Society's ChildS

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Sears to "Unload" 1,200 Stores?

Sears logo
© Getty Images
Sears might "unload" 1,200 stores in an effort to raise money, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. A majority stakeholder in Sears Holdings Corp., which operates Sears and Kmart, is hoping to receive $770 million in cash related to the stores.

Sears Holdings Corp., based in Hoffman Estates, Ill., Thursday reported a significant loss for the fourth quarter after a difficult holiday shopping season. The company had a net loss of $2.4 billion for the quarter that ended Jan. 28, including several one-time charges, compared to a profit of $374 million for the same period last year.

Sales dropped $518 million to $12.5 billion last quarter. Officials have tried to turnaround the company as same-store sales have fallen for six straight years.

Sears describes itself as the country's "fourth largest broadline retailer with over 4,000 full-line and specialty retail stores in the United States and Canada," according to its website.

Bizarro Earth

Koran Burning Protests Spread to Pakistan

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© ABC NewsKoran Burning Protests Spread to Pakistan
At least 10 people were killed and dozens wounded today as protests over the burning of Korans at a NATO base escalated, with the violence spreading into neighboring Pakistan.

Thousands of angry Afghans took to the street in Khost, Herat and Nangahar chanting "death to America" and burning effigies of President Obama. Protesters In Baghland attempted to storm a U.S. military base, destroying part of a security fence before police began shooting into the air to disperse the crowd.

The fresh wave of violence comes less than a day after Obama apologized for the Koran burning, which he said was a regrettable and unintentional error, and after an assailant dressed in an Afghan National Police uniform killed two U.S. soldiers.

In an attempt to calm rising tensions, the commander of ISAF and U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Gen. John Allen, made a surprise visit - and an impassioned plea - to troops at the military base where the two US servicemen were based.

Alarm Clock

Best of the Web: The West's Coming Apocalypse

An excellent summation, at least from the political point of view, of where we are right now, how we got here, and the fact that the masses of humanity MUST wake up to the reality of the situation if the worst is to be mitigated.


2 + 2 = 4

How To Pass a Psychological Employment Profile Test

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© CVS Caremark, Nordstrom, Best Buy, Circuit City, Finish Line application sites
Have you ever taken a psychological profile test for a job? I have taken dozens and once upon a time could not pass one. In America (the reason I say America is because I have no idea what is needed for employment approval in other countries), certain jobs will attempt to analyze you to determine certain aspects of your personality.

Most of these tests provide somewhere between 50-600 multiple choice questions using different cross referencing techniques to determine aspects of your personality. Most try to determine your trustworthiness based on past studies and statistics. The question is, are they accurate? My determination is maybe.

Several years ago, after losing a job, I was trying to get any job to earn income between good jobs - many of us have probably done that. I applied for a waiter job at the popular restaurant Applebees. They gave me one of these psychological tests which was 60 questions. I failed it miserably. Actually, I failed it so badly that the manager let me take it again because he thought there must have been some type of freakish anomaly. The second time I took it, I didn't read the questions; I simply guessed on every answer and passed with flying colors. Of course I only worked there for a few days because I hated it.

Bell

Maryland Senate Passes Same-Sex Marriage Bill

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© The Associated Press/Patrick SemanskyAfter the state Senate vote to approve same-sex marriage, Sen. Richard Madaleno (D-Montgomery) hugs Del. Maggie McIntosh (D-Baltimore City), left, and Del. Heather Mizeur (D-Montgomery), fellow openly gay members of the General Assembly.
Maryland will join seven states and the District in allowing same-sex marriage, ending a year-long drama in Annapolis over the legislation and expanding nationwide momentum for gay rights.

The Senate passed the measure by a vote of 25 to 22 Thursday night, and Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) has vowed to sign it into law.

To win some of the final votes needed for passage in the House of Delegates last week, backers agreed to conditions that could help opponents place the new law on the November ballot. With polls showing the Maryland electorate almost evenly split on the issue, a referendum all but promises another contentious battle before the issue is settled in the state.

Ministers of several African American megachurches in Prince George's County as well as conservative and Catholic groups have vowed to help repeal the measure.

The likelihood that the issue could land on the November ballot in Maryland presents a potential dilemma for President Obama. He has been heavily courting the gay community for donations and votes in his reelection campaign but has stopped short of fully embracing marriage rights. Obama has said his views are "evolving," a statement viewed by many supporters in that community as a strong hint that he will soon endorse the cause, perhaps if and when he is safely reelected.

Coffee

Dad Hit Son for Not Watching Obama

Obama
© RIA Novosti/Iliya Pitalev
US, Connecticut - A North Stamford father trying to make his pre-teenaged son listen to President Barack Obama's State of the Union speech last month was arrested on a warrant Wednesday and accused of striking his son with a coffee mug when the youth would not pay attention.

Mohamed Shohan, 49, of 55 Mather Road, Stamford, was charged with third-degree assault, disorderly conduct and risk of injury to a child. He was released after posting $5,000 bond and will be arraigned on the charges at state Superior Court in Stamford Thursday.

