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US: Alaska Lawmakers Debates Another Bill on TSA Pat-Downs, Effects of Radiation


The Washington Post
Tue, 21 Feb 2012 01:28 UTC
Sharon Cissna
© unknown
Alaska State Rep. Sharon Cissna
Airport security around the state could be affected by proposals up for consideration before Alaska lawmakers.

The House Transportation Committee on Tuesday is scheduled to discuss HB270, a bill that would require signs warning of physical searches and electronic devices that use radiation outside Transportation Security Administration checkpoints in airports and anywhere else similar procedures are used.

Rep. Sharon Cissna, D-Anchorage, sponsored the measure. She made national headlines last year after she refused a pat-down at a Seattle airport.
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Handcuffs

US, Virginia: Huguely Convicted of Second-Degree Murder

Bill McKelway
Richmond Times Dispatch
Thu, 23 Feb 2012 00:00 UTC

The murder of a 22-year-old University of Virginia student should bring her former boyfriend 26 years in prison, a jury concluded Wednesday, finding no merit in separate charges that carried up to three life sentences for George W. Huguely V.

Huguely, 24, rose to his feet and made the sign of the cross as the jury entered the cavernous Charlottesville circuit courtroom. His head bowed and his shoulders slumped at the panel's convictions for second-degree murder and grand larceny after a two-week trial.

About three hours later, Huguely affected the same upright pose with head bowed when the jury recommended he serve 25 years for murder and an additional year for grand larceny.

Huguely will be sentenced sometime after April 16 when lawyers meet with Charlottesville Circuit Judge Edward L. Hogshire about the case.

During the sentencing phase, Commonwealth's Attorney David Chapman put on two witnesses, Love's mother, Sharon Love, and Love's older sister, Lexie Love.
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Red Flag

UK: Rapists Jailed for Just 40 Months After Judge Says 11-Year-Old Victim was 'Willing'


Parent Dish
Wed, 22 Feb 2012 21:57 UTC
Two rapists have been jailed for just 40 months each after a judge said their 11-year-old victim was "willing" and looked like she was older.

Image
© Photoshot
Roshane Channer and Ruben Monteiro admitted assaulting the girl in a block of flats in Luton in 2011, but Judge David Farrell QC jailed them both for just 40 months each as he accepted the claim that she was willing and looked "at least" 14.

The two men attacked the girl, who was at the block of flats with a group of teenagers, last July. The footage of the attack was later found on one of the defendant's phones.

While both men pleaded guilty to a single charge of rape, and will have to sign the sex offenders' register for life, Judge Farrell said there were exceptional features to the case which led him to reduce the sentencing:

"Despite her age it is accepted that she was a willing participant, but the law is there to protect young girls from this type of behavior and to protect them from themselves.
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Pistol

US: 8-Year-Old Critical After Washington School Shooting

Manuel Valdes
The Associated Press
Wed, 22 Feb 2012 00:00 UTC
Image
© The Associated Press/Ted S. Warren
A Bremerton Police officer stands watch at an entrance to Armin Jahr Elementary School, Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2012, in Bremerton, Wash.
An 8-year-old girl was in critical condition Wednesday after she was shot in the abdomen at her elementary school near Seattle, and one of her classmates was detained, authorities said Wednesday.

The injured third-grader was airlifted to Seattle's Harborview Medical Center, where she underwent surgery Wednesday afternoon so doctors could assess her injuries, hospital spokeswoman Susan Gregg said.

Police said a third-grade boy was being questioned and a firearm was found in a classroom. The boy apparently shot the girl, though police provided no further details about the incident and said their investigation was just beginning.

The Bremerton Schools superintendent's office said the girl was shot in the abdomen.

Bremerton police Lt. Peter Fisher said officers and emergency crews were dispatched to Armin Jahr Elementary school in Bremerton around 1:30 p.m. in response to a call that a student was shot by another student. The school is in a quiet residential neighborhood about 20 miles west of Seattle, across Puget Sound.
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Wolf

Canada, British Columbia: New Sled-Dog Rules Still Allow Controversial Killings

Kim Pemberton
The Vancouver Sun
Wed, 22 Feb 2012 00:00 UTC
sled dogs
© unknown
Two Vancouver animal rights groups say new provincial sled-dog regulations won't prevent another massive slaughter, like the one that occurred in Whistler in 2010, because they still leave room for healthy dogs to be shot.

The Vancouver Humane Society and Lifeforce, a Vancouver-based animal rights group, said they were alarmed the Sled Dog Code of Practice, issued by the B.C. Ministry of Agriculture Monday, has instructions on how to humanely shoot unwanted dogs.

"It's disturbing that a document that is supposedly about animal welfare shows you how to shoot your dog," said Peter Fricker of the Vancouver Humane Society.

The Sled Dog Code of Practice and sled dog standards of care regulations were created in response to the April 10, 2010 slaughter of 52 sled dogs owned by Whistler-based Out-door Adventures.

"We don't really see how this prevents something like Whistler happening again, given an operator who has a surplus of dogs and can't find homes for them can still shoot them - even if they are healthy," Fricker said.
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Attention

US: 20 Things We Can Learn About The Future Of America From The Death Of Detroit


The Economic Collapse Blog
Mon, 13 Feb 2012 20:06 UTC
Detroit
© The Economic Collapse Blog

Do you want to know what the future of America is going to look like? Just check out what is happening to Detroit. The city of Detroit was once one of the greatest industrial cities in the history of the world, but today it is a rotting, decaying, post-apocalyptic hellhole. Nearly half the men are unemployed, nearly half the population is functionally illiterate, more than half of the children are living in poverty and the city government is drowning in debt. As economic conditions have gotten worse, crime has absolutely exploded. Every single night in Detroit there are frightening confrontations between desperate criminals and exasperated homeowners. Unfortunately, the police force in Detroit has been dramatically reduced in size.

