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I-5 Skagit River Bridge collapses in Washington State; cars and people seen in water

Skagit River Bridge
© Tiffany Riley Matson , TwitterThe Skagit River Bridge on the I-5 in Washington State shortly after it collapsed on May 23, 2013.
The Skagit River Bridge on the I-5 in Washington State has collapsed, sending vehicles into the water below, according to police.

Washington State Patrol District 7 spokesman Trooper Mark Francis tweeted around 7:20 p.m. on Thursday that people and cars have been spotted in the water.

The Skagit River Bridge is located between Burlington and Mt. Vernon, about 100 kilometres north of Seattle and 128 kilometres south of Vancouver.

Cult

London beheading sparks fascist 'English Defence League' (EDL) to riot in Woolwich

EDL members
© national pictures/Nick EdwardsPointing: EDL members clash with Metropolitan Police officers during their protest in south-east London
  • EDL supporters wearing balaclavas waved flags and chanted
  • Riot police with shields stood guard before dispersing group
  • 'Knife-carrying' man arrested over suspected arson at Braintree mosque
  • Man held over suspected criminal damage 'revenge' attack at Kent mosque
More than 100 members of far-right group the English Defence League gathered near the scene of the suspected terrorist attack last night.

Many were draped in St George's flags and wore black balaclavas with the EDL logo on.

Riot police holding shields formed a cordon around the area as the EDL members waved flags and chanted 'no surrender to the Muslim scum', 'Rule Britannia' and 'England'.

EDL leader Stephen Lennon - who goes by the name Tommy Robinson - addressed the crowd, saying: 'We have got weak leadership. They have allowed this to happen. People are scared to say the word Muslim. They are scared to offend them.


Comment: Unite against fascism reports the EDL is "riddled with fascists":
EDL leader 'Tommy Robinson' - real name Stephen Yaxley Lennon - is a former member of the fascist British National Party. Founder EDL member Chris Renton was also in the BNP, as were other leading figures including North East organiser Alan Spence.

Many more former members of the BNP, the Nazi National Front and other fascist organisations are also active in the EDL and its splinter groups.



Satellite

Man 'controlled by satellites' makes 100 calls to 911 in a month, vows to continue


  • Sacramento - A man who called 911 more than 100 times in one month says he's not going to stop until his concerns are heard by the federal government.

    Jimmy Shao keeps a log book of every 911 call he's made. So many that he boasts he's probably set a world record.

    He doesn't believe he's wasting the time of emergency responders because he has an emergency of his own: Shao believes he's being watched by shadowy government authorities.

    He claims to believe his body is controlled by satellites.

    "My brain, I can feel it starting. I'm blasted by the signals, every couple of minutes," he said. "I yell and I scream, 'Stop it, I don't need this,' but they never listen."

    Bad Guys

    Psychopathy! Hit and run driver tweets about running over cyclist

    Image
    © huffingtonpost.co.uk
    When Emma Way hit a cyclist and drove off, she might have gotten away with it if she had not tweeted about it soon afterward.

    In the tweet, from her account which is now deleted, she said, "Definitely knocked a cyclist off his bike earlier - I have right of way he doesn't even pay road tax! #bloodycyclists"

    Way, from Norwich, England, had a small circle of 100 followers on Twitter. But the tweet soon spread, and got the attention of Norwich Police.

    Norwich Police tweeted back, "@emmaway20 we have had tweets ref an RTC with a bike. We suggest you report it at a police station ASAP if not done already & then dm us"

    And soon after that, more people saw the tweet, eventually locating the injured person.

    James Lucas tweeted that he knew the man who was hit, saying, "Police are on the case. They had already located her and were just waiting for the victim to come forward. He has contacted them ..."

    The cyclist was Toby Hockley, who was interviewed later by BBC.

    Heart - Black

    Heartless! Psychiatry hospital has been dumping patients for five years, leaving them homeless, stranded

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    A criminal investigation has been launched into a Las Vegas psychiatric hospital that allegedly bused over 1,500 patients out of the facility on one-way tickets over a five year span.

    According to a report published by the Sacramento Bee - which obtained bus receipts from the facility in question - patients were bused to every single state in the U.S., with approximately 200 arriving in Los Angeles County.

