The average price of a pound of ground beef climbed to another record high -- $4.201 per pound -- in the United States in November, according to data released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

In August 2014, the average price for a pound of all types of ground beef topped $4 for the first time, hitting $4.013, according to the BLS. In September, the average price jumped to $4.096 per pound, and in October, the average price climbed to $4.154 per pound. In November, the average price hit the highest price ever recorded -- $4.201 per pound.

A year ago, in November 2013, the average price for a pound of ground beef was $3.477 per pound. Since then, the average price has increased 20.8 percent in one year.

Five years ago, in November 2009, the average price of a pound of ground beef was $2.062, according to the BLS. The price has since climbed by $2.139 per pound, or 103.7 percent.

The overall Consumer Price Index measures the relative change in the prices of a basket of goods and services relative to a basis of 100. Subordinate indexes measure the relative change in price for individual goods or services or categories of goods and services.

The price index for seasonally adjusted, uncooked ground beef hit an all-time high of 296.616 in November, up 1.4 percent from October when it was 292.588. In 1947, the earliest year in this index, it was 26.5.

"The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) declined 0.3 percent in November on a seasonally adjusted basis," states BLS. "Over the last 12 months, the all items index increased 1.3 percent before seasonal adjustment."

A former Bridgeport police officer, accused in the past of drunkenly shooting up a city housing complex, was arrested three times in about 11 hours stretching into early Tuesday, following a Monday court appearance on a drunken-driving charge.

The first incident occurred just before 1:30 p.m., Vernon police said, when they pulled over 39-year-old John Biehn, of Southington, in the parking lot of McDonald's on Talcottville Road after receiving a call that a blue Hyundai Sonata was being driven erratically and on the wrong side of Route 83.

Biehn told officers he was coming from state Superior Court in Rockville, and he failed a standardized sobriety test, police said. Vernon police charged him with operating a vehicle under the influence of alcohol or drugs and failure to drive in the proper lane.

Biehn's court appearance concerned similar charges stemming from a July 26 incident, according to the state judicial website. He entered an initial plea of not guilty and is scheduled for his next court date on those charges in January.

He was released from Vernon Police Headquarters on $2,500 bond posted by his wife, Bridgeport Police Det. Kimberly Biehn.

In an appearance on talk radio's The Lars Larson Show last week, conservative talking head Ann Coulter claimed that women who report rapes, most of the time, are just "girls trying to get attention."

According to Right Wing Watch, the Godless author said that a botched Rolling Stone story about a campus rape at the University of Virginia just shows that "there is no campus rape problem."


Coulter dismissed the notion of date or acquaintance rape out of hand, insisting that unless a victim gets "hit on the head with a brick," it isn't a legitimate rape.

"People know what a rape is," Coulter insisted, "and to have girls trying to get attention - from Lena Dunham to this poor psychotic at UVA, Lady Gaga claiming she was raped but she didn't admit it to herself for five years. What major crime do people say, 'I didn't admit it to myself?'"

In a second part of the interview, the 53-year-old pundit said that liberals are vastly overplaying instances of campus rape, which, in her experience is generally perpetrated by liberal men like the "Clintons and Kennedys," anyway.


Listen to Coulter's remarks, embedded below via Right Wing Watch:

Part One


Part Two

A Massachusetts woman has been indicted on murder charges after police found the remains of three babies in her home, the Worcester district attorney announced Tuesday.

The Boston Globe reports police arrested Erika Murray, 31, in September after searching her Blackstone home following the removal of four neglected children from the home in August. She has been in custody since that time.

Authorities had been notified of a problem after one of the children went to a neighbor trying to get help for a crying baby. When they responded, police found four children, ranging in age from 5 months to 13 years old, living in what they said were deplorable conditions.

Prosecutors said the 5-month-old and 3-year-old were covered in their own feces and the 3-year-old was unable to walk or talk. Police removed the children from Murray's care.

They returned in September with a search warrant for the home. That is when they found the remains of two babies, dressed in diapers and infant outfits. The body of the third child is described by The Boston Globe as that of a fetus.

"I have never seen anything like the facts in this case," Worcester District Attorney Joseph Early said at a news conference Tuesday, according to The Associated Press. "Everyone who went into that house, to a person, said they'd never seen anything like it."


The house, which was eventually demolished, was said to be infested with rodents and insects, with feces smeared on the walls.

San Diego State University has banned the Gamma Alpha fraternity after members allegedly threw eggs and waved sex toys at people involved in an anti-rape march on campus in November.

San Diego State University (SDSU) said on its website that the national Delta Sigma Phi fraternity had agreed to close the school's Gamma Alpha chapter at least until the fall of 2016, according to Reuters.

"There is no place in our campus community for the type of ongoing behaviors displayed by those involved with this fraternity chapter," Eric Rivera, SDSU vice president for student affairs, said in a written statement.

"We appreciate the willingness of the national office of Delta Sigma Phi to step in and address these issues and take action with us. We hope that through these actions, when the time is right, they will bring a chapter back to SDSU and be productive members of our community."

Gamma Alpha members are accused of taking part in harassing about 35 students taking part in a "Take Back the Night" anti-campus-rape march, as colleges across the nation are addressing a spate of head-turning sexual assault allegations and subsequent demonstrations of defiance by students.

