continues to host “The Rachel Maddow Show” on Air America.

In January of 2008, Maddow was named an MSNBC political analyst; she is a regular panelist on MSNBC’s “Race for the White House with David Gregory” and a frequent contributor on “Countdown with Keith Olbermann.” She has been the regular guest host for "Countdown," has filled in for David Gregory on "Race," and has been a regular panelist on MSNBC's 2008 election coverage.

Maddow has worked with Air America Radio since its inception in the spring of 2004. Prior to joining AAR she worked for WRNX in Holyoke, Massachusetts, and WRSI in Northampton, Massachusetts.

Maddow received a bachelor’s degree in public policy from Stanford University. She earned her doctorate in political science at Oxford University, which she attended on a Rhodes Scholarship. She is currently working on a book on the changing role of the military in U.S. politics, due out next year. She lives in New York City and Massachusetts with her partner, artist Susan Mikula.

================================

Exclusive to IFS - Denver

================================

Open Letter to: Rachael Maddow c/o MSNBC and Others From Gene Zelinger

Dear Rachael

I'm writing this as self therapy 'cause I have to. It's a bonus if anything good comes of it and at least I've done something.

I intimately understand the Jewish plight and I absolutely oppose what they and their supporters are doing to the Palestinians and their neighbors.

This is my background which I don't believe is unique for many American Jews.

I was born in 1936.

My dad was born in Poland and my mother's parents, with whom we lived, came here from Russia. I was raised and had my Bar Mitzvah in an orthodox Jewish community in West Denver.

Prior to to WW2 my family got lots of mail from family in Russia and Poland. By ages 5-7 not so much, and by the Wars end my European family, with exception of great uncle Hummel who escaped to Palestine, had been eliminated by Nazis.

Growing up I was told by Jews that Jews are better and smarter. It took till my 1st year at Colorado University to realize what a load of crap that was. I experienced anti-Semitism, name calling, etc. We could not own homes in some places, join country or athletic clubs, or stay in many hotels.

I was taught that more than 5,600 years ago my people, led by Moses entered the Land of Canaan, the "Holy Land", where they lived in peace until they went on to destroy holy places of the original inhabitants. Later, the sons of Abraham split into Jew and Arab (Muslim) and resulting conflict is without end.

In WW2 six million European Jews surrendered to the Nazis and were exterminated. So this might not happen again, around the end of WW2 with major funding by the American Zionist Organization some Jews formed a militant group bent on taking Palestine away from the Palestinians by any means to form the Jewish State of Israel.

I think this group includes the father of Rahal Emanuel, the chief advisor to President Elect Obama, which makes me fearful of the influence he might have re. the Israeli Palestinian problem.

The English Empire in 1948, maybe out of guilt or negative World opinion from its refusal to save the European Jews by accepting Hitler's offer to allow Jews to emigrate to England during WW2, gave Palestine to the surviving Jews.

The rub was it was inhabited. The Jews went on to attack, displace and take Palestine from Palestinians.

Some of the Palestinians capitulated. Others with aid of neighboring Arab states fought back several times against the Zionists. Jewish money, the will of the Jewish survivors and vastly superior US arms defeated the Palestinians.

Palestinians were displaced and forced to live in refugee camps in other countries as second class citizens. The UN attempted to resolve conflict by dividing the country and gave Palestinians less than l/3d (Gaza and the West bank) and Israel the rest. Even so, hard-liners on both sides have refused compromise.

Jews have always faced discrimination in Christian countries. Many Christians, if not most, believe Jews killed their God. Likely Christian countries support Israel in part because in doing so Jews living in Israel at least don't live in their Christian countries.

Others love to see Jews and Muslims killing each other. Financially, it might be said that the continuing conflict is a God-sent to the Industrial-Military Complex. So Israeli Jews are given total carte-blanche no matter how insane their actions and any who oppose them are labeled terrorists.

Seems to me that Israel has and continues to commit acts of terrorism amounting to Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes. I believe Gaza and the West Bank are now ghettos. There is no way an even playing field exists. The US gives more aid to Israel than any other country in the world.

It provides it with the newest, most powerful and lethal weapons it has and would come to its aid militarily if needed. Israel is highly industrialized, a major weapon producer itself and a producer of nuclear bombs. The Palestinians are extremely poor, nearly without weapons and without outside support.

Israel has dealt with neighboring countries by bombing them and UN observation posts; by killing peace keepers; humanitarian and aid workers; by dropping cluster bombs which leave behind land mine type explosives that cause injuries to and kill civilians for a long time thereafter, by treating other people inhumanely; and all the while illegally taking and settling their lands.

In the present Gaza situation it was Israel that first broke the Egyptian brokered cease fire by entering Gaza and killing Palestinians before Hammas and the Gaza victims retaliated with rockets. This occurred even after Hammas agreed to join Fah-Ta in the West Bank and other Arab countries in unconditionally

recognizing Israel's right to exist if Israel would agree to retreat to 1967 International borders and legitimately negotiate with them. Hammas prevented nearly all rocket attacks against Israel during the cease fire even though Israel continued its blockade and continued fathering misery upon Gaza civilians including withholding food, supplies, medication, water, fuel and electricity and the right to exit.

Since Israel began its current attack against the people in Gaza, although not entirely proven, it likely killed humanitarian aid workers during three hour "cease fires for humanitarian relief."

It instructed civilians including women and children to go to "a safe place" a school, then destroyed it killing some of those who fled there for safety. After lying by blaming Hammas for firing rockets from the school and presenting phony evidence, Israel in lieu of indisputable evidence to the contrary had to admit the lie.

Then Israel then said it accidentally missed its target and hit the school all the while bragging about and televising how accurate its weapons are, capable of hitting targets within feet of where aimed. It might be illegally using white phosphorous in heavily populated areas including refugee camps to bum the flesh of civilians and might be using experimental weapons that tear flesh and limbs from humans. It won't permit civilians to get out of Gaza to save their lives. If Israel was not tying and committing atrocities I think it would want independent journalists in Gaza as proof but instead it has prevented their entrance into Gaza.

I support all peoples' right to live in peace. I do not support terrorism. I don't like, but I understand the reason for the present rocket attacks against Israel Jews were victims of Hitler, but the Israelis have way over reacted and are responsible for the Palestinian's current retaliation.