When the police in Detroit are called, they often show up very late if they even show up at all. Detroit has become a lawless hellhole where violence is the currency of the streets. If you want to survive in Detroit, you better be ready to fight because there are hordes of desperate criminals that are quite eager to take literally everything that you have got. But don't look down on Detroit too much, because what is happening in Detroit will soon be happening all over America.

The following are 20 things we can learn about the future of America from the death of Detroit....
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Question

Threatening Letters Claiming to Have "Pathogens" Sent to Senators, Media

Jonathan Dienst, Shimon Prokupecz and Joe Valiquette
NBC New York
Wed, 22 Feb 2012 20:23 UTC
empty mailbox
© Getty Images
The FBI and NYPD are investigating threatening letters that claim to contain dangerous pathogens sent to media companies and U.S. senators, law enforcement officials tell NBC New York.

According to law enforcement officials, the person sent letters to Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, claiming more letters had been sent to 100 senators and various media companies, including The New York Times, Fox News and NPR.

The writer, who voices anger over corporate greed and the state of the U.S. economy, said some of the letters contained harmful substances at random.

The letters are believed to have been mailed from Oregon and are signed "MAB."

Officials stress so far there is no evidence a dangerous substance has been sent. They point out there have been numerous hoax mailings in the years since the 2001 anthrax attacks.
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Dollar

Nigeria: Thrown into Chaos and a State of Civil War: The Role of the IMF

F. William Engdahl
Global Research
Fri, 27 Jan 2012 00:00 UTC
Image
© Global Research
Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation and its largest oil producer, is from all evidence being systematically thrown into chaos and a state of civil war. The recent surprise decision by the government of Goodluck Jonathan to abruptly lift subsidies on imported gasoline and other fuel has a far more sinister background than mere corruption and the Washington-based International Monetary Fund (IMF) is playing a key role. China appears to be the likely loser along with Nigeria's population.

The recent strikes protesting the government's abrupt elimination of gasoline and other fuel subsidies, that brought Nigeria briefly to a standstill, came as a surprise to most in the country. Months earlier President Jonathan had promised the major trade union organizations that he would conduct a gradual four-stage lifting of the subsidy to ease the economic burden. Instead, without warning he announced an immediate full removal of subsidies effective January 1, 2012. It was "shock therapy" to put it mildly.

Nigeria today is one of the world's most important producers of light, sweet crude oil - the same high quality crude oil that Libya and the British North Sea produce. The country is showing every indication of spiraling downward into deep disorder. Nigeria is the fifth largest supplier of oil to the United States and twelfth largest oil producer in the world on a par with Kuwait and just behind Venezuela with production exceeding two million barrels a day. 1
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Dollar

Abstractions Versus the "Real World": Economic Models and the Apologetics of Greed

Prof John Kozy
Global Research
Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00 UTC
Image
© Global Research
Economists build models by subtracting from reality the characteristics they deem unessential to the economic situations they model. The result is a bare bones description consisting of what economists deem economically essential. Everything that is discarded (not taken into consideration in the model) is called an "externality." So the models only work when the externalities that were in effect before the models are implemented do not change afterward. The realm of economic models can be likened to the realm of Platonic Ideas. Both realms are static and unchanging throughout all time. Unfortunately the real world constantly changes. Since externalities are excluded from all economic models and can be expected to change after any model is implemented, all economic models necessarily fail. Economists are frauds and economics amounts to nothing but an apologetics of greed.

In the 1980s, manufacturers of apparel began offshoring their production to underdeveloped countries, one of which was Bangladesh. Economists endorse this practice; they have a model that justifies it.
Offshoring production to underdeveloped nations gives needy people jobs, increases their incomes, reduces poverty, and expands their nations' GNPs. It also enables people in developed nations to purchase products produced offshore at lower prices enabling them to consume a wider range of things. As a result, everyone everywhere is better off.
Convinced? Most economists are, but it hasn't worked that way. Everyone everywhere is not better off - as the whole world now knows. Why?
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Evil Rays

US: 2 Shot, 1 Dead at Wal-Mart Distribution Center in Virginia

Michael Felberbaum
The Associated Press
Wed, 22 Feb 2012 12:00 UTC
Image
© AP Photo
Dinwiddie - An employee of a Wal-Mart Stores Inc. distribution center in Virginia shot and wounded his manager Wednesday, then killed himself as deputies approached him, authorities said.

Dinwiddie County Sheriff D.T. Adams said deputies who were summoned to the center along rural U.S. 460 shortly after noon encountered a 32-year-old man standing outside the entrance. When deputies approached, he shot at them with a handgun, then fatally shot himself in the chest.

Witnesses said the man went to lunch at 11 a.m., walked to the back of the center and shot his 40-year-old manager in the shipping department in the leg, Adams said. She sustained non-life-threatening injuries and was taken to a hospital.

The motive for the shooting wasn't immediately known, and Adams said there was no evident dispute between the shooter and the wounded woman. The man had worked at the center for nine years, the woman 18 years.
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