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US: Midnight deadline set for Occupy Boston protesters to clear out

David Ariosto
CNN
Thu, 08 Dec 2011 08:02 UTC
Image
© Howard CannonOccupy Boston protesters have encamped in a downtown city square since late September, setting up more than 100 tents.
A Massachusetts judge has ruled against Occupy Boston protesters' ability to camp in a downtown city square, setting up a possible confrontation with authorities who issued a midnight deadline to clear out or face eviction.

Superior Court Judge Frances A. McIntyre said Wednesday that demonstrators' First Amendment rights do not extend to seizing and holding areas on which they sit.

Authorities are "obligated by law to preserve Dewey Square as a space open to the public," McIntyre added.

Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino, who in the past has appeared to tolerate his city's chapter of the nationwide movement, recently signaled that the park could be a safety hazard as winter weather rolls in.

"We're asking them to leave according to their own will and volition," Menino told CNN affiliate WCVB. "After that we'll make decisions about how we'll clear off the site in the future."
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Info

Revisiting Newt Gingrich's 1997 Ethics Investigation

Peter Overby
GPB News
Thu, 08 Dec 2011 00:00 UTC
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© unknownThen-House Speaker Newt Gingrich holds court at Reinhardt College in Waleska, Ga., March 11, 1995 after teaching his final class at the school. The 10-week course was criticized as a partisan forum for Gingrich and became part of a House ethics investigation against him.
Even as Republican presidential front-runner Newt Gingrich is riding high in the polls this week, he's been dragged back into a debate over a problematic part of his past. In 1997, he was the first speaker of the House, ever, to be punished by the House for ethics violations.

With "Renewing American Civilization," history-professor-turned-politician Newt Gingrich had a college course a program that was supposed to be insulated from partisan politics and campaign cash.

The litany he used in the classroom sounds much like one he uses today.

"American civilization cannot survive with 12-year-olds having babies, 15-year-olds shooting one another, 17-year-olds dying of AIDS, and 18-year-olds graduating with diplomas they cannot read," Gingrich lectured.

But then as now, Gingrich had several overlapping projects going on. And Democrats alleged that Gingrich used the college course to promote a political agenda.
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Dollar

Hefty Gingrich debts a decades-long pattern

Stephen C. Webster
The Raw Story
Thu, 08 Dec 2011 00:00 UTC
Newt Gingrich
© unknownNewt Gingrich
Newt Gingrich, who suddenly finds himself near the front of the ever-shifting GOP pack, is also finding that his finances are yet again in the cross-hairs.

Multiple outlets are reporting that financial woes within the campaign means they're skipping contests in key states and foregoing traditional campaign stops, even as Gingrich is taking early repayments of personal loans to the campaign. Meanwhile, long-time creditors fret about when they'll get paid.

In the key swing states of Missouri and Ohio, which President Barack Obama won in 2008, the Gingrich campaign has lagged behind other candidates in filing key paperwork. Just this week he nearly missed the filing deadline for Ohio, but ultimately succeeded in posting most of the required paperwork at the zero-hour. Similarly, he skipped filing in Missouri due to the cost - a mere $1,000 - simply because the Missouri GOP primary isn't the most important selection process for the state party.

In addition, prior reports indicated that the campaign did not have cash on hand for the $25,000 Ames Straw Poll filing fee, or $30,000 for a list of previous Iowa caucus attendees. Meanwhile, Gingrich had his own campaign pay him a $125,000 reimbursement for travel expenses and a mailing list that he could have simply donated.
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Info

Newt Gingrich's sister: I'm voting Obama

David Ferguson
The Raw Story
Thu, 08 Dec 2011 00:00 UTC
Candace Gingrich, Newt's half sister, appeared on The Rachel Maddow Show last night to discuss her brother's campaign. Candace, an out-of-the-closet lesbian, has publicly clashed with her famous sibling over gay marriage and other issues.

As part of his stance against same-sex marriage, Newt Gingrich has stated that were his sister to marry, he would not attend the wedding, which he did not. Candace announces in this clip, embedded via MSNBC, that were her brother to seize the Republican nomination, she would vote for Obama.
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2 + 2 = 4

US: Gingrich: 5-year-olds working is an 'education in life'

David Edwards
The Raw Story
Thu, 08 Dec 2011 00:00 UTC
Newt Gingrich
© unknownNewt Gingrich
Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich said Thursday that it was good life experience for children as young as five or six to have a job.

For more than a week, the candidate has been talking about the virtues of child labor, calling current restrictions "truly stupid."

"I got a little controversy going a week ago because I suggested that children could work," Gingrich told a forum with local business leaders in Greenville, South Carolina Thursday.