I recognize that many of my people and others totally disagree with me and many blindly support Israel. It may be there are two sides, but I don't see it. I have personally experienced the plight of my people and support their need to have a Jewish homeland but I think their actions may have blown their right to this one.

Israel seems addicted to power and like an addict is completely out of control. The USA enables it. There needs to be an intervention.

If the USA doesn't intervene and force Israel to make peace, as only it can, the situation may well bring Iran and other Arab countries to the aid of the of their fellow Muslims which in turn might lead to deadly conflicts throughout the Middle-East involving the USA in still another war.

I also realize that Pakistan and Russia are friendly to Iran and along with Israel are nuclear powers with missile launching capabilities. This thing might well be Armageddon. The religious Right could have its dream fulfilled. Look out Sarah Palin, Alaska here I come.

I really enjoy watching you on your MSNBC show and I think you are exceptionally brilliant, talented and entertaining. Your show is relatively new and I write this because I fear you have inadvertently contributed to a situation dangerous to us all.

I watched with disappointment as you presented Senior NBC correspondent Richard Engel as an impartial reporter and I listened to his one sided, inaccurate, and partially untrue report on Gaza.

He blamed only Hammas, neglecting to say anything about Israel's aggression, inhumanity or overreaction. He accurately said the Hammas Charter called for extinction of Israel but left out its current change of position, all the while implying that only Hammas broke the cease fire. This kind of bull dung is all over lie TV and and a real need exists for fairness, impartiality and transparency.

You, Rachael Maddow, have quite a following and a large Main Stream audience which I believe is greater than Amy Goodman's and Juan Gonzales' Democracy Now, the War and Peace Report, the only fair and honest TV News program I know. By your full and honest reporting of all sides of the issue, informing, thus enlisting your audience's help, the word might just get out to President Elect Obama, appointed Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the rest of the proposed cabinet members and advisors, all of whom seem to blindly support Israel. Thereby, maybe an unimaginable disaster may be averted. I think you have the power if only you are willing to use it.

At this point neither you or Kieth Oberman seem to want to squariy report on the issue if at all and what is discussed are the Obama appointments and the economy. None of this will really matter much if the Earth's inhabitants are nuked or fallout destroys life on the planet- RACHAEL MADDOW, YOU COULD HELP SAVE OUR WORLD!! Help! Please! I wish you only the best.

With love in my heart, l am

Yours sincerely,

Gene Zelinger

Donna Demok's Hearts and Flowers Series Hits the tube

2008-08-08T17:36:00.000-07:00

LAKEWOOD, CO (IFS) - The Circle of Violence Against Women Institutes's yearly campaign against violence took to the small screen in hyperspace, as Donna Demok's straight up interview with SDCTV's Armel Jaccaro this past week.

Demok's request for women to ban together to help abused mothers and their children.

Demok's topic for the few short ten minute interview revolved around the usage of "Hearts and Flowers" after a big family fight. "In some cases, Demok says, "lots of gifts, trips, jewelry, you name it."

Demok further explains how everyone of us are captive of our own circle of violence, and tells how to break this cycle. See it all on youtube.com. Just type in Donna Demok to get the video presentation.

America's Nomads - The Rainbow Family of the Living Light

2008-07-09T07:57:00.000-07:00

America's Nomads - The Rainbow Family of the Living Light

by Kenny Smith for IFS

BIG SANDY, WY (IFS) The Rainbow Family of the Living Light gathered in Big Sandy, WY for the 35th annual event. The population grew to 10,200 participates including 200 US Forestry Services Law Enforcement officers on their annual training excerise.

Approximately 1,200 tickets were issued by these officers to individuals for various offenses. These officers search everyone and vehicles for the most "smallest" infraction. Dogs was the choice of these searches. The most unique incident occurred during the 3rd of July when, the forest officers fired over 20 rubber bullets into one person at the Kiddie Village area of the gathering.
The sheriff's son was found dead several miles from the gathering. He was under medical supervision and was off his meds and had commited suicide there. Many of the young people at the gather did participate in the search early on.

Overall the gathering was a success down from the big numbers in the past. The Casper newspaper stated in large leading headlines "Rainbow Family Dispaces Boy Scouts". This headlin was very deceiving, as the artcle moved on the praised the family, and their economic bump to the local town of Pinedale, WY that placed over $1.5 million in their coffers.

One visitor from Israel was a one star general in the Army. Other visitor included a young international cultural studies student from Japan.

The ADAPT group from Denver started protesting the Rainbow Family for not preparing entrance ways for the handicap members who could not "go home" to the area three miles away to the gathering. Wheelchair access for these people was not provided.

Rainbow Family of the Living Light Gathering July 1 - July 4th /Big Sandy, WY

2008-06-15T09:43:00.000-07:00

Rainbow Family of the Living Light Gathering July 1 - July 4th /Big Sandy, WY / 42 degrees North 36 minutes by 109 degrees West 14 minutes

Rainbow Family of the Living Light Gathering

- Jun 22-Jul 7 -

Big Sandy, WY -

42 degrees North 36 minutes by 109 degrees West 14 minutes

Take the Rock Springs, WY exit North - approximately 50 miles

Exclusive by the Traveler, elder map reader for festival

Big Sandy, WY (IFS) Expectation for the Old "Hippies" music party of the year. This year, 12 kitchens, In your backyard. Get that old sleeping bag out, bring a bliss kit (cup, bowl and saucer). It's near a river on the Big Sandy Creek, WY.

Area History

Sweetwater County is the perfect place to explore American history. Petroglyphs on White Mountain preserve the pictorial language of the prehistoric people from our region. Also, still carved into the earth are the wagon wheel ruts of the pioneer trails.

Highway 28 parallels the Oregon, Mormon Pioneer, Pony Express and California National Historic Trails. There are some of the finest trail remains in the United States.

