Society's ChildS

Wolf

Randy 'Amanda' Lehrer missing for a month found encased in concrete in a drum at her home. But where is husband who reported her missing?

amanda lehrer
Vanished: Randy 'Amanda' Lehrer was last seen on August 12 but her husband didn't report her missing until five days later

The body of a woman who has been missing for a month has been found encased in concrete in a drum in her basement, her mother says.

Rose Moncarz told CBC News in Canada thather daughter Randy 'Amanda' Lehrer was found at her home in Jersey City, New Jersey.

The police have yet to confirm that the body is Miss Lehrer.

Arrow Down

High-flying gold crashes in record $100 freefall

gold bars
© Reuters

Gold crashed more than $100 on Friday, as a slide turned into a free fall, with weeks of volatility, renewed strength in the dollar and talk of hedge fund liquidation wrecking its safe-haven status.

The sell-off came even after relative calm was restored to the stock and oil markets following Thursday's losses. Bonds also dived with gold and silver as investors took profit on a near week-long rally in U.S. Treasuries.

Widespread talk of possible selling by big hedge funds covering losses in other markets set off one of the biggest routs on record in the precious metals group.

Briefcase

Court Advances U.S. Torture Victims' Case Against Donald Rumsfeld

Donald Vance
Donald Vance

The Seventh U.S. Court of Appeals ruled August 8 that two American citizens detained and tortured without trial or court hearing by the Bush-era Defense Department may sue former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

U.S. Navy veteran Donald Vance (left) and fellow American Nathan Ertel were employed by the private U.S. government contractor Shield Group Security in 2006 outside the Baghdad green zone and witnessed the sale of U.S government munitions to Iraqi rebel groups for money and alcohol. After becoming FBI informants, the two were detained and tortured by federal officials for 97 days (Donald Vance) and six weeks (Nathan Ertel) at Camp Cropper in Iraq after contacting the FBI about corruption in the now-defunct federal contractor.

Judge David Hamilton wrote in a 2-1 appellate court decision that concluded, "The wrongdoing alleged here violates the most basic terms of the constitutional compact between our government and the citizens of this country." The district court had earlier ruled that the allegations are the kind that "shocks the conscience."

MIB

US: EPA to Property Owner - "Your Land is Our Land"

Just imagine. You want to build a home, so you buy a $23,000 piece of land in a residential subdivision in your hometown and get started. The government then tells you to stop, threatens you with $40 million in fines and is not kidding.

That's the case now before the U.S. Supreme Court, with briefs being filed today by the Pacific Legal Foundation on behalf of a Priest Lake, Idaho, family, Chantell and Mike Sackett.

Attorney Damien Schiff, who will be arguing before the high court in the case, said it's simply a case of a government run amok, and it poses a potential threat to perhaps not every landowner across the nation, but untold millions.

The Sacketts, Schiff said, "bought property, and the government in effect has ordered them to treat the property like a public park."

"The EPA has not paid them a dime for that privilege," he said. "The regime we have operating now allows the EPA to take property without having to pay for it, or giving the owners the right to their day in court.""

Wolf

US: Perry lies again about Texas Gardasil scandal, claims woman he met after signing executive order lobbied him to pass it

rick perry
Texas Governor Rick Perry

The more Texas Gov. Rick Perry tries to defend his decision to sign an executive order in 2007 mandating that all young girls in Texas receive vaccinations against the human papillomavirus (HPV) before being admitted to school, the more he exposes himself as a lying scoundrel that is unfit to govern his own state, let alone lead a nation.

During the recent Republican presidential debate in Orlando, Fla., Perry tried once again to defend his infamous Gardasil blunder, this time by telling the heart-tugging story of a woman he met and got to know who had cervical cancer. He told the audience and viewers Thursday night that the reason he signed the executive order was because the woman lobbied him to do so.

"I got lobbied on this issue," said a calm and composed Perry. "I got lobbied by a 31 year old young lady who had stage-four cervical cancer. I spent a lot of time with her. She came by my office. She talked to me about this program. I readily admitted we should have had an opt-in (for the mandate) but I don't know what part of opt out most parents don't get. The fact is I was on the side of life and I will always be on the side of life as a governor and as president of the United States."

Megaphone

Palestine - Mahmoud Abbas United Nations Speech: Full Text Transcript

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas addresses United Nations General Assembly after submitting application for recognition as independent Palestinian state to UN Chief Ban Ki-moon.


The full text of the speech follows, courtesy of the United Nations:

MIB

Idaho soldier sentenced to only 7 years in prison for Afghan thrill killing; 1 of 5 charged

Andrew Holmes,dead boy
© freedetainees.orgHe was writing about the โ€œkill team,โ€ a group of rogue US Army soldiers who apparently killed innocent people in Afghanistan for the fun of it.
This image shows the body of Gul Mudin, the son of a farmer, who was killed on Jan. 15, 2010. Private First Class Andrew Holmes, at 19 the
youngest on the team, is shown posing behind him.

Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington - After tearfully asking for mercy, a 21-year-old Idaho soldier among five charged in the thrill killings of Afghan civilians last year was sentenced Friday to seven years in prison, an Army spokesman said.

Pvt. 1st Class Andrew Holmes sentence comes one day after he changed his plea to guilty in a deal with Army prosecutors. The soldier from Boise, Idaho confessed in court that he fired a heavy machine gun at a startled, unarmed man from 15 feet away after a co-defendant tossed a grenade at him.

Army spokesman Joe Kubistek said that Holmes will receive a dishonorable discharge after serving his sentence. He'll also forfeit his Army pay.

Stormtrooper

Farmer's Deer Executed By Government Thugs

Game wardens arrived a few days ago and executed, with shot-guns, farmer Wayne Kilney's seven fallow deer and two white tailed deer. The government agents' excuse was that the deer had to be tested for 'chronic wasting disease' which can only be tested for on dead deer, and has never been found in North Carolina where Kinley lives.


Alarm Clock

US: Too Little, Too Late: Commissioner Kelly Tells New York Police Department to End Stop-and-Frisks That Led to Thousands of Bogus Marijuana Arrests

Image
© Rickard Blommengren
After a decade of unjust marijuana arrests, Raymond Kelly has finally issued a memo to New York City police, ordering them to end the illegal stop-and-frisk procedures that resulted in the arrests of so many young black and Latino youths.

The memo said:
"Questions have been raised about the processing of certain marihuana arrests. At issue is whether the circumstances under which uniformed members of the service recover small amounts of marihuana ... from subjects in a public place support the charge of Criminal Possession of Marihuana in the Fifth Degree."

2 + 2 = 4

Food Emergency: How the World Bank and IMF Have Made African Famine Inevitable

Lending policies pushed by the World Bank and IMF transformed a self-sufficient, food-producing Africa into a continent vulnerable to food emergencies and famine.
"Why, in a world that produces more than enough food to feed everybody, do so many - one in seven of us - go hungry?" - Oxfam
Image
© Agency france Presse
Famine is spreading like wildfire throughout the horn of Africa. As 12 million people battle hunger, the UN warns that 750,000 people in Somalia face imminent death from starvation over the next four months, in the absence of outside intervention. Over the course of just 90 days, an estimated 29,000 children under the age of five died in Southern Somalia, with another 640,000 children suffering from acute malnourishment.