He explained that a successful young woman had told him that her grandfather had paid her to run errands at the age of five. He also gave the example of a father that paid his 6-year-old son to help him wash the car and clean up the yard.
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People

At Least One European Central Bank Is Dusting Off Its Old Printing Press


Business Insider
Thu, 08 Dec 2011 16:32 UTC
Image
© Wikipedia
As the eurozone debt crisis persists, one plan of action that hasn't been completely pulled off the table is a break up of the eurozone, which would involve countries abandoning the euro.

According to Wall Street Journal reporters David Enrich, Deborah Ball and Alistair MacDonald, at least one eurozone country's central bank is holding meetings to plan for such a scenario.

In recent weeks, officials at Ireland's central bank have held preliminary discussions about whether they might need to acquire additional printing capacity in case the euro zone ruptures or Ireland exits in order to return to its prior currency, the Irish pound, according to people familiar with the matter. Officials have discussed reactivating old printers or enlisting a private company, the people said. "All kinds of things are being looked at that weren't being looked at two months ago," according to a person at one meeting. A spokeswoman for the Irish Central Bank declined to comment.
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Blackbox

Was bumbling news anchor drunk on air? US Female presenter slurs words in bizarre broadcast


Dailymail.co.uk
Thu, 08 Dec 2011 15:43 UTC
Perhaps she was very tired or just having a bad day. But speculation is rife that a local news anchor presented a live broadcast while drunk on air.

Annie Stensrud, a reporter on KEYC-TV in Mankato, Minnesota, slurred and mixed up her words during a 10pm broadcast on Sunday night.

The CBS affiliate has not yet explained her bizarre performance, which finished after three minutes as the station moved on to weather and sport.


She has been anchoring weekend evening broadcasts for a year and her Sunday show had been cut down because of an over-running NFL game.

In one of the strangest segments, Ms Stensrud says: 'Today's event featured Christmas fo... music, food and a chance to meet the Santa dog.
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Ambulance

Update: US - 2 shot dead on Virginia Tech campus


MSNBC / Associated Press
Thu, 08 Dec 2011 14:49 UTC
Two people, including a campus police officer, were shot dead Thursday at Virginia Tech, where 33 people were killed in 2007 in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, a university spokesman said.

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Info

US: In Detroit, Swapping a House for a Car Is a Great Deal

Diane Bullock
Minyanville
Thu, 08 Dec 2011 11:39 UTC
Detroit
© MinyanvilleMotor City.

When you're involved in a barter, you're usually looking to at least break even. Those with enough savvy can even manage to trade up. Or, in the exceptional, world news-making case, a dealer with forethought, time and can-do spirit in spades can swap a plastic office supply for a home.

Like 25-year-old Kyle MacDonald who -- after twelve months and fourteen transactions that included a fish-shaped pen, a Coleman camp stove, a Cintas cube van, and Alice Cooper -- managed to turn a single red paperclip into a two-story 1920s farmhouse.

It also makes the news when an exchange goes the other way around. Not exactly as devastating as losing a piece of property to a piece of plastic, but what about swapping a $96,000 house for a $6,750 minivan?

In what may be one of the most telling scenarios about the underwater state of the Detroit real estate market -- a market so bad that Habitat for Humanity is having to turn down donation offers from home owners unable to sell -- a 36-year-old mother of six let go of her four-bedroom, three-bathroom home in Russell Woods, one of the city's better neighborhoods.

What for? A 2006 Chevrolet Uplander with 85,000 miles and a Kelley Blue Book value of between $5,000 and $8,500.
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Pistol

Virginia, US: Shots Fired at Virginia Tech; Officer Reported Shot


NBC News
Thu, 08 Dec 2011 12:03 UTC
Image
© UnknownVirginia Tech
Blacksburg - A police officer was shot at Virginia Tech on Thursday morning and campus officials warned everyone to seek shelter while an armed suspect was at large.

"We don't know if the suspect fled or the extent of the injuries to the suspect or to the officer," NBC News' Pete Williams told MSNBC TV.

"This was a traffic stop on campus," Williams said. "It was not someone walking around firing shots."

A second victim was at a campus parking lot, CBS television station WDBJ reported.

A Virginia Tech alert described the suspected shooter as a white male wearing gray sweat pants, a gray hat with a neon green brim and a maroon hoodie, and carrying a backpack.

A Virginia Tech alert posted on the school's website said the suspect was last seen walking toward McComas Hall, which is the main gym on campus, about two blocks from Lane Stadium.

In the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history, 33 people, including the mentally ill gunman, were killed on the Virginia Tech campus on April 16, 2007. The massacre in a classroom building began at 9:40 a.m. when Seung-Hui Cho chained the doors and killed dozens before committing suicide.
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