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Pistol

Update: New Mexico cop who fired at minivan full of kids is fired


CBS News
Sat, 07 Dec 2013 08:06 UTC
nm cops shoot van
© AP Photo/New Mexico State PoliceThree New Mexico State Police officers react as a minivan driven by motorist Oriana Farrell pulls away from a chaotic traffic stop that included one officer bashing the van's window with his night stick and another, Elias Montoya, at left, firing three shots as the van drives off.
The New Mexico State Police officer who fired shots at a minivan full of children during a chaotic October traffic stop has been fired, a spokesman with the law enforcement agency said Friday.

Lt. Emmanuel Gutierrez, a State Police spokesman, said he confirmed with State Police Chief Pete Kassetas that Officer Elias Montoya was no longer employed by the department. Montoya's termination was effective at 5 p.m. Friday.

Montoya has 30 days to appeal his firing to the Public Safety Advisory Commission, which is made up of civilians appointed by the governor. Montoya, who had been with the department for about 12 years, doesn't have a listed phone number.

The officer was placed on administrative leave with pay earlier this week following an investigation into the shooting outside the northern New Mexico tourist town of Taos. On Tuesday, he was notified that the agency proposed to fire him, and Kassetas, in consultation with Department of Public Safety Secretary Gorden Eden, made the final decision after a disciplinary hearing Thursday.
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Arrow Down

Man commits suicide in mall after girlfriend refuses to stop shopping in China

Neetzan Zimmerman
Gawker
Mon, 09 Dec 2013 12:37 UTC
Suicide_1
© CQNews
A man who was fed up with his girlfriend's incessant Christmas shopping responded to her request for one more look around a mall shoe store by leaping seven floors to his death.

The 38-year-old, identified as Tao Hsiao, had been shopping with his girlfriend at the Golden Eagle International Shopping Center in Xuzhou, China, when she asked to check out one last shoe store.

Having been inside the mall for five hours, Tao had reached his limit, and reportedly insisted that they leave immediately.

"He told her she already had enough shoes, more shoes that she could wear in a lifetime and it was pointless buying any more," an eyewitness was quoted as saying. "She started shouting at him accusing him of being a skinflint and of spoiling Christmas, it was a really heated argument."
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Question

Syracuse airport renovation introduces new 'exit portals'

Alex Dunbar
cnycentral.com
Fri, 18 Oct 2013 17:16 UTC
Image
© Alex DunbarGlass-walled "exit portals" part of Syracuse airport's multi-million dollar renovations.
On the way out of Syracuse's airport terminal, the new exits get some strange looks. Paul Trudeau thought they looked like a science fiction intergalactic time machine as he passed though on his way out.

"I was expecting to get transported somewhere like on Star Trek. I was like - Yeah! We finally got there!"

Others were wondering if it was an X-ray chamber or might fill up with dollar bills like on a on game show

"It was odd, I was like - where did they come up with this?" asked Patricia Goodrich.

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Nuke

6 detained in Mexico theft of radioactive material

E. Eduardo Castillo and Adrian Gomez Licon
Associated Press
Fri, 06 Dec 2013 16:35 UTC
Image
© AP Photo/Eduardo VerdugoGoats are herded past the home where the radiation head that was part of a radiation therapy machine sits on the front patio, placed their by the family who found the stolen equipment abandoned in a nearby field, in the village of Hueypoxtla, Mexico, Friday, Dec. 6, 2013. The truck that was hauling the equipment was found abandoned Wednesday about 40 kilometers (24 miles) from where it was stolen, and the container for the radioactive material was found opened. Authorities continued to work on Friday at the site where the material was found to extract it safely.
Six people tested for possible radiation exposure have been released from hospital but remain under detention as suspects in the theft of a truck carrying highly radioactive cobalt-60, officials said Friday.

Of the detained men, ages 16 to 38, only the 16-year-old showed signs of radiation exposure and he was in good health, a spokeswoman for Hidalgo's Health Department said on condition of anonymity because she isn't allowed to discuss the case.

The six were detained Thursday as part of the investigation and taken to the general hospital in Pachuca for testing.

After being cleared by health authorities on Friday, the men were turned over to federal authorities in connection with the case of the cargo truck stolen Monday at gunpoint outside Mexico City. The cobalt-60 it was carrying was from obsolete radiation therapy equipment.

Officials have not said what roles the six allegedly had in the theft.
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V

Japan: Public protests continue against state secrets bill

Tomohiro Asaki
Japan Times
Tue, 03 Dec 2013 16:17 UTC
Image
© Japan Daily Press
With the contentious state secrets bill slated to clear the Upper House this week, citizens have been holding daily protests in front of the Diet building, denouncing the law as emblematic of the "rise of fascism."

About 40 people took part in a boisterous protest Tuesday afternoon criticizing the government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and its attempt to railroad the bill through the Diet.

Some held up signs that described the bill as "Japan's embarrassment," while others called for the resignation of Liberal Democratic Party Secretary-General Shigeru Ishiba, who likened their protest activities to an "act of terrorism" on his blog Sunday.