There are over 100 miles of pioneer trail ruts in Sweetwater County that remain as they were over 150 years ago. Brown's Park and Jarvie Ranch

Along the lower Green River, in a canyon that evolved eons ago in the Uinta Range, lies a valley lush and green in the summer and protected from the harsh western winter winds. It is uncertain how Brown's Park, or Brown's Hole, got its name, but it appears to be a quiet and serene place where nothing bad could ever happen. That appearance is deceiving.
Although evidence shows that Native Americans had used the valley for generations, the first white man to settle there was probably George Baggs. Baggs was a drover who moved several hundred head of cattle into Brown's Park in the late fall of 1871. He planned to only wait out the winter, but stayed there with his common-law wife for many years. Gradually, more and more cattlemen learned about the valley and its lush forage. Ranches began to crop up all through the area and soon a community was born.
Because of its isolation and yet its proximity to main trails of the old days, Brown's Park became a favorite spot for outlaws and those wishing to disappear for awhile. With only two ways in and out of the park, it is easy to understand its popularity. Outlaws would frequently stop at one of the ranches for food, water, or a fresh horse. The people of the community minded their own business and weren't overly concerned about a person's background, as long as the person was honest and fair with the folks of the area.
Two frequent visitors were Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Both men were largely accepted in the area because they were polite and helpful. As one old-timer put it, "They never stole from us, just the railroad." They had a kind of "Robin Hood" reputation in Brown's Park.
Amelia Teters related childhood memories of the family returning to their ranch, from a trip to town, and finding that someone had been in the cabin and eaten a meal. "There would be a silver dollar lying by the dirty dishes, to pay for whatever was used," she said. It was unheard of to turn a stranger away, even if he might be an outlaw.
One of the most famous and well-loved people in the valley was John Jarvie. Jarvie migrated from Scotland when he was in his mid-twenties. He decided on Wyoming Territory as the place to start his new life and, in 1871, opened a saloon on North Front Street in Rock Springs. He met young Nellie Barr in 1881 and they were married almost immediately. They decided to move to Brown's Park and open a store to supply the residents of the valley. The Jarvies eventually built a nice home but, at first, they lived in a cozy dugout in a hill near the riverbank. The dugout is still there and is part of the historic site.
The folks in the valley loved John and Nell Jarvie and appreciated having a store close by. The Jarvies were good to the community and raised a large family there. But the tradition of helping out was the undoing of John Jarvie.
On July 6, 1909, Jimmy Jarvie, the youngest of John's brood, rode up to the house, expecting his dad to meet him on the porch. Instead, he found blood pooled in drying puddles and drag marks in the dirt. He followed the trail to the river and there he spotted a clump of long white hair snagged on a bush - hair like his father's. Back at the cabin, young Jarvie found the house ransacked. On the table was evidence of an unfinished meal and an open jug of whiskey.
A hew and cry went up throughout the community and folks searched for John Jarvie's body and the two men suspected of robbing and killing him. George Hood, who was known to dislike Jarvie, had been seen with another man going toward the Jarvie Store on the day before the disappearance. The ranchers sent to Rock Springs for the sheriff and, meanwhile, began trying to pick up the trail of the killers. It was a week before the body of the murdered man was found. Archie Jarvie found his father 20 miles downstream on the Green River he so loved. He was tied to his overturned rowboat and had been beaten and shot in the back. Although two $500 rewards were offered and posses roamed the hills and hidden canyons for months, Hood and his partner were never found.
Visitors to Brown's Park can see the dugout that John and Nell lived in as newlyweds, and the stone house where John met his fate.
Expedition Island

Expedition Island, near the present day town of Green River, Wyoming, was the starting point for the two expeditions down the Green and Colorado Rivers led by Major John Wesley Powell in 1869 and 1871. On these expeditions Powell completed the exploration of the last, large, unknown land area in the continental United States. Exploration of the unknown Colorado River by Powell and his crew opened up a new era for the nation. New concepts of conservation, reclamation, forestry and water management, geological and geographical surveys, and a whole new and scientific approach to the western lands ensued. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 16, 1969.

Live Ghost Town
Superior, WY
(307) 362-8173

This town, forgotten by time, was once a bustling town of more than 3,000 residents lured by underground coalmines. Today, only 275 hearty souls keep this isolated ghost town alive. Sites include all but vanished old town buildings, old dumpsites and areas for wildlife and wild horse viewing. For other ghost towns in Wyoming, click here.

Granger Stage Station

The Granger Station is a Wyoming State Historic Site located in Granger, Wyoming. The site contains one building constructed of cut native stone joined with lime-sand mortar.
The building was probably constructed around 1861-62. There has been some controversy and confusion over the date of the construction of this building. There was a stage station called the Ham’s Fork station located nearby. This station was a very crude dugout building set against a rise. It was described in less than glowing terms by an early traveler, Sir Richard Burton. “It was a disgrace; the squalor and filth were worse almost than the two—Cold Springs and Rock Creek—which had called our horrors, and which had always seemed to be the ne plus ultra of Western discomfort. The shanty was made of dry stone piled up against a dwarf cliff to save backwall, and ignored doors and windows.”

Historic Trails

Six Historic Trails sites (South Pass Overlook, False Parting-of-the-Ways, Big Sandy Crossing, Simpson's Hollow, Pilot Butte Trail Site, and Lombard Ferry) are located on Wyoming Highway 28 between the South Pass Rest Stop (east of Farson) and the Green River (west of Farson).

In Sweetwater County, Highway 28 parallels the Oregon, Mormon Pioneer, Pony Express, and California National Historic Trails. Intact trail ruts are visible at the False Parting-of-the-Ways, Simpson's Hollow, and Pilot Butte Trail sites.

Pilot Butte Trails Site is approximately 12 miles west of Farson on Wyoming Highway 28. This Bureau of Land Management Historic Interpretive Site offers signs about the Pilot Butte Trails landmark, Indian-Emigrant relations, and Transcontinental Telegraph. Signs are adjacent to trail ruts of the Oregon, Mormon Pioneer, Pony Express, and California National Historic Trails.

The Pony Express Route runs from South Pass, in Sublette County, to Pacific Springs, to Dry Sandy, to Little Sandy, to Big Sandy and Farson, to Big Timber, to Michael Morrins, to Hams Fork, to Church Buttes, to Millersville, and to Fort Bridger.

The Cherokee Trail runs north of Baggs, Wyoming, to the old Emigrant trail, east of US Highway 191, crossing Dans Creek and Little Bitter Creek south of Rock Springs, across Sage Creek (twice), crossing the Green River just above the Blacks Fork River Confluence, and to the Lone Tree Station.

