Over 89 percent of residents in Italy's Veneto region have voted in an unofficial referendum in favor of independence from the rest of the country as Venetians seek to restore the glory of the old days by creating a state of their own.

Over two million residents of Veneto - the region of Italy surrounding Venice - took part in the so-called 'Veneto independence referendum' that lasted from Sunday to Friday. The survey, conducted online and backed by the region's independence parties, has no legal power but aims to gather support for a bill calling for a referendum.

The poll also asked residents if they want the region to keep the euro and remain part of the European Union and NATO if it declares its independence. More than 55 percent of voters said they would prefer an independent Veneto to remain part of the EU, and over 51 percent said they want to remain in the eurozone. Over 64.5 percent said they want Veneto to be part of NATO.

The results of the vote were announced Friday in the city of Treviso, where hundreds of pro-independence activists gathered for a demonstration, waving the flags of the old Venetian Republic.

Earlier, the "yes" campaign - organized by pro-independence activists - said that if the majority voted for separation of the region, Veneto would issue a 'Declaration of Veneto Sovereignty' and stop all tax transfers to the central government in Rome.

Does this sound familiar?

You're talking to a friend or family member who isn't on board with preparedness. (And it's even worse when they think they know what's going on in the world but garner their so-called "information" from network news sources.) You try for the millionth time to get them to consider stocking up on a few things and they say this:

Life's too short for all of this doom and gloom. Live a little! You're such a pessimist!

My response to this is that preparedness is the ultimate form of optimism.

One who practices skills, makes dramatic lifestyle changes, and studies current events critically may come across to the uninitiated as a person who has buried himself or herself in negativity, but in fact, one who prepares is saying to life, "Whatever comes, we are not only going to live through it, my family is going to thrive, and I will not bend my knee to tyranny for an MRE and a bottle of water."

A Malaysian government official says investigators have concluded that one of the pilots or someone else with flying experience hijacked the missing Malaysia Airlines jet.

The official, who is involved in the investigation, says no motive has been established, and it is not yet clear where the plane was taken. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media.

The official said that hijacking was no longer a theory. "It is conclusive."

The Boeing 777′s communication with the ground was severed under one hour into a flight March 8 from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 aboard. Malaysian officials have said radar data suggest it may have turned back and crossed back over the Malaysian peninsula westward, after setting out toward the Chinese capital.

Piracy and pilot suicide have been among the scenarios under study as investigators grew increasingly certain the missing Malaysia Airlines jet reversed course and headed west after its last radio contact with air traffic controllers.

An Arizona judge on Monday set a September court date to try again to determine whether convicted murderer Jodi Arias will be put to death for killing her ex-boyfriend nearly six years ago, court officials said.

Arias was convicted by a jury in May 2013 of murdering Travis Alexander, whose body was found slumped in the shower of his suburban Phoenix home in June 2008. He had been stabbed multiple times, shot in the face and had his throat slashed.

But the jury deadlocked on whether the former California waitress should be executed or face life in prison.

Judge Sherry Stephens ordered jury selection for a penalty phase retrial to begin on September 8. The high-profile case, watched live by tens of thousands of people over the Internet, has been frequently delayed amid a flurry of motions by defense attorneys. The latest sought to have the death penalty thrown out, a move that was rejected by Stephens last month.

Louisiana is suing national left-leaning policy group MoveOn.org in federal court, saying it violated trademark rules when it put up a billboard and commissioned television ads critical of Gov. Bobby Jindal that use the state's tourism logo and motto.

Republican Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne has been locked in a pitched battle with the group for weeks, unsuccessfully calling for it to take down the billboard that is currently up on the I-10 coming into Baton Rouge from Port Allen.

"We have invested millions of dollars in identifying the Louisiana: Pick Your Passion brand with all that is good about Louisiana. No group should be allowed to use the brand for its own purposes, especially if it is for partisan political posturing," Dardenne said in a statement announcing the suit.

"MoveOn.org has every right to attack Gov. Jindal, the state's refusal to accept Medicaid or, for that matter, me personally. But they do not have the right to use our protected service mark, which is used solely for the purpose of promoting and marketing Louisiana. We own the mark and its use is under the direction of my office, not the Office of the Governor."

Get a load of this chart from DataQuick's National Home Sales Snapshot. It'll tell you everything need to know about housing.
(Note: MSA=metropolitan statistical area)

As you can see, prices are flatlining or drifting lower while sales are sinking like a stone. That's the whole ball of wax, isn't it?

Sure, sales will increase in the spring (as they always do), but judging by the sharp dropoff in last year's hottest markets, this could be the crappiest spring selling season since the crash.

Why?

Because prices are too high, rates are too high, "organic" demand is too weak, credit is too tight, and the pool of potential buyers has shrunk to the size of a walnut, that's why.

The banks have reduced the percentage of distressed homes (foreclosures and short sales) on the market to roughly 11 percent from 59 percent in 2009. Fewer distressed homes mean higher prices, but higher prices mean fewer sales. It's a trade-off. The banks get their money, but the market goes to hell. That's how it works. According to most estimates, there are roughly 4.5 million homes in some stage of foreclosure. That means that - at the present pace - we should get through this Housing Depression a few weeks before Judgment Day. But don't hold me to that.