Kumiko Inoue, 65, a regular participant in the protests, said she is worried that the bill's vague phraseology will essentially allow the government to choose at will what it wants to deem state secrets.
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Briefcase

Chinese filmmaker faces $164 mn lawsuit over having 4 children

Felicia Sonmez
Agence France-Presse
Fri, 06 Dec 2013 15:48 UTC
Zhang Yimou
Film director Zhang Yimou and his wife Chen Ting on the cover of Southern Metropolis Entertainment Weekly.
Top Chinese film director Zhang Yimou is facing a $164 million lawsuit after violating the country's controversial one-child policy, a lawyer said Friday, prompting renewed debate around the rules.

Critics say China's late-1970s family-planning law, which restricts most couples to one child, is selectively and sometimes brutally enforced, while the wealthy and well-connected are easily able to pay the fines levied for extra offspring.

But in recent days some users of China's popular online social networks have directed their anger at the policy itself, rather than Zhang, with some hoping the attention heaped on his case may hasten the eventual demise of the law, which authorities have recently moved to relax.
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Heart - Black

Saudis expel 100,000 Ethiopians


Al Zajeera
Fri, 06 Dec 2013 15:26 UTC
Ethiopian deportation
© Agence France-PresseEthiopians have held protests outside the Saudi Embassy in Addis Ababa against the crackdown
Up to 50,000 more citizens to be repatriated after crackdown on migrant workers in the Gulf kingdom.

Ethiopia has repatriated more than 100,000 citizens from Saudi Arabia following a violent crackdown on migrant workers, Addis Ababa's foreign ministry has said.

Ethiopian Foreign Minister Tedros Adhanom said on Thursday that up to 50,000 more citizens were still expected to return.

"Last night arrivals from Saudi reached 100,620," Tedros said in a written statement.

"All citizens that were detained in Riyadh deportation camps are back."
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Syringe

70% of Calfornia's doctors expected to boycott Obamacare

Richard Pollock
Washington Examiner
Sat, 07 Dec 2013 02:30 UTC
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An estimated seven out of every 10 physicians in deep-blue California are rebelling against the state's Obamacare health insurance exchange and won't participate, the head of the state's largest medical association said.

"It doesn't surprise me that there's a high rate of nonparticipation," said Dr. Richard Thorp, president of the California Medical Association.

Thorp has been a primary care doctor for 38 years in a small town 90 miles north of Sacramento. The CMA represents 38,000 of the roughly 104,000 doctors in California.

"We need some recognition that we're doing a service to the community. But we can't do it for free. And we can't do it at a loss. No other business would do that," he said.

California offers one of the lowest government reimbursement rates in the country -- 30 percent lower than federal Medicare payments. And reimbursement rates for some procedures are even lower.
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Arrow Up

Food price hikes: Prices for 'essentials' up 11% in UK


Daily Record, UK
Mon, 09 Dec 2013 12:59 UTC
Prices are up by 5.6 per cent, with the cost of essential items such as milk and vegetables rising at an even higher rate just weeks before Christmas.
Image
© zerohedge.com
Food prices are ­rising at more than twice the rate of inflation in a fresh blow to ­struggling households.

The cost of feeding the ­family soared at eight times the rate of the average pay rise - ­meaning ­millions face a bigger battle than ever to put food on the table. Prices at the checkout are up 5.6 per cent, while inflation based on the Consumer Prices Index was at 2.2 per cent in October. The most worrying rise is in essentials such as milk, up by 11 per cent, and vegetables, up 9.4 per cent.

James Foord, of price the comparison website ­mySupermarket tracked the cost of more than 100,000 items at Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's, Waitrose, Aldi and online retailer Ocado.

He said: "The squeeze on family budgets shows no sign of ending just weeks before Christmas."

And the festive spirit could fall a little flat as a poll by our sister paper The Sunday Mirror also shows the price of popular ­Christmas drinks is up.
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Cow

Steak to become 'luxury item' as UK food prices predicted to soar in 2014

Steve Hawkes
The Telegraph, UK
Mon, 09 Dec 2013 06:00 UTC
beef restaurant
© Getty ImagesPrestige claim that some restaurants are already switching beef for pork to save money and keep a lid on the prices they charge customers
New report forecasts that food prices will rise above inflation next year and for the rest of the decade as growing global demand and climate change hit the industry

Food prices will rise faster than inflation next year and for the rest of the decade, forcing restaurant chains and caterers to cut back on serving "luxuries" such as fillet steak and prawns, it was claimed last night.

Some big name chains are already switching to cheaper cuts of meat - such as pork shoulder - and serving up smaller portions of salmon to keep a lid on cost, according to a report by consultants Prestige Purchasing.

David Read, Prestige chief executive, told the Daily Telegraph that food prices could rise by as much as 6 per cent next year, but at the very least were likely to jump by another 3.8 per cent.

He said Britain was in a new era where food prices would continue to soar because of growing global demand and the effects of climate change on harvest and higher commodity costs.

Comment: Steaks becoming 'luxury items' is not as crazy as it might once have sounded. If we keep seeing the weather extremes we've been seeing around the world of late, and if the climate continues to go haywire in the same manner the geological record shows it has done prior to the rapid onset of ice ages, you can be pretty sure that grocery store shelves will empty in a matter of weeks and massive food shortages will result.

Heck, forget environmental catastrophe. Steaks became non-existent for most Russians when the oligarchs in Wall Street and Russia plundered the country in the early 90s, so global economic collapse would bring about the same result.

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