The Overland Trail was the stagecoach route which ran across Bridger Pass, in Carbon County, to Sulphur Springs, Washakie, Duck Lake, Dug Spring, Fort LaClede, Black Buttes, Point of Rocks, Salt Wells, Rock Springs, Green River, Lone Tree Station, Granger, and on into Fort Bridger. Remnants of stage stations along the trail can be found with easy access at Point of Rocks (along I-80) and Granger (a short distance north of I-80).

Old Emigrant Trail runs from Bridger Pass, on the Overland Trail, to Fort LaClede, turns southwest until it meets up with the Cherokee Trail on the Little Bitter Creek, then to Lone Tree Station; it follows the Overland Trail until Fort Bridger, then turns northwest through the Bridger Antelope Trap.

A high-clearance or four-wheel-drive vehicle and dry road conditions are recommended for access to many of the trail areas.

These are some of the finest trail remains in the United States; please respect them and protect them.

For more information on the historic trails, please visit the BLM website.

The Overland Trail
So the invitation reads like this, expecting approximately 25,000 family members, bring all supplies necessary for camping for two weeks. The best selling RV for this festival, is the 1977 Ford 21 foot Cab over RV. Very good mileage, reliable engine, just big enough and easy to manage -- and costing $3,700 average across the country.

Things to trade:

BUG SPRAY

CHOCOLATE

ICE CREAM

LOVE BEADS

Toilet Paper

Bottled Water

All Toiletries

Flashlights - all sizes

Lighters

Food stuffs

CD's

Videos

Radios

pencils

paper

index cards

Things to do there:

26 music camps and theatres

Poetry camps

Dancing

Meditation camps

Local Media News Video Camps

Rainbow Family Seniors Retirement Planning Camps

Social Security Information Camps

The Nursing Camps for First Aid

Food Sampling kitchens

==============================

DIRECTIONS / FESTIVAL / FYI

==============================

First, know WY laws!!

RAINBOW FAMILY OF THE LIVING LIGHT

JUNE 22, 2008 THRU JULY 7, 2008

FESTIVAL = JULY 1ST THRU JULY 4TH

BIG SANDY, WY

EXIT ROCK SPRINGS, WY AND DRIVE NORTH. JUST FOLLOW ALL THE PEOPLE, AND PICK UP A COUPLE OF BROTHERS AND SISTERS ALONG THE ROAD TO THE FESTIVAL.

SDC OmniMedia Group
http://www.sdcog.net
InterNetics EMagazine
http://sdcinternetics.blog.com
KDTN Radio One Network
http://www.live365.com/stations/kdtn
KDTN Radio One Music Reviews
http://kdtnradio.blog.com
International Federated Syndicated News Writers (IFS)
http://ifsyndicate.blogspot.com
The Original SmithBits Magazine(est.1967)
http://smithbits.blogspot.com
Platinum Sound Recording Studios
http://www.indabamusic/people/platinumsound

Jenna Bush Supports WHO for President?

2008-04-24T09:13:00.000-07:00

Jenna, Jenna, Jenna! You really have grown up. The former party girl turned teacher turned children's book author let it slip on CNN's "Larry King Live" that she's not sure she'll vote for presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain and even left open the possibility she'll support either Sen. Barack Obama or Sen. Hillary Clinton. Wait...what?

FLDS mothers say Texas officials lied to them

2008-04-15T17:12:00.000-07:00

By Keith Johnson, Deseret News

Texas authorities executed a carefully orchestrated plan to force dozens of Fundamentalist LDS Church mothers into leaving their children behind in state care, said women who spoke to reporters at the YFZ Ranch Monday night.
10:27 a.m. |

Some of the FLDS mothers who were sent home without their children console one another at the Yearning for Zion ranch near Eldorado, Texas.

David | 1:10 a.m. Apr. 15, 2008
This is outrageous beyond belief. I'm thinking of my numerous nephews and nieces, particularly ages 6 and under...I can't imagine them being away from their parents for a night, let alone a couple weeks/months. The people have spoken: they want the security of big gov't over trust in family. Families aren't perfect, people aren't perfect, but somehow the gov't is? We're trusting in an organization that takes hundreds of years to figure out slavery isn't okay. It's called bureaucracy, people, and there are so many levels of authority/chain of command that it is laughable how long anything takes to get assistance. People whine about the gov't's failure with Katrina, but we've spoken: we voted for more gov't assistance. This is beautiful to think of in the context of this being taxes day. Pay our bill to Uncle Sam for...better roads? ROTFL! I'll keep my money, thanks. The invisible hand (see Adam Smith) is infinitely better than what we have now. How can ANYONE vote for bigger gov't?
Zach | 1:14 a.m. Apr. 15, 2008
This is horrible for the children. Absolutely horrible. I loathe lawyers, but we better see some huge lawsuits come out of this. Children being taken away from the security of their family that they've been immersed in for such a long time is more destructive than most realize. It can emotionally scar them for years, confuse them and can do no good--especially considering they have no clue why they're being separated.
GK from England | 1:15 a.m. Apr. 15, 2008
There's something not quite right with this whole situation and I feel that the rights of the FLDS people have and are being violated. I do not know whether there has been any child abuse(as alledged from one source) and I as a Father would hope and pray that NO abuse has taken place. But to persecute a whole community of predominantly peace keeping people in this way is a backward step. Didn't the Nazi's do something similar to the Jews?

