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An Arizona State University professor's campaign against dirty restaurant playgrounds got her banned from several McDonald's in the Valley.
Dr. Erin Carr-Jordan, a mother of four, started recording and posting videos of trashy playgrounds, and quickly built an international following. Her lab tests, which revealed dangerous bacteria on the equipment, have been featured on network broadcasts and in major national newspapers.
This week, Carr-Jordan was notified by an East Valley franchisee's attorney that she is no longer allowed in any of his McDonald's restaurants that have playgrounds.
"Rather than have someone come into the playgrounds and do the right thing and make them clean and safe, they told me not to come in anymore," Carr-Jordan said.
Marines around the world are outraged by the injuries inflicted by police on Scott Olsen at Tuesday's Occupy Oakland protests. Olsen is in a medically-induced coma after getting hit in the head by a police projectile.
The following picture is taken from the Reddit thread "How I feel, as a United States Marine, about what occurred in Oakland."
This man is not alone. In the five hours since the thread went up there have been over 600 comments.
© Photo courtesy of An-NaharWalid Phares lecturing in front of a Lebanese Forces banner in 1986
Walid Phares, the recently announced co-chair of GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney's Middle East advisory group, has a long résumé. College professor. Author. Political pundit. Counterterrorism expert. But there's one chapter of his life that you won't find on his CV: He was a high ranking political official in a sectarian religious militia responsible for massacres during Lebanon's brutal, 15-year civil war.
During the 1980s, Phares, a Maronite Christian, trained Lebanese militants in ideological beliefs justifying the war against Lebanon's Muslim and Druze factions, according to former colleagues. Phares, they say, advocated the hard-line view that Lebanon's Christians should work toward creating a separate, independent Christian enclave. A photo obtained by Mother Jones shows him conducting a press conference in 1986 for the Lebanese Forces, an umbrella group of Christian militias that has been accused of committing atrocities. He was also a close adviser to Samir Geagea, a Lebanese warlord who rose from leading hit squads to running the Lebanese Forces.
Since fleeing to the United States in 1990, when the Syrians took over Lebanon, Phares has reinvented himself as a counterterrorism and national security expert, traveling comfortably between official circles and the GOP's anti-Muslim wing. In a little over two decades, he's gone from training Lebanese militants to teaching American law enforcement and intelligence officials about the Middle East, and from advising Lebanese warlords to counseling a man who could be the next president of the United States.
Those hurt hard by the ailing economy are flocking to Williston, N.D., where an oil boom has turned a sleepy prairie town into a place producing thousands of jobs.
"There's opportunity here and that's what we all need is opportunity," said Williston Mayor Ward Koeser. "It's kind of been an oasis for the country. You know, there's a lot of jobs here, good paying jobs in the oil industry."
Williston is situated on the Bakken formation, an oil field that some say will produce the biggest boom in North America since the 1960s. Koeser said that his town currently has 2,000 to 3000 jobs and they haven't been able to fill the openings fast enough.
"A lot of jobs get filled every day, but it's like for every job you fill, another job and a half opens up," Koeser said.
A job on an oil rig can pay as much as six figures. The starting salary for truck drivers is around $80,000. While the nation's unemployment rate is 9.1 percent, Williston's unemployment rate is less than 1 percent.
"There's opportunity here and that's what we all need is opportunity," said Williston Mayor Ward Koeser. "It's kind of been an oasis for the country. You know, there's a lot of jobs here, good paying jobs in the oil industry."
Williston is situated on the Bakken formation, an oil field that some say will produce the biggest boom in North America since the 1960s. Koeser said that his town currently has 2,000 to 3000 jobs and they haven't been able to fill the openings fast enough.
"A lot of jobs get filled every day, but it's like for every job you fill, another job and a half opens up," Koeser said.
A job on an oil rig can pay as much as six figures. The starting salary for truck drivers is around $80,000. While the nation's unemployment rate is 9.1 percent, Williston's unemployment rate is less than 1 percent.
Catholic Cardinals and Bishops Refuse to Shake Pope Benedicts Hand
The Cause is that many Cardinals around the world think that Benedict XVI's authority was removed by God publicly, this happened during the World youth Day this year.
In this shocking video, a violent storms attacks Benedict XVI and removes his zucchetto, (hat) which is the symbol of authority, this is called ''Defenestration''.