Did you catch this gem on Bloomberg last week? It's about the big private equity guys exiting the market. Take a look:

"Blackstone Group LP is slowing its purchases of houses to rent amid soaring prices after a buying binge made it the biggest U.S. single-family home landlord. Blackstone's acquisition pace has declined 70 percent from its peak last year, when the private equity firm was spending more than $100 million a week on properties, said Jonathan Gray, global head of real estate for the New York-based firm...

"The institutional wave has passed," Gray, who oversees almost $80 billion in property investments, said in a telephone interview. 'It's at a much lower level than it was 12 or 24 months ago.'

Private-equity firms, hedge funds, real estate investment trusts and other institutional investors have spent more than $20 billion to buy as many as 200,000 rental homes in the last two years. They snapped up properties after prices fell as much as 35 percent from the 2006 peak...

American Homes 4 Rent and Colony American Homes, the second- and third-largest single-family landlords, also have been scaling back as bargains dry up...

"We're going to have to probably slow down a little bit on our acquisition pace until we have a better view or actual certainty of the capital being available," (Chief Executive Officer David ) Singelyn said.

Colony Financial Inc. (CLNY), a REIT that invests in Colony American Homes, slowed its funding for acquisitions last year to focus on improving operations, CEO Richard Saltzman said in a November conference call...

American Residential Properties Inc. (ARPI), a landlord with 6,000 homes, slowed acquisitions by almost half in its latest quarter ending Dec. 31. It invested $104 million in 633 homes compared with $204 million on 1,251 homes in the previous quarter, the Scottsdale, Arizona-based company said in a statement." (Blackstone's Home Buying Binge Ends as Prices Surge, Bloomberg)

Okay, so the speculators are getting out of housing. How's that going to effect the market?

France is limiting vehicle use in the capital Paris on Monday amid a spike in pollution to health-threatening levels, only the second time the drastic measure has been introduced in nearly two decades.

A system of "alternating traffic", whereby vehicle use is restricted to alternate days depending on licence plate numbers, came into effect in Paris and its 22 surrounding suburbs at 5.30 am (04.30 GMT) on Monday, as the city tries to curb dangerous pollution levels.

The radical move has seen around 700 police officers deployed to 60 checkpoints around the French capital to ensure that only cars with number plates ending in odd numbers are out on the streets.

Parking is free on Monday for vehicles with even number plates, the Paris city hall said, calling on residents to consult carpooling or car-sharing sites to work out their travel plans.

38 year old James Boyd had been camping in a spot that the state deemed "illegal." Trigger happy officers were dispatched to the scene and Boyd was murdered by them.

Boyd was being cordial and surrendering and he started walking down the mountain. At this point the aggressive and violent escalation by police led to a flash bang grenade and then shots fired.

Apparently cops wearing cameras does not deter them from murdering people.

According to ABQ Journal, The illegal camper shot by Albuquerque police this week was turning away from officers when they fired at him, according to video released by Chief Gorden Eden on Friday.

The shots come after a confrontation in which the man, identified as 38-year-old James Boyd, tells police he's going to walk down the mountain with them.

"Don't change up the agreement," Boyd says. "I'm going to try to walk with you."

He tells officers he's not a murderer.

Boyd picks up his belongings and appears ready to walk down toward officers. An officer fires a flash-bang device, which disorients Boyd.

Boyd appears to pull out knives in both hands as an officer with a dog approaches him. He makes a threatening motion toward the officer, then starts to turn around away from police.

That's when shots ring out, and Boyd hits the ground. Blood can be seen on the rocks behind him.

Of Course the Albuquerque police said officers were justified in murdering this man because he had made "threatening moves" from 30 feet away.

Grayson Bruce, 9, needed a new lunch box.

So he picked a sack with a "My Little Pony" theme - Rainbow Dash.

"I had no idea the fire storm it would start," Grayson's mother Noreen Bruce wrote on Facebook.

Turns out that Grayson's a fan of the cartoon and its characters - and for that he's been bullied at at his North Carolina school where his classmates say "My Little Pony" is for girls.

"They're taking it a little too far...punching me, pushing me down, calling me horrible names, stuff that really shouldn't happen," Grayson told WLOS-TV in Asheville, acknowledging that "most of the characters in the show are girls, and most of the people put it toward girls, most of the toys are girlie."

When the bullying came to a head and Noreen Bruce got involved, she said school officials blamed Grayson's open appreciation for "My Little Pony" rather than punishing the bullies.

Voting began Sunday on a referendum on whether Venice and its surrounding region should secede from the rest of Italy, in an attempt to restore its 1,000-year history as a sovereign republic.

La Serenissima - or the Most Serene Republic of Venice - was an independent trading power for a millennium before its last leader was deposed by Napoleon in 1797. The republic encompassed not just Venice but what is now the surrounding region of Veneto and it is there that the vote will take place from Sunday until Friday.

Campaigners have been inspired by the example of Scotland, which will hold its referendum on independence in September, and Catalonia, where around half the population say they want to break away from Spain.

Activists say that the latest polling shows that 65% of voters in the Veneto region, which includes historic cities such as Treviso, Vicenza and Verona, are in favour of cutting ties with Rome.