Amy | 1:19 a.m. Apr. 15, 2008
This story has made me physically ill over the mistreatment of these women. Why are the women being punished? It is the men that are forcing the young girls to marry and such. As I have followed this story it has made me so depressed that something like this could happen in America.
candace from WA | 1:33 a.m. Apr. 15, 2008
As a mother my heart is breaking for all the mothers that can't be with there children. I think this is getting out of control. If there are children that are 14 and 15 years old and are pregnant then we do have to realize that laws are being broken. It is disturbing and horrifying to watch unfold and my feelings are so mixed. There is no religious persecution going on here though. They are trying to protect a child from being abused they do it everyday. Its just on a different scale because there are so many children in this situation.
Exasperated | 1:34 a.m. Apr. 15, 2008
" We are legal, law-abiding and a peaceful people. " she said. "We have literally been terrorized."

hereinlies the crux of the matter.They are so brainwashed, they genuinely believe they are law abiding citizens, but the evidence to date- upon which the state must make child welfare decisions- is that they have broken the law on three fronts at least- the worst of these being underage marriage and child abandonment of their young men. Mothers deserve their children back only when their children will be free from terror at home. The children here are the innocents who have been 'terrorised'.
Deseret Dawg | 2:03 a.m. Apr. 15, 2008
Texas has given America another black eye. First LBJ, then Dubya, now this. Texas is a reproach upon this great nation.
Worse | 2:08 a.m. Apr. 15, 2008
I do not condone Polygamy but what was done by these authorities and HOW they did it was clearly wrong. There needs to be some accountability on this. These people (mothers and children) were not breaking the law, but the men were. This is one of the messy outcomes of Polygamy...how to end it (I understand better why the LDS church officially stopped it in 1890 but you can't break up families immediately.

The children are the consequences of this mess. Now they suffer from the law too. Who can guarantee their well-being is any better? Can you imagine having your 5 year old taken from you and an end of legal rights??

This is typical of many messes our gov't steps into - they do not think through all the implications of a decision.
Evan | 2:08 a.m. Apr. 15, 2008
Unbelieveable ! Same thing occured with the Nazi's and the Jews ! The Jews were lied too as well, have we learned nothing from the past !!!

This warped and twisted society called FLDS has been allowed to go on too long ! I agree with "Exasperated" they ARE NOT law-abiding citizens, they have been living in a bubble that is not reality ! Will be interesting to see how this mess ends up !
RE-Exasperated | 2:15 a.m. Apr. 15, 2008
Wrong. Remove your shoes when dealing with the souls of children: you're on holy ground. The innocent lives, the hopes and dreams of children are not to be crushed so that another group's perception of justice is to be realized. Truth takes time. Justice takes time. The greater good isn't about immediately changing something you feel is not right. Consider all aspects. If a person does not like Social Security, doesn't mean we pull the cord immediately on millions of lives. Millions of people on welfare that may not be worthy of their check still don't get thrown into the streets the instant the funding is cut. Not only will you have a riot on your hands, but you will actually have taken 3 steps backward. You have lost what little trust you had in the group you're trying to educate. It will take generations to heal.

Ask yourself the next time you're driving a few miles above the speed limit: if a society says it's okay or not okay, is it?
Assumptions make an... | 2:17 a.m. Apr. 15, 2008
Brainwashing says you, faith and belief says them. Marriage for underaged individuals is not always illegal. When the guardian gives consent, it is usually allowed. Maybe if you want to tell them how to raise their kids, you should be willing to offer up yours to them. It's a good thing that they are calmer about the government sanctioned kidnapping of their children than some would be. There would be no wall tall enough nor people thick enough to keep me from keeping my children away from a group that has proven itself to be untrustworthy and deceitful. And let me tell you, these people seem quite thick.
Eye Dee Ten Tee | 2:42 a.m. Apr. 15, 2008
We're still waiting to find out who the 'judge' is that has issued these warrants. How did the baptist buses just happen to be there when the police and CPS stormed the ranch? Is there a reporter who is willing to investigate these questions? These poor people are just going to have their civil rights ignored until someone exposes the root of the problem.
The silence from the ACLU is deafening. There is no mention of this atrocity on their web site. They are too busy keeping bibles out of Texas schools and supporting same genger 'marriages' in Philadelphia. By their fruits you shall know them. They are only interested in defending civil liberties when it fits their agenda.
Archaea Cougarguard | 2:47 a.m. Apr. 15, 2008
As difficult as this short term pain may be, it is a necessary task in order to stop the vicious and destructive cycle of polygamy. In the long term, it is in the best interest of these children to be taken out of the selfish and abusive FLDS environment. Better to keep focused on the long term and eventually redeeming objective.
Outsider | 2:54 a.m. Apr. 15, 2008
Only in your neck of the woods could these oddball losers get away with their histrionics.
Drama | 2:55 a.m. Apr. 15, 2008
All I can say is that the Texas authorities better have some good hard evidence of 416 cases of abuse, or this is a terrible miscarriage of justice.

Personally, I would like to see a little more balanced reporting of these stories from DN. Lately, nearly everything I’ve read here has been nothing but major drama and tears from FLDS mothers making all sorts of accusations. What do people involved in Texas have to say? And what about the FLDS men, have they been struck dumb?
Anonymous | 3:09 a.m. Apr. 15, 2008
How can you be unsure about if there was child abuse present on the compound? Children are forced to marry older men and produce bodies for spirit babies. That is sexual abuse. They are taught from the cradle that this is the right thing do to and to accept this sexual abuse. It's sick.
shocking | 3:33 a.m. Apr. 15, 2008
What is shocking is the supportive comments towards women who have been perpetuating child rape.

Texas lied to you? Bit like the pot calling the kettle black. You have been lying about your names and refusing to identify your children.

Give me a break. You perpetuated a felony.

Utahn's; get over your outrage. Save your dismay for the real victims; the molested children of this cult. Those children are better off out of such a destructive home
also exasperated | 4:54 a.m. Apr. 15, 2008
Reading the story from the Deseret News' perspective, yes this is a horrible thing happening to these poor women. But that seems to be the view Deseret News wants you to have. I'm so tired of the Abusive Texan Authorities point of view. Does the FLDS own Deseret News?! In USA Today's story they tell that this was done for the children's safety (maybe to keep them from being forced into marriage with a 50 year old uncle you think?) and that some women "chose to return to their ranch and others accepted the state's offer of "a safe place" elsewhere" (that would be a women's shelter). Also, USA Today said that some of the children DO have lawyers. Funny how many things were in a paper outside of Utah that the newspaper in Utah just happened to miss. Yeah, I'm outside of Utah, too. Grew up there thought and I'm glad to see Texas doing what Utah never had the guts to do, step and and stop young girls forced into marriages they didn't want with men they didn't want.
Brian | 5:19 a.m. Apr. 15, 2008
Law abiding citizend who marry their 13 year olds to aunts and uncles? Must have missed that part of the statutory rape seminar...and what a job by the media to make us feel sorry for them forcing their kids into marriages as teenagers. Wow. From the Deseret News, not less. I'm very disappointed in everyone who is getting taken in by this.
just thinking | 5:35 a.m. Apr. 15, 2008
each day the news gets worse. would someone stand up against these thugs. lets take the mothers to the right and the children to the left so they can have showers. that is what the nazis did to the jews. and now it is happening all over again. there have been a few convictions of child abuse. those men had trials and were proven guilty. go after the men. dont leave them on the ranch and take the children. dont lie to the mothers. we live in america, of course maybe this is all a lie. what freedoms do we really have? these same things happened to the main lds church in the last century, and now it is lifting its ugly head again. i pray each day that Christ will come again, and restore peace to this earth.
Uncle Fred | 5:44 a.m. Apr. 15, 2008
"Anyone with a mother knows how we're feeling right now. What would they do if they were in our place? If we had known this was ahead of us, we couldn't have lived another day."

