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Energy Drink Makers Face New York State Probe

Joseph Ax and Martinne Geller
Yahoo! News - Canada
Tue, 28 Aug 2012 00:00 UTC
pepsi
© Rick Wilking/Reuters
The New York State Attorney General issued subpoenas in July to three firms that make energy drinks, including PepsiCo Inc, seeking information on the companies' marketing and advertising practices, a person familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.

Besides Pepsi, maker of AMP, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman also sent subpoenas to Monster Beverage Corp and Living Essentials LLC, maker of the 5-Hour Energy drink, said the source, who declined to be identified, citing lack of authorization to speak to the media.

A spokeswoman for Schneiderman declined to comment, as did PepsiCo.

Living Essentials also declined to comment beyond its July offering memorandum in which it said that it had recently received an inquiry from a state attorney general asking for documents relating to its product and marketing.

The company said in the memorandum, which was distributed in connection with a debt offering, that it was responding to the inquiry.
      Read More...
Handcuffs

Convention Protesters try to Arrest Condoleezza Rice


Click Orlando
Tue, 28 Aug 2012 16:59 UTC
Condoleezza Rice
© AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti
Protesters from Code Pink wanted to make citizen's arrest for war crimes

Tampa, Florida - Police in Tampa stopped a dozen anti-war protesters from entering an event attended by former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice after the group said it intended to arrest her for war crimes.

The protesters from Code Pink carried handcuffs Tuesday and tried to enter a performing arts center. Rice was attending an event in conjunction with the Republican National Convention. They said they wanted to make a citizen's arrest of Rice, who was Secretary of State when the Iraq War started.

The officers told the protesters to leave because they were on private property. They went back to the sidewalk and several lay down under sheets made to look like they were blood-splattered.
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Heart - Black

Underground Sex Club Discovered at Historic Abandoned Building in Kentucky

Joe Arnold
WHAS11.com
Mon, 27 Aug 2012 03:34 UTC


Louisville, Kentucky -- Workers preparing historic Whiskey Row buildings for interior demolition have discovered what appears to be the remnants of a sado-masochistic swingers club, abandoned for decades.

"This is the weirdest I've ever found," said Greg Harris, the superintendent of the project for Sullivan-Cozart.

Two floors below Main Street, a large black and white logo displays the word "LATEX," presumably the name of the club, painted on the century old wall.

From deep inside the subterranean blackness, a series of oil paintings depict a series of bizarre images, sexual and violent.

"Very disturbing," Harris said.
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Arrow Up

US Army Suicide Rate to Hit Record High in 2012


Source
Tue, 28 Aug 2012 00:00 UTC
A top US commander says 2012 is expected to be another "tough year" for the country's entire military as the number of suicides in the US Army ranks is expected to hit a new high for the year.
Cemetery, army, suicide

A view of the Arlington National Cemetery, where US military personnel are buried, Virginia, September 10, 2011
"Even with the attention of the leadership, I think all the services are feeling it," Marine Corps Commandant General James Amos said after a speech at the National Press Club on Tuesday, adding, "This year... is going to be a tough year for all the services."

Amos further noted that the Marine Corps has taken action, including using interactive videos and other measures, to cut the suicide rates in its rank.
This is while July saw eight suicides in the Marine Corps, up from six in June. That brought the number of suicides in the service to 32 for the first seven months of 2012, matching the total for all of last year.
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Info

Democratic National Convention to Leave Hundreds Homeless


RT
Tue, 28 Aug 2012 00:00 UTC
Image
© Agence France-Presse/Getty Images/Mario Tama
As the Republican National Convention takes off in Tampa, the upcoming Democratic National Convention is in the spotlight over skyrocketing accommodation prices that are forcing many low-income Charlotte families out of the motels where they live.

Unemployed and low-income Charlotte residents often live in cheap motels - sometimes with whole families occupying a single room. And as the upcoming DNC prompts motel costs to rise, some motel residents will have no choice but to check out.

"I work all day for $60," Eric Jones, who predicts that each night in his motel room could end up costing his full daily income, told the Los Angeles Times. "Why am I going to pay $60 for a room? Then I won't have enough to spend on food or anything."

But a room at the Sunset Inn, which is usually priced between $35 to $40 a night, will increase to $250 a night during the DNC, WCNC.com reports. On average, Charlotte's room prices will increase by 109 percent during the convention. Homeless advocacy agencies predict that the number of people without a place to stay could rise significantly as a result.

To prevent the displaced from living on the streets, groups affiliated with the Homeless Services Network have raised $20,000 to help pay for housing. Part of this money will go directly to the expected 100-plus at-risk families to help them pay the increased motel costs. The fund will also pay for a shelter at the Salvation Army, rooms in a congregational shelter and transportation to Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools for children.
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Cowboy Hat

Fear and Loathing in Tampa: A Gonzo Guide to the Republican National Convention

Michael E. Miller
Phoenix New Times
Thu, 23 Aug 2012 16:54 UTC
republican convention
© Ryan Sealock
As Republicans prepared to renominate Richard Nixon for president, gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson had a crank-fueled moment of clarity inside his Miami Beach hotel room.

