Society's ChildS

Life Preserver

Skyrocketing water bills mystify, anger residents

Image
© Unknown
Atlanta -- Imagine paying as much for water as you do for your mortgage.

Residents throughout Atlanta are outraged by hundreds, even thousands of dollars in monthly spikes in their water bills, and have questioned the legitimacy of the charges for years. Now, they're demanding answers.

"I thought we were sinking in a hole of water," said Debbi Scarborough. "It scared me to death. I thought we had a major leak when I got the bill."

Over two months last summer, her family's monthly water bill, shot up to $1,805 In July and then $1,084 in August, leaving a balance due of more than $3,000. She said in the past her bill has averaged $200 to $250.

"I'm not paying a $3,000 bill. And for those three months, we were pretty much out of town most of the time and there's no leaks," she said, showing CNN a copy of her plumber's report.

Attention

Libya Rebels March West as Fronts Firm

Image
© The Associated PressRecruits to the Libyan rebel forces learn how to use an anti-aircraft gun at a training base in Benghazi on Tuesday.

Gadhafi Opponents Are Seen Moving Out of Benghazi; Pentagon Orders Two Warships to Mediterranean

A ragtag army of opponents to Col. Moammar Gadhafi began moving west toward Tripoli from the east and the U.S. ordered two warships to the Mediterranean Sea, as the prospect of an extended war loomed over Libya.

A convoy of armed youth, including what appeared to be rebel military forces, was seen heading Tuesday night toward the pro-Gadhafi stronghold city of Sirte, witnesses said. The forces were viewed passing westward through Ajdabiya, a city about 75 miles from the opposition stronghold of Benghazi, said four residents, including a volunteer rebel soldier and an official on the city's local leadership council. It was unclear how many rebels were on the move.

Also Tuesday, the U.S. ordered two warships and 1200 Marines to the waters off of Libya, but a top Obama administration official stopped short of saying the forces would intervene in the clashes that have consumed the country following anti-Gadhafi protests here in recent weeks.

At a Pentagon briefing, Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced he had ordered to the Mediterranean the USS Ponceand the USS Kearsarge, an amphibious-assault ship that typically carries infantrymen and troop-transport helicopters. Those ships currently have 800 marines, in addition to 400 U.S.-based Marines who will be airlifted to meet the ships. He said the ships would be ready to perform evacuations and humanitarian relief.

Arrow Down

UK: Meat from Chimpanzees 'is on Sale in Britain' in Lucrative Black Market

chimp
© BBCIllegal bushmeat: The chimpanzee meat, which can cost more than ยฃ20 a kilogram, is part of a lucrative black market trade
Chimpanzee meat is for sale in restaurants and market stalls in Britain, it has emerged.

Trading standards officials uncovered the illegal bushmeat from the endangered species whilst testing samples believed to be seized from vendors in the Midlands.

The meat, which can cost more than ยฃ20 a kilogram, is part of a lucrative black market trade that experts describe as 'rife' in Europe.

Last year, the first research on the import of bushmeat into Europe found over 270 tonnes passing through the Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris alone.

The chimpanzee meat is understood to have been discovered following raids by trading standards in the Midlands.

A Government whistleblower revealed: 'It is well known this practice is underway in the region but I was shocked to discover the meat that was tested was once a chimpanzee.

'Dubious meat is often tested, and has turned out to be things like rats and vermin in the past - but chimpanzee is unbelievable.'

It is not known how the bushmeat arrived in the Midlands, but experts believe it was probably flown into the country from Africa, possibly concealed in personal luggage.

Dr Marcus Rowcliffe, research fellow at the Zoological Society of London and an expert on the trade, said at least five tonnes of bushmeat arrives in Europe every week to be distributed across the continent.

He said: 'I'm not at all surprised that bushmeat is on sale in the Midlands because we know the trade is going on in the UK and that there is a regular flow of smuggled meat into the country.

Question

Fire Tornado Caught on Camera in Hungary

Fire Tornado
© ReutersA fire tornado is created during a blaze at a plastic processing factory in Kistarcsa near Budapest, Hungary.

These striking photos were captured during a huge fire at a plastic processing plant in Kistarcsa, a suburb of the Hungarian capital Budapest.

Around 70 firefighters were sent to tackle the blaze, which engulfed an entire industrial unit and sent a terrifying tower of flames swirling into the sky.

A witness at the scene said that 15 foot high flames also ravaged the building, and several explosions were heard.

So far, no casualties have been reported in the inferno, which broke out at 8pm local time on Tuesday night. The cause of the fire is unknown.