That is the real reason for the raid. Well, not really, it's the money, but, these people are just waiting for an order to drink the cool-aid. These mothers are trained to kill their children before letting the state take them. That is why the authorities did what they did in the manner in which they did it. This drivel is simply TV hype from the mothers. I blame the prosecutor(s) through the years from Utah and Arizona that let this mess get as far out of hand as it has.
JND | 5:59 a.m. Apr. 15, 2008
The women repeatedly lied to CPS. And now they are surprised that CPS lied to them? I'm shocked!
Where's the proof? | 6:04 a.m. Apr. 15, 2008
All this based on an anonymous phone call? Has anybody been formally charged with facilitating underage marriage or child abandonment? If they can do this to them they can do it to you. Better pray that someone doesn't trump up a charge against you. Your children may be the next wards of the state.
I do hope... | 6:09 a.m. Apr. 15, 2008
that all things will sorted out fairly and promptly for the sake of the sanity of all parties involved, very soon...
FLUtahn | 6:14 a.m. Apr. 15, 2008
Wake up Americans! Our government has proven once again (ie Waco, Ruby Ridge) that it is more than willing to spit on the Constitution and then rub our faces in it. An overzealous and heavy-handed government can and must be met with ire from the people who GIVE IT its authority in the first place. I have seen far too much complacency amongst Americans in recent years. And, as punishment for that, our government has stealthily and surreptitiously removed some of our most time honored rights...such as: Due Process, Habeas Corpus, and fair treatment. I wonder which reasons they will use to remove children next in order to "protect" them? Maybe your political positions are "odd" or "not normal" or maybe you just dont like the government, so one day a government trooper shows up at your door to "protect" your children. Think about it...this is just the beginning.
Georgia | 6:23 a.m. Apr. 15, 2008
Exasperated,

There has only been an accusation of broken law - no evidence so far has been produced since they cannot even locate the girl who made the initial phone call. Without evidence, arrests cannot be made and (in theory)children cannot be removed from parents custody. What concerns me is the idea that someone can make a phone call to authorities accusing someone/some group of illegal actions and without evidence that person/group can suffer harsh consequences! I would not be surprised if a law (or many laws) were broken, but as a citizen of the United States I expect and have the right to demand that lawful and legal procedures are followed! These children have been taken into custody not on the grounds of EVIDENCE, but instead they have been taken in order to COLLECT evidence! Completely backwards and in full disregard for due process! If this case stirs your emotions and sense of justice, then you should write to your congressmen/women and express your concern over Texas officials disregard for the legal rights of these parents. I don't agree with their lifestyle, but standing up for their rights is standing up for my own!
Candace is next | 6:23 a.m. Apr. 15, 2008
Candace from WA,
How would you like being the next mother to have your children "protected"?
Difficult thing | 6:24 a.m. Apr. 15, 2008
I have been a foster parent. I have witnessed a mother working very hard and did get her child back by doing what the CPS plan laid out for her to do. I have seen a teen mother run and dissappear for months at a time only to return and demand visits and she got them. Supervised yes, but from the 4+ years I worked with CPS and the foster care system their main priority is to RETURN CHILDREN TO THEIR FAMILIES. They are duty bound by that, and what some of you don't understand is that we aren't getting all the information here. We are not suppose to. Some information is very guarded due to protection of rights and confidentiality of these children. Please don't thnk we have all the information CPS and officials have. There is much we don't know and know that media is hindering and making this much worse for everyone involved.
Nope | 6:28 a.m. Apr. 15, 2008
No sympathy. If you are an enabler to hurting any child.
CITIZEN | 6:37 a.m. Apr. 15, 2008
Texas authorities lie to someone????NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!
Wise Man vs Foolish Man | 6:40 a.m. Apr. 15, 2008
Now will you people accepting this outrageous raid by the government wake up? How can you continue to support a raid which was brought about by an unsubstantiated phone call and a late night phone call to a judge?

The germans were tricked in this same exact manner. Their government told them the jews were to blame for their financial troubles, "look the jews are getting richer while you suffer." So they praised the nazis for "teaching those jews a lesson." Likewise, people are tricked into thinking they are in the moral right, because after all these people are child molesters, aren't they?

Whether they be or not, we are a nation of laws and despite what you may think the government must also follow them. Innocent until proven guilty is a foundational element of our legal system. A foundation build upon a rock. A foolish man would support this house upon the sand in which you support CPS operating on.

The question to you is which on are you? Foolish or Wise?
VegasBaby | 6:40 a.m. Apr. 15, 2008
And just how many FLDS members have lied to the authorities? Can't wait to see what happens Thursday.
Anonymous | 6:47 a.m. Apr. 15, 2008
The government is simply following protocol. If there is a hint of abuse on a child then that child becomes a ward of the state until the false accusations are proven otherwise. My friend had a neighbor turn her in to social workers because they saw one of her children on a garage roof. She still gets weekly visits from the state to see if any danger activity can be seen, and still threaten to take away her children if deemed necessary. If nothing here is amiss then these children will be returned. But laws are put into place, this is just a big scale operation and only noteworthy to journalists for the shock value...which seems to have worked on you people!
Mike | 6:47 a.m. Apr. 15, 2008
Where were these "crying" mothers when their 14 year old daughters were being married off? Were their any tears for them? Where were the "crying" mothers when their 15 year old sons were run off the compound because they were competition to the old geezers? For some reason there were no tears or complaints for those children instead abandoning them to a completely unknown life and world.

