Society's ChildS


Dollar Gold

Mark Zuckerberg buys four houses near his Palo Alto home

Mark Zuckerberg
© D. ROSS CAMERONFacebook founder/CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks to an audience at the screening of Jose Antonio Vargas' documentary film, "Documented," Monday, Aug. 5, 2013 at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco.

Living the fantasy of every homeowner who's faced the prospect of a nuisance project next door, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg has bought four homes adjacent to his own 5-bedroom crash pad in one of Palo Alto's toniest neighborhoods.

Zuckerberg paid top dollar -- more than $30 million in total -- for the four residential properties located next door and behind his own home. But he has no plans to build a Taj Mahal on the land, according to a person with knowledge of the transactions, who said Zuckerberg is leasing the existing homes back to the families that live there.

Phoenix

Over 380 detained after anti-migrant riot in southern Moscow

Image
© RIA Novosti / Iliya Pitalev
Moscow police detained some 380 people during the mass rioting in a southern district of the city. A mixed crowd of nationalists and locals attacked a warehouse run by natives of the Caucasus, blaming a migrant for the fatal stabbing of a local.

Authorities lifted the emergency plan codenamed "Volcano" after midnight, several hours after public order had been restored. The plan, put into effect in the afternoon, involved sending scores of riot police to the scene of the clashes, and placing police officers across the city on high alert.

By midnight the streets were practically deserted, except for police officers and a couple of bystanders discussing the day's events. Meanwhile the 380 detained during the unrest were being interrogated in a criminal case over hooliganism - thus far as witnesses, police said.

A crowd of people on Sunday broke into a vegetable warehouse in the southern district of Biryulyovo, hurling rocks, smashing up stalls and vending machines. While the police estimated the crowd at about 350 people, witnesses at the scene suggested the number of rioters could be as many as 1,000.

Ambulance

Obamacare collateral damage: Thousands of doctors fired by United HealthCare


In the midst of major changes in health care, UnitedHealthCare has sent thousands of pink slips to Connecticut doctors.

Termination letters went to physicians caring for Medicare patients. Those letters were sent out to doctors caring for 'Medicare Advantage' patients. It's a plan, marketed to Seniors to provide additional services through UnitedHealthCare.

A mix of primary care and specialty doctors are affected by it. And it comes at a questionable time.

Open enrollment for Medicare starts next Tuesday, and it's still not clear at this time as to which doctors are still in the United network.

The Connecticut State Medical Society is fighting back. The biggest concern is patient access to healthcare.

"What the government is looking for is to manage better care by adding a patient centered medical home so that you have a doctor who is totally invested with taking care of every aspect of the patient and coordinating it. This is clearly not a patient centered decision," said Dr. Michael Saffir, President of CT State Medical Society.

Heart - Black

Football argument prompted dad's fatal shooting of teenage son, sheriff says

Image
© Morgan County Sheriff's OfficeDavid Carrender was arrested on a preliminary murder charge.
An apparent fight over when to quit watching football turned deadly Sunday when a Morgan County man fatally shot his teenage son, authorities say.

David Carrender, 49, was arrested on a preliminary murder charge after his son, 19-year-old Wyatt Carrender, was shot to death in the family's Martinsville home.

Morgan County Sheriff Robert Downey said the Carrenders had been out watching football games at a restaurant or bar when they started fighting over whether to return home. The son wanted to go home. The father did not.

The argument continued after the pair returned home, Downey said. "It appears the father retrieved a handgun and shot his son, it appears, six times."

Document

Glen Greenwald: 'Most shocking' NSA stories yet to come

Greenwald, Snowden in daily contact to reveal massive trove of revelations

Glenn Greenwald
© AP
When it comes to the "shock" inspired by the recent National Security Agency revelations, the worst is yet to come, said Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald, who has been working with NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden on the leaks.

"There are a lot more stories," Greenwald told a large crowd at the Global Investigative Journalism Conference currently taking place in Rio de Janeiro. "The archives are so complex and so deep and so shocking, that I think the most shocking and significant stories are the ones we are still working on, and have yet to publish."
greenwald tweet
© Unknown

Bizarro Earth

This ain't your average survival shelter

Image
© CBS NewsUnlike those Cold War-era concrete bunkers with just the basics, Ron Hubbard's survival shelters come fully loaded.
There's nothing new about predictions that the end of the world is upon us. But there's plenty new about how some people are preparing for it.