As recorded in the book of Kings II in the Bible, Jezebel was defenestrated at Jezreel by her own servants at the urging of Jehu. (2 Kings 9: 33)
The Cause is that many Cardinals around the world think that Benedict XVI's authority was removed by God publicly, this happened during the World youth Day this year.
In this shocking video, a violent storms attacks Benedict XVI and removes his zucchetto, (hat) which is the symbol of authority, this is called ''Defenestration''.
As recorded in the book of Kings II in the Bible, Jezebel was defenestrated at Jezreel by her own servants at the urging of Jehu. (2 Kings 9: 33)
© Rex FeaturesRepublican presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann has seen support for her slump since August
The star of Michele Bachmann, who wants to ride the energy of the Tea Party all the way to the White House, is dimming quickly - at least in the key state of New Hampshire, where her entire team has resigned in a huff over the "cruel" and "dismissive" way they were being treated by the congresswoman's national campaign team.
While personnel struggles and high-dudgeon walk-outs are hardly uncommon within presidential campaigns, few can remember a candidate being ditched by every one of their hires in a state, particularly one as important as New Hampshire, which holds the first Republican primary on 10 January.
The drama in the Bachmann enclosure is the latest in a series of squalls to ruffle the Republican field. Causing fresh consternation yesterday, at least in the camp of long-time front-runner Mitt Romney, was a New York Times/CBS News poll showing him slipping to second place nationally behind Herman Cain, the former Godfather's Pizza chief executive and radio talk show host.
Scott Olsen survived two tours of Iraq, but his life could be over after being critically injured by a police projectile at Occupy Oakland, The Guardian reports. He's 24 years old.
As we know, Occupy Oakland got incredibly ugly this week as police tried to remove protesters from their camp in front of City Hall by using tear gas, fire crackers, and rubber bullets.
Olsen suffered a head injury on Tuesday night, and is now in critical condition in Oakland's Highland Hospital. Jay Finneburgh, a photographer on the scene, managed to witness and take pictures of the incident. Police policy specifically prohibits the firing of these weapons at a person's head.
"This poor guy was right behind me when he was hit in the head with a police projectile. He went down hard and did not get up," Finneburgh wrote.
© n/a
Scott Olsen, a two-time Iraq war veteran and member of Iraq Veterans Against the War, was at 14th Street and Broadway when he was struck in the head.
"We need medic!" one protester was heard screaming. "Medic! Medic!"
"What happened?" another asked.
"He got shot!"
As Olsen was carried away, he appeared unconscious and bloody, unable to even respond when asked his name.
© Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty ImagesA child plays along with an Occupy Wall Street drum circle in Zuccotti Park on Sunday
Incessant noise divides demonstrators, upsets neighbors.
Someday the Occupy Wall Street protests will end, and the only question is whether they will go out with a bang or a whimper - or a lot of loud banging followed by whimpers.
At least one organizer fears it's the latter. An anonymous activist wrote a letter to the literary magazine N+1 on Monday warning that drum circles are causing such an outcry that it could derail the whole movement. Really.
It seems a core group of beat-niks in New York's Zuccotti Park has been holding marathon jam sessions from mid-morning until late at night every day, punishing the eardrums of their fellow protesters and the surrounding neighborhood. Teachers at a school across the street have complained they can't teach. And the local neighborhood community board is holding a meeting Tuesday night in which it could revoke its support of the protests if it's not satisfied that the noise will subside.
This video really puts things in perspective.
Originally uploaded by Starvexer
Creative commons: Non-Commercial, Attribution, No Derivative Works license. Please message filmmaker for translations, which are very welcome : )
http://www.facebook.com/OgilvieFilm
http://www.ogilviefilm.com
If mirroring, please do not change video in any way for its whole duration. Please credit the original filmmaker, musicians and music labels as some people have posted it claiming they made the video, which breaches the ethics of a creative commons.
This said, please share with everyone, including your leaders. Mirroring is encouraged, but please don't change video in any way. This video is meant to be a warning to our leaders.
Stunning music by: Hauschka, song "Stumm (Kein Wort)"
Music Label: Karaoke Kalk label based in Berlin
Including amazing shots from Alex Mallis and Kristopher Rae - sociallyawkwrd.tumblr.com