Last night I watched an interview and it was clear, you need only do the math, that one mother was clearly "lying for the lord." She was asked the ages of her children and grandchild...her child that produced the grandchild was told to be "18 plus." Her grandchild was 10 months. If one adds 10 months plus the 9 months of gestation we have a 16 year old that was pregnant. Carolyn Jessop then spoke. She shared a husband with this same woman and she also stated that the girl had just turned 18.

Folks, this is not about polygamy but about abuse and CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE. It is often also INCESTUOUS CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE (see fumerase deficiency). Your hearts are bleeding as they lie through their teeth.
john | 6:49 a.m. Apr. 15, 2008
This raid should frighten anyone who is a member of an unpopular religion.
Wayne | 6:54 a.m. Apr. 15, 2008
The current situation in Texas of the state kidnapping hundreds of children from their mothers is a breach of constitutional rights of due process. This is outrageous!

The immediate solution to all the chaos as to where to care for these children who are being torn-apart from their mothers is quite simple. Have all the adult males leave the compound (which they have agreed to do) and allow all children and mothers to return to their homes. Mothers and children can then be monitored within the compound by CPS and other appropriate personnel. The mothers and children can then be in their own homes while the state figures out what to do about this mess.
wbm5 | 6:54 a.m. Apr. 15, 2008
Here is a statement from one of the mothers. "I tried so hard to protect my children. They don't know that people hurt each other." This scares me..... She isn't preparing her children for the world we live in. I have to wonder what has happened in her life that she feels such a need to hide from the truth.

I protect my children by giving them tools to function with many types of people. They learn to get along with others, not act as if everyone is out to get them.

I am torn though to on the way things seem to be presented to us. A bunch of crying women saying they were lied to sure makes you want to feel bad for them. But the police didn't lie to get then away from their children. Those women wouldn't have left calmly if the police had said, "We are now going to separate you from your children." They were told we want to give you information, which they did. These women feel like victims and they are.... from their leaders and their "husbands" who supposedly "love" them.
Kevin In Texas | 6:57 a.m. Apr. 15, 2008
Prosecute those who are law breakers, perhaps the leaders of this group. But for heavens sake I do not believe that the accusations merit the removal of all children from all mothers. This is an outrage and I will definitely cast my votes this election season against those who are responsible.
Mother From Australia | 6:59 a.m. Apr. 15, 2008
If there is an investigation needed, I can't imagine a more abusive and traumatic way to conduct it! Why do the authorities have the right to lie to the children and the mothers? What is next for these children? I have heard of underage children being badgered by interrogators until they have confessed to awful crimes. Who is tending to their needs? Why do they want them separated? If the women and children are victims, why do the authorities further punish them? This saga is nothing short of horrific. We should all be worried that this could happen in a "free" nation like the USA. You had all better fear this kind of power unleashed!!
The Australian government just apologized to the Aboriginal people for stealing and keeping their children over a period of 40 years or so. They are called the The Stolen Generation. What a tragedy!!
re: also exasperated | 7:01 a.m. Apr. 15, 2008
You lied about the USA Today story, I just read the whole thing and watched their video clips. They are very similar to the ones the Deseret News is covering. Their story is nearly identical. Considering you are a liar, I would expect you to support the wrong course of action.

Perhaps you should look into a mirror before you call someone else a liar especially an entire news outlet. There were times where I swore off ever reading the Deseret News again because they had abandoned their base audience, Mormon families. But recently Joe Cannon has righted that ship, hopefully things will stay that way. For you to criticize them for being the first and at that time the only media outlet presenting both sides of this story is appalling. Perhaps you would be better off in China where you aren't presented with the facts so the government can tell you how you should think for you.
DeLaval Milker | 7:08 a.m. Apr. 15, 2008
Go Texas. Pedophiles don't usually get a soft reception in Utah, but when it's this bunch it seems to be a different story.
Rescuing these people, and putting an end to the abuse is going to take time and effort, the kind Utah won't step up with.
To me, one of the biggest crimes committed against these people, all of them, is the loss of themselves. They have had their self determination stripped away, and replaced with 'faith'. Forced to have procreative sex at very young ages, pooly educated, isolated and taught to fear society, it's not like their career options open up for them. Coming from this environment, I'm not surprised that they are going to consider anything in the outside world a lie.
Sad in St George | 7:09 a.m. Apr. 15, 2008
I have provided medical care to many of these people for the past 10 years. They are some of the most honest, decent people I have ever met. They abuse their children at the same rate as the general population--not anywhere near 100 percent as Texas would have us believe.

I did my medical training in the inner city hospitals of St Louis. On any given day, they are full of 12-13 year old mothers having children--young mothers who truly are abused by violent drug culture. If the authorities rounded up all the kids at risk in St Louis and stole them from their families, there would be war.

Texas has perpetrated the very type of crime against our citizens that our constitution was designed to prevent.
Liz | 7:11 a.m. Apr. 15, 2008
In child abuse cases, it is really common to separate parents from kids. Texas is doing it correctly. The kids won't speak if they have their mother there, who is using a cell phone to get calls from the guys back at the ranch. Let's wait for more to come out. If the women were really concerned, they wouldn't watch their 14 year old marry a 50 year old.
wrc | 7:16 a.m. Apr. 15, 2008
Many comments here are based upon stereotype opinions, not fact. And the same logic seems to be used by the State of Texas. A report of a crime (child rape in this case) should have been investigated and, if possible, prosecuted. Authorities should have gone to the ranch to investigate - But the REPORTED abuse of one girl is not legal cause to take into legal custody several hundred people.
This is a country of Constitutional law and all people have rights. There has been no due process here. This is totalitarian rule based upon stereotypical opinions.
I agree with 'Georgia' who wrote; "as a citizen of the United States I expect and have the right to demand that lawful and legal procedures are followed!"
Anna | 7:18 a.m. Apr. 15, 2008
Sickening is the only way to describe these human rights violations by the Texan authorities! Didn't we just see this kind of dishonesty, fraud, and deceit in the Duke University rape case. Justice needs to be served here! These children must be returned to their families immediately, their families compensated by the State, and criminal charges brought against the rogue prosecutors and those in Child Protective Services that have greatly overstepped their authority.
I agree | 7:20 a.m. Apr. 15, 2008
Hear,hear - Mike, Schocking, & Also exasperated. You said it better than I could. Shame on DN for helping this turn into another Short Creek where everyone feels so sorry for these poor, persecuted, law-abiding, polygamists.
Is there no other way? | 7:22 a.m. Apr. 15, 2008
This seems so wrong on so many levels.
Could officials not just ARRANGE an official MEETING with all adult male leaders of the sect (whoever their leadership body or quarom or whatever consists of) and make the agreement that the law will stay out of their lives if they agree to not allow women to marry until they are 18 years old (which is still pretty darn young in my book). That way the FLDS would feel assurance that this won't happen again, and the state would be assured child-bride (abuse) isn't happening anymore.