Young Turks host Cenk Uygur blasted Cleveland Patrolmen's Association head Jeffrey Follmer on Tuesday for his insistence that the shootings of Tamir Rice and John Crawford by local officers were justified.

"Just, for Christ's sake, be a human for a second," Uygur said. "And say, 'We're so sorry that [a] 12-year-old kid died, man. Obviously we didn't mean that.' Is that too hard to say? Is that too hard to say - 'We didn't mean to kill your 12-year-old son. We're so sorry about that.'"


Uygur showed footage of Follmer telling MSNBC host Ari Melber on Monday that Officer Timothy Loehmann was justified in shooting and killing Rice last month, citing footage of the fatal encounter that showed Loehmann killing Rice just two seconds after pulling up near him at a local park.

"The male's action spoke for itself," Follmer said. "The video clearly shows, and by the officers' statement, that they were justified in the deadly force." Later he added, "This shooting was tragic, but it was justified."

Follmer also said to Melber, "How about this? Listen to police officers commands, listen to what we tell you, and just stop. I think that eliminates a lot of problems. I have kids too, they know how to respect the law. They know what to do when a police officer comes up to them."

A Cleveland-area man said he was held at gunpoint, ticketed and threatened despite explaining to a police officer that he was speeding home to help his wife, who has a high-risk pregnancy, give birth Northeast Ohio Media Group reported.

"Officer Robinson approached me yelling at me to put my hands up and holding me at gunpoint as if I was threatening his life," Samuel Taylor said of the encounter. "His finger was on the trigger."

According to WKYC-TV, Taylor's wife, Katie, sent him a text message last Friday morning asking him to come home from work because she was in labor. Taylor said he was traveling at 38 mph in a 25 mph zone when he passed Cleveland Heights Police Officer William Robinson in his patrol vehicle.

Robinson started following Taylor, and signaled for him to pull over. But because he was "literally about six or seven houses" away from his home and street parking was blocked by other vehicles, Taylor said, he slowed down and pulled into his driveway, at which point Robinson allegedly approached him with his gun drawn.

It's something long-suffering Tom and his tormentor Jerry must have known for a long time.

Children's cartoons are apparently more violent than films aimed at adults, and filled with 'murder and mayhem' according to research.

Animated characters are more than twice as likely to be killed off than actors in movies aimed at a grown up audience, the study claims.

In fact, cartoons released between 1937 and 2013 were described as 'rife with death and destruction'.

The authors of the research concluded: 'Rather than being innocuous and gentler alternatives to typical horror or drama films, children's animated films are, in fact, hotbeds of murder and mayhem.'

The founder of a quietly-growing empire of social cafes has called on a change in the law to prevent the UK's "criminal" levels of food waste - especially by supermarkets - while so many go hungry.

Adam Smith, founder of The Real Junk Food Project, in Armley, Leeds, feeds his punters on goods that would otherwise have been thrown away by supermarkets, independent grocers and food banks.

The 29-year-old trained chef cooks up stews, casseroles, soups and cakes with the unwanted food, charging a "pay as you feel" policy - allowing punters to pay what they feel they can, and if that is nothing, they can help with the washing up.

In just 10 months he has fed 10,000 people on 20 tonnes of unwanted food, raising over £30,000.

America's wealth-takers are all too ready to abandon people when they aren't useful.
One of the themes of the writing of Henry Giroux is that more and more Americans are becoming "disposable," recognized as either commodities or criminals by the more fortunate members of society. There seems to be a method to the madness of winner-take-all capitalism. The following steps, whether due to greed, indifference or disdain, are the means by which America's wealth-takers dispose of the people they don't need.

1. Deplete Their Wealth

Recent analysis has determined that half of America is in or near poverty. This is confirmed by researchers Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman, who point out: "The bottom half of the distribution always owns close to zero wealth on net. Hence, the bottom 90% wealth share is the same as the share of wealth owned by top 50-90 families - what can be described as the middle class."

The United States has one of the highest poverty rates in the developed world. It's much worse since the recession, especially for blacks and Hispanics.

From 2008 to 2013 the stock market, which is largely owned by just 10% of Americans, gained 18% per year. Well-to-do stockholders get capital gains tax breaks, including a carried interest subsidy Robert Reich calls "a pure scam."

The bottom half of America, relying on regular bank accounts, earn about one percent on their savings.

2. Strip Away Their Income

Earnings due to workers for their years of productivity have been withheld by people in power. Based on inflation, the minimum wage should be nearly three times its current level. An investor report from J.P. Morgan noted a direct correlation between record profits and cutbacks in wages.

We hear occasional news about job growth, but low-wage jobs ($7.69 to $13.83 per hour), which made up just one fifth of the jobs lost to the recession, accounted for nearly three-fifths of the jobs regained during the recovery. And it's getting worse. Nine out of 10 of the fastest-growing occupations are considered low-wage, generally not requiring a college degree, including food service, healthcare, housekeeping, and retail sales.

Among rich countries, according to OECD data, the U.S. is near the bottom in both union participation and employee protection laws.