Youth Bureau Sgt. Joseph Kennedy said police were made aware of the assault Jan. 27 when the youth was brought to Stamford Hospital for treatment of an injury to his face. When police interviewed the 11-year-old boy, he told them the two sat down at home to watch the address the day after his father recorded it, Kennedy said.

Extinguisher

US: Fake 9/11 Hero Admits Lie; Fellow Firefighters Furious


A South Carolina man who told his fellow firefighters he was one of the first responders on 9/11 has admitted it was a lie.

Jordan Lifander, a former Cedarhurst, Long Island volunteer firefighter, said this week that he was sorry for telling firefighters in the Palmetto State that he was a captain of FDNY's Ladder 133, which lost 12 men on Sept. 11.

"You know, once you tell one lie, you gotta keep up that lie," Lifander told CBSNewYork.com on Wednesday. "I got all caught up in the whole 9/11 anniversary and just lied. I was not a member of the FDNY, was not a captain in Ladder 133."

Lifander "did not survive the disaster any more than those of us who watched it on television," CBS 2's Lou Young wrote.

Dressed in a uniform with an FDNY patch, Lifander spoke at a 9/11 memorial service in Spartanburg, S.C., last year, telling the crowd he attended "47 funerals in three weeks for brothers who died that day." He received a standing ovation.

According to the Spartanburg Herald-Journal, current and former New York City firefighters contacted the paper on Monday saying Liflander's story was a "sham."

Comment: This situation is unfortunate and so unbelievable to all these people. It's hard to imagine how any of these people would feel and react if they found out that the official story of 9/11 was a complete lie and that their own government was behind it.

The reader is encouraged to read 9/11 The Ultimate Truth by Laura Knight-Jadczyk and Joe Quinn for a more objective assessment of the events behind 9/11.


Heart - Black

US, Alabama: Man Acquitted of Drowning Wife on Australia Honeymoon

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© Reuters/Marvin Gentry Gabe Watson enters the Mel Bailey Criminal Justice Center for the continuation of his capital murder trial in Birmingham, Alabama February 23, 2012.
A judge on Thursday acquitted an Alabama man accused of killing his new wife on a honeymoon scuba dive trip in Australia.

Prosecutors said Gabe Watson, motivated by potential insurance payouts, had drowned his wife Tina in October 2003 by turning off her oxygen supply during their dive in the waters off Townsville, Australia.

But after prosecutors wrapped up their case on Thursday, Judge Tommy Nail ruled there was no evidence to suggest that Gabe Watson intended to kill.

"The only way to convict this man of capital murder is to use speculation and conjecture," Nail said. "The state has failed to establish an intentional killing."

Watson's mother collapsed in tears outside of the courtroom after hearing the news.

Mail

US Postal Service Closings Plan to Eliminate up to 35,000 Jobs

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© Reuters/Lucy NicholsonA post office which closed its counter services four years ago is seen in Los Angeles, January 30, 2012.
The U.S. Postal Service announced plans on Thursday to close or consolidate 223 mail processing centers and eliminate up to 35,000 jobs as part of its strategy to cut costs by reducing its network of facilities.

The Postal Service has been losing billions of dollars each year as email chips away at mail volumes and as it faces massive annual payments to the federal government.

Postal officials said in September they would study more than 250 of the 461 processing sites for possible consolidation with other facilities as part of a series of cost-cutting steps. They also announced plans to end next-day delivery to cut back on overnight work.

Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe has said the agency needs to reduce $20 billion in annual costs by 2015. Moving processing away from the 223 centers would reduce operating costs by $2.6 billion annually, according to the Postal Service's website.

That includes eliminating as many as 30,000 full-time jobs and 5,000 non-career positions, USPS spokesman Sue Brennan said. The agency has gotten rid of about 140,000 jobs in the last five years, mainly through attrition, but still had about 650,000 workers at the end of 2011, according to its first-quarter financial statement.

Pistol

US, Washington: Judge Will Decide if Charges Against 9-Year-Old in School Shooting will Proceed

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© The Seattle Times / Ken Lambert / Pool / Associated Press The 9-year-old boy accused of accidentally shooting a classmate at a Bremerton, Wash. elementary school is led away after his juvenile detention hearing in Kitsap County, Wash. Thursday, Feb. 23, 2012.
A frightened 9-year-old boy accused of accidentally shooting a classmate sat before a judge in juvenile court, crying and wearing an orange jail jumpsuit, as his father gently rubbed his back.

Thursday's scene came a day after police said the boy accidently shot a fellow third-grader, and raised questions that will be played out in the legal system: Did he know what he did was wrong? And is anyone else responsible?

Bail was set at $50,000 during the hearing where preliminary charges were filed, and ultimately the court will determine whether the case against the third-grader will continue.

An 8-year-old girl remains critically wounded.

"I just want everyone to know that my kid made a mistake. It was a terrible mistake," the boy's father, Jason Cochran, said outside the courthouse.

An uncle, Patrick Cochran, is the boy's legal guardian and also sat by his nephew's side in the courthouse. The Seattle Times reported late Thursday the boy had been released on bail. The Kitsap County Juvenile Detention Facility said it couldn't comment and a juvenile administrator did not immediately return a phone call. Court arrangements provided that the boy would be released to his uncle and placed under house arrest if bail was met.