What began as a pipe dream for Ron Hubbard has become big business...underground

"We call this the backyard bunker," Hubbard said as he showed us one of his survival shelters.

These days, the fear market is booming.

"I can't build them fast enough right now," he said. "It's better to have a shelter 10 years early than five minutes late."

Document

US reporter Glenn Greenwald to publish Snowden leaks on France and Spain

Glenn greenwald
© Unknown
Brazil-based US reporter Glenn Greenwald said Wednesday he would publish documents from intelligence leaker Edward Snowden focused on France and Spain.

Greenwald, a Rio-based correspondent for Britain's Guardian newspaper, also said that if Brazil wanted more data on alleged US snooping into its affairs it should offer Snowden asylum.

Snowden, a former US spy agency contractor wanted by Washington, is currently at an unknown location in Russia after Moscow granted him temporary asylum.

Brazil did not respond to a Snowden request for asylum as he sought refuge following his first explosive disclosures detailing the US government's digital dragnet.

Testifying before a Brazilian congressional panel, Greenwald accused Washington and its allies of waging a "war against journalism and the process of transparency."

"I am learning now that the United States is using this surveillance system to punish the journalistic process," said Greenwald, who, without elaborating, added he was working on material relating to France and Spain.

"We are undertaking high-risk journalism. We shall continue doing so until we publish the last document I have," Greenwald told senators investigating allegations that Washington spied on Brasilia.

"I am not holding onto relevant documents nor hiding information. All that I had regarding surveillance against Brazil, and now France - I am working with French and Spanish newspapers - I publish. I don't hold onto it," he said in Portuguese.

Greenwald said governments, including Brazil's, appeared to be grateful for the disclosure of alleged US spying on them "but they are not disposed to protect the person who passes on the data."

Light Sabers

Texas Rep. Gohmert pushes impeachment: Obama 'getting close to a high crime and misdemeanor'

Rep. Louie Gohmert
© Unknown
Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) on Tuesday amped his recent impeachment rhetoric by claiming that President Barack Obama was "getting close to a high crime and misdemeanor."

Fox News host Alisyn Camerota pointed out to Gohmert that after two weeks of a government shutdown, Republicans were basically guaranteed to lose on their core goal of repealing, defunding or delaying the president's health care reform law.

"A majority in the House should be sign to the Senate that we need to negotiate," Gohmert opined. "We have sent over compromise after compromise after compromise with ourselves. Our own leadership proposed yet another compromise and [Senate Majority Leader] Harry Reid said all of the sudden, he thinks that's a slap at bipartisanship."

"He wouldn't know bipartisanship if it came up and slapped him and said, we're bipartisan," he added. "So, I don't need to hear any crap from Harry Reid about bipartisanship. He doesn't know bipartisanship, nor does the president."

Gohmert also repeated his recent warning that if Republicans force the U.S. to default on its debt by refusing to raise the debt ceiling then it "would be an impeachable offense by the president."

Dollar

Swiss to vote on 2,800 dollar basic income for every adult

Switzerland will hold a vote on whether to introduce a basic income for all adults, in a further sign of growing public activism over pay inequality since the financial crisis.

A grassroots committee is calling for all adults in Switzerland to receive an unconditional income of 2,500 Swiss francs ($2,800) per month from the state, with the aim of providing a financial safety net for the population.

Organizers submitted more than the 100,000 signatures needed to call a referendum on Friday and tipped a truckload of 8 million five-rappen coins outside the parliament building in Berne, one for each person living in Switzerland.

USA

Cruz, Palin join protesters at WWII Memorial

Ted Cruz, R-Texas
© Alex Brandon, APTea Party Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, speaks at a rally at the World War II Memorial in Washington on Sunday.
A crowd converged on the World War II Memorial on the National Mall, pushing through barriers Sunday morning to protest the memorial's closing under the government shutdown.

Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas were among those who gathered Sunday morning, along with former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, according to WTOP radio. Cruz said President Obama is using veterans as pawns in the shutdown.

"Tear down these walls," the crowd chanted. Protesters also sang God Bless America and other patriotic songs as they entered the memorial plaza.