"This may be the year when we finally come face to face with ourselves," Thompson wrote in his classic Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72. "We are really just a nation of 220 million used car salesmen with all the money we need to buy guns, and no qualms at all about killing anybody else in the world who tries to make us uncomfortable."

Within 24 months, after shredding the Constitution and carpet-bombing Cambodia to hell, Nixon sneaked out of the White House like the "drooling red-eyed beast" Thompson had known him to be all along.

Now, 40 years later, the Republican National Convention is returning to Florida. On August 30, Mitt Romney will don a sleek suit and flash his Vaseline smile to a sea of pale-skinned delegates in Tampa. He will compliment the city on hosting the $123 million four-day orgiastic event. And he will implore the crowd to obey the banners hung from the rafters: "Believe in America."
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Attention

Black-Market Tiger Skins Found in Russia

Megan Gannon
LiveScience
Tue, 28 Aug 2012 14:10 UTC
Tiger Skins
© WWF Russia
These Siberian tiger skins were recovered in a raid in Russia.
Authorities say they have seized eight Siberian tiger skins in a sting operation in Russia, a grim recovery hinting that black-market demand for the big cats remains high.

Acting on a tip, local police raided a home in Arseniev, a tiny city near Russia's border with North Korea, where they found the eight skins, including the hides of four cubs, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). A suspect, whose name has not been released, was taken into custody, WWF officials said.

A preliminary investigation indicated that the suspect was engaged in illegal trade in the Chinese market, according to the conservation group. And there were clues that more than just these eight cats were killed. While no skins of nursing female tigers were found, one of the skinned cubs was suckling, suggesting the baby's mom also may have been killed and sold.
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Ambulance

Gas line explodes in Texas, causing fire; one construction worker injured


NBC News
Tue, 28 Aug 2012 10:35 UTC
Image
© NBC News
A gas line exploded near McKinney, Texas, on Tuesday.
A gas pipeline explosion Tuesday in Collin County, Texas, has injured one person, according to local reports.

The fiery blast happened at a construction site along a state highway near McKinney, Texas. Live video from NBCDFW.com showed flames and plumes of smoke and several pieces of charred construction equipment. The fire caused a power outage and shut down down traffic in the area, according to NBCDFW.com.

McKinney police told Southeast Texas' 12NewsNow.com the explosion happened when a backhoe accidentally hit a 12-inch high-pressure natural gas line, and said one construction worker was hurt.

The worker was transported to the hospital, but no details were immediately available on his condition.

The explosion happened at 8:30 a.m. local time, WFAA.com, a Dallas-Fort Worth news station, said. Power was expected to be restored within about an hour and a half, according to WFAA.com.

At about 9:45 a.m., the supply to the gas line was shut down and the fire slowly went out as the gas burned off, reported NBCDFW.com.

No evacuations were ordered.

McKinney is about 30 miles north of Dallas.
      Read More...
Ambulance

Ohio woman raped, severely burned and beaten

Brenda Jackson
The Columbus Dispatch
Tue, 28 Aug 2012 09:28 UTC
It was a quiet Sunday morning as the motorist made his way along a country road in Muskingum County. But what he drove upon spoke of a night of terror and horrible violence.

"I have a woman right here. She's burnt severely. She's been raped, and she's been beat up," the man told a 911 dispatcher.

The woman, he said, was lying in the middle of the road, naked and scorched over much of her body and with a rope around her neck.

She can be heard moaning on the tape.

"We need a medic," the man says.

The dispatcher asks the man whether the victim can give her name.

He replies that she's so injured, "I can barely understand her."

Seven minutes after the 8:34 a.m. call, the same man calls 911 again, imploring the medics to get there quickly because "she's a mess."
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Arrow Up

Rape victims are More - not less - likely to get pregnant

Hal Herzog
Huffington Post
Mon, 27 Aug 2012 08:43 UTC
Representative Todd Akin of Missouri made two mistakes when he claimed "From what I understand from doctors, it's really rare. If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut the whole thing down."

His first mistake was linguistic. The term "legitimate rape" is an oxymoron. "Legitimate rape" does not exist. End of story.

His second mistake was believing the "doctors" who gave him the idea that the female body can "shut the whole thing down." (According to the LA Times, the "doctors" was one Jack C. Wilke, a prominent anti-abortionist physician and past president of the National Right To Life Committee.)

But is there evidence to support this claim? After all, in some species, females do have the ability to rid their body of unwanted semen. Chickens, for example. Researchers at the University of Sheffield studied this phenomenon in flocks of free-ranging chickens. The scientists found most sexual interactions between roosters and hens are coerced. (I was not surprised; I used to raise chickens.) I was surprised, however, to learn that hens had the ability to eject sperm from their reproductive tracts. Further, hens are choosy about it. The researcher found that hens were much more likely to eject the semen of low-ranking "forced copulators" than the rapists at the top of the social hierarchy who presumably have better genes. In spiders, this is called "sperm dumping."
      Read More...
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