People

Wisconsin Voters Launch Recall Campaign Against Eight GOP State Senators

Image

Last month, ThinkProgress reported that Wisconsin law allows any elected official who has served at least one year of their current term to be recalled from office. Today, a group of Wisconsin voters took the first step towards invoking this recall process. According to a Wisconsin Democratic Party e-mail that was obtained by ThinkProgress:
This morning citizens from around the state took the first steps by filing recall papers against key Republican Senators who have stood with Scott Walker and pushed his partisan power grab that will strip thousands of middle class teachers, nurses, librarians and other workers of their right to collective bargaining. And we learned just last night that their disastrous budget that will cut millions from our schools and universities. . . .

Make no mistake, these Republican Senators are vulnerable to recall for their radical partisan overreach. Senator Randy Hopper won his last election by just 184 votes. And Alberta Darling won her last race by only 1,007. By recalling just three of the eight Senators [Democrats] are targeting, [Democrats] can regain control of the Senate.

Heart - Black

US: Colorado boy, 12, in custody after deadly shootings

Burlington - A 12-year-old boy who reported shots fired at his eastern Colorado home was in custody Wednesday after officers arrived to find his parents dead and two of his siblings in critical condition.

The boy called 911 Tuesday evening to report at least three people had been shot at his Burlington home, said Steve Johnson of the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.

When officers arrived, they found the bodies of 50-year-old Charles Long and his wife, 51-year-old Marilyn Long. Two of their children were wounded - a 5-year-old girl and a 9-year-old boy.

It was unclear whether the 12-year-old suffered any injuries.

People

Egypt's Labor Unrest Extends Even to Nation's Famous Antiquities Showman

Zahi Hawass
© Testo/Silvia DoglianiZahi Hawass
The man in charge of Egyptian antiquities starred in a TV show about his exploits, sports an "Indiana Jones"-style fedora and triumphantly declared that the nation's heritage was mostly unscathed after the revolt that toppled the president.

On Monday, however, he was under siege, the target of angry protesters who want him to quit.

"Get out," a crowd of 150 archaeology graduates chanted outside the office of Antiquities Minister Zahi Hawass, who threw in his lot with the old order when he accepted a Cabinet post in the last weeks of Hosni Mubarak's rule.

Whether Hawass, entrusted with preserving Egypt's museums and monuments, will go the way of Mubarak and resign is uncertain. But the scorn directed him at personifies the messy business of transition in a nation, now ruled by the military, where much of the old governing structure remains intact.

The demonstration in a leafy enclave of Cairo was one of many protests and strikes that have sprung up in Egypt as people voice their grievances for the first time after Mubarak's heavy-handed reign over the last three decades.

Mr. Potato

Libya: Gaddafi's nurse has passport confiscated after drunken rant

Galyna Kolotnytska
© ReutersGalyna Kolotnytska arrives at her appartment block in Brovary town outside Kiev on Monday this week

Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's personal nurse had her passport confiscated on returning to her native Ukraine on Sunday after allegedly verbally abusing fellow passengers and crew in a drunken rant.

Witnesses told the Ukrainian daily newspaper Segodnya that 38-year-old Galyna Kolotnytska was drunk when she got on the plane that took her from Tripoli to Kiev and needed help to stand on her own two feet.

She flew into a drunken rage, they added, when she realised that the plane was a military cargo plane and not a passenger liner.

"She began to shout the odds ... demanding the pilots' names and threatening to fire them. She was very aggressive and said that she was Gaddafi's woman and that he would not permit her to be insulted," one witness claimed.

Smoking

Council and police blasted for hiring 'sniffer wardens' to smoke out drivers who light up in company cars

Drivers who light cigarettes in company cars are being hunted down by 'sniffer wardens' after a council teamed up with police to smoke them out.

Tendring District Council and Essex Police are so eager to catch employees having a puff behind the wheel that they've set up road blocks across the county.

Armed with nothing but a heightened sense of smell, the sharp-nosed enforcers lie in wait, sniffing inside the cars of suspected lawbreakers, and scouring for used ashtrays.
Image
© UnknownZealous: Armed with nothing but a heightened sense of smell, the Tendring District Council and Essex Police enforcers lie in wait, sniffing inside the cars of suspected lawbreakers, and scouring for used ashtrays.

Radar

Manning hit with new charges; could face death penalty

Image
© Associated PressPfc. Bradley Manning. Manning, in an undated file photo, faces 22 additional counts
Washington - Following an intensive seven-month investigation, the Army on Wednesday filed 22 additional charges against Pfc. Bradley Manning, accused of illegally downloading tens of thousands of classified U.S. military and State Department documents that were then publicly released by WikiLeaks, military officials tell NBC News.

The most serious of the new charges is "aiding the enemy," a capital offense which carries a potential death sentence.

Pentagon and military officials say some of the classified information released by WikiLeaks contained the names of informants and others who had cooperated with U.S. military forces in Afghanistan, endangering their lives. According to the officials, the U.S. military rounded up many of those named and brought them into their bases for their own protection. But, according to one military official, "We didn't get them all." Military officials tell NBC News, a small number of them have still have not been found.