These poor children. I would gladly step in as a foster parent AND ALLOW THEIR MOTHER (birth mother as proved by birth certificate)to come live with them all in my home. I don't think this is right how it is being handled.
Layola | 7:28 a.m. Apr. 15, 2008
Who new the deseret News was so pro polygamy?

My first reaction was sadness for these women then I remembered what they would do to their own daughters once they were 13 or 14.

Sorry ladies, if you can't take your own daughters away from men who will rape them at such a young age, you deserve to lose them to the state.

Make a choice.

Once again I ask, where are the men?
Why are they not speaking out?

Some of these women were on TV last night. One was the woman who tried to stop Carolyn Jessop from fleeing with her children. She did her cause no good.

They are so willing to turn on the waterworks for the cameras but refuse to answer some very pertinent questions. Sorry ladies, the rights of your children come before yours. Their first right is to not be in an environment that condones rape.

Bill O'Reilly reported that there are about 20 girls ages 13-16 that are pregnant among the children.

Well ladies, you let those rapes happen! Now the system is getting you.

Too bad.
Thomas Jefferson | 7:28 a.m. Apr. 15, 2008
Here we sit and allow a massive intrusion and display of State authority in an unprecedented way. Texas has no choice but to make it up as they go because there is nothing codified that explains or gives guidance in what they are doing. I am totally against what has occured in Texas and this over-reach will inspire States and Federal agencies more intrusion than ever.
Inspired | 7:31 a.m. Apr. 15, 2008
After watching these pitiful turn of events, I'm even more convinced that the "Manifesto" to end plural marriage back in 1890 was even more Inspired. The Lord knows why he does things, hundreds of years in advance.

Can You Spell - WACO or ELDORADO

2008-04-15T16:30:00.000-07:00

By Kenneth Howard Smith

DENVER, CO(IFS)- I don't condone any of this. But what I condone is justice and the right to choose. Let's see, in Waco, TX, the children were being starved to death, there wasn't enough food, according to Janet Reno and her young guns. Today, it's Eldorado, TX. The excuse this time, is a 16 year old girl that's called "twice", but can't be found? This case really stinks -- really bad?

After watching the "6 O'Clock" News, again I was brainwashed by the media that happens to report on the same thing at the very same time. How do they know? Sandra C. Joseph would ask. Well Sandra, it's like this, I have been expecting the State of Texas to have flown this "16 year old" girl into the state. You know, an actress to play the part, but can never get any credit. It's about the same change that Mr. Bush has had to fly into Iraq those WMD's - on a C-130. It's only a matter of time that this "girl' that was used to ignite this powder dump will come forth - even if you have to invent her.

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'Busload' Of Children Removed From Polygamist Compound After Sex Abuse Report
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Written by: Doug G. Ware
Email: dware@kutv2.com
Last Update: 4/04 3:45 pm
Print Story | Email Story

Polygamous Compound 'Raided' By Authorities
Members of the Texas Rangers law enforcement agency arrive at a polygamous compound in Texas used by the FLDS church. April 4, 2008.
Members of the Texas Rangers law enforcement agency arrive at a polygamous compound in Texas used by the FLDS church. April 4, 2008.
EL DORADO, Tex. - Texas authorities removed several children on Friday from a polygamous compound that was essentially built by Warren Jeffs -- after raiding the large building with search warrants in-hand.

Local police, along with Texas State troopers and the Texas Rangers sealed off the compound on Thursday night -- after receiving a complaint from a runaway that children inside were being sexually abused. Officials did not let anyone go in or out, and didn't even let airplanes or helicopters fly overhead.

Friday afternoon, Texas state troopers escorted a bus from the compound which contained several children -- but mostly girls, state child welfare officials said. Officials did not immediately say whether the children taken away had been abused.

The compound was purchased by Jeffs' Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS) four years ago as a retreat for followers of the faith. It is said that Jeffs himself even spent some time at the compound in the past.

The compound, called the "Yearning For Zion Ranch," has approximately 150 people living inside -- all of whom presumably are believers in the FLDS faith. It is located approximately 150 miles northwest of San Antonio.

Jeffs, who was arrested in August 2007 on child rape-related charges, was once -- and might still be -- considered the FLDS church's prophet.
The "Yearning For Zion" ranch is a retreat for followers of the FLDS faith located in El Dorado, Tex. (Photo: Randy Mankin/Eldorado Success)
The "Yearning For Zion" ranch is a retreat for followers of the FLDS faith located in El Dorado, Tex. (Photo: Randy Mankin/Eldorado Success)

Jeffs was captured near Las Vegas, Nev. in 2007 traveling in an SUV allegedly loaded with electronic equipment, disguises and thousands of dollars in cash. He had been wanted for years by local and federal authorities for allegedly arranging the marriages of young girls to older men.

In November 2007, Jeffs was sentenced to two five years-to-life prison sentences, which will be served consecutively. He still faces similar charges in Arizona.

On Friday, authorities said that everyone inside the compound was cooperating and that no one had been placed under arrest. It was not revealed how many people inside were being questioned or investigated, or how long the investigation would last.

Friday's news of the raid invoked memories of a similar incident in 1993, when FBI agents -- acting on reports of child abuse inside a different religious retreat in Waco, Texas -- forced their way into the Branch Davidian compound, which resulted in a massive fire and nearly 100 deaths.

To this day, it is not clear whether the fire was started by the people inside -- or accidentally by the FBI. David Koresh, the cult's proclaimed leader, was among those who died in the incident.