    As a result, the Rawson-Neal Psychiatric Hospital is now facing a criminal probe from the city of Los Angeles into the scheme, which officials believe originally began back in 2008.

    According to investigators, over 30 percent of those bused out of the facility were homeless and stranded upon departure - equipped with only a small supply of medication and several bottles of a nutritional supplement.

    One such person, James Flavy Brown, said he was sent to Sacramento even though he had never been there before. The psychosis patient had only been treated for three days before he was sent to the California capital equipped with a one-way ticket, three Ensure nutritional shakes, and three days-worth of medication.

    "I said, 'I don't want to leave Nevada,'" Brown told ABC News. "[The doctor] said, 'California sounds like a really nice state. I think you'll be happy there.'"

    With no Social Security card, food stamps, or Medicaid card, Brown was eventually forced to check into a homeless shelter after feeling the early effects of medication withdrawal.

    Comment: What took them so long to launch an investigation? This has been going on since 2007.
    Mentally ill man missing in alleged pattern of 'patient dumping' by Nevada health officials



    Arrow Down

    Wells Fargo forecloses on homeowner for making early mortgage payments!

    Foreclosures
    © Occupy Wall Street via TwitterForeclosure protester arrested at DOJ.
    As Occupy Our Homes demonstrates at the Department of Justice the fraudclosure crisis continues unabated.

    A Florida family man who not only made his mortgage payments on time but made payments early faces foreclosure by Wells Fargo. The explanation for initiating the foreclosure proceedings by Wells Fargo is nothing short of amazing and offers a sad commentary on how little has changed despite the 2008 financial crisis and supposed reforms like Dodd-Frank.
    Etienne Syldor said he's worked his whole life for a home in Orlando for his wife and three children.

    Syldor is an immigrant from Haiti and a bus driver at Walt Disney World. At times, he said he has worked multiple jobs to make sure he never missed a mortgage payment.

    Last year, Wells Fargo offered him mortgage modification, and he was told if he made four monthly payments during a trial period, the modification would be permanent.
    So far so good. Family man working multiple jobs to make sure he is paying his bills - personal responsibility and all that jazz. Court records confirm that Syldor made his payments.

    Then something funny happened.

    Blackbox

    "Truly shocking" London attack leaves 1 dead, 2 injured

    Police officers guard a cordon
    © Reuters / Stefan WermuthPolice officers guard a cordon set up around a crime scene where one man was killed in London
    Two men attacked another man near a London military barracks Wednesday, in what British authorities were investigating as a possible terror act. One man is dead and two others were injured.

    While details were scant, Prime Minister David Cameron called the killing "truly shocking" and said he had asked Home Secretary Theresa May to call an urgent meeting of the government's emergency committee.

    A British government official who spoke only on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the investigation said the details that had emerged were indicative of a "terrorist-motivated attack."

    May said she had been briefed by Britain's domestic security service, MI5, and by police on what she called a "sickening and barbaric" attack.

    Britain's Ministry of Defense said it was urgently investigating reports that a serving soldier was involved in the incident.

    Police said armed officers responded to reports of the assault Wednesday afternoon just a few blocks from a military training barracks in southeast London.

    Commander Simon Letchford said reports indicated that one man was being assaulted by two other men, and that a number of weapons - including possibly a firearm - were used in the attack.


    Attention

    Stockholm erupts in wave of violence for third night

    Rioters have lit fires and stoned emergency services in the suburbs of Stockholm for the third night in a row after a man was shot dead by police. Incidents were reported in at least nine suburbs of the Swedish capital and police made eight arrests. On Sunday night, more than 100 cars were set alight, Swedish media report. Police in the deprived, largely immigrant suburb of Husby shot a man dead last week after he reportedly threatened to kill them with a machete. The founder of a local youth group told Swedish media the riots were a reaction to "police brutality." Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt told reporters on Tuesday that Sweden would not be intimidated by rioters. On Tuesday night, cars were torched in western and southern Stockholm, and stones were thrown at police officers and firefighters.


    One area affected, Rinkeby, saw similar rioting in 2010. Kjell Lindgren of the Stockholm police told Aftonbladet newspaper that the unrest had spread from the original rioting in Husby. "It feels like people are taking the opportunity in other areas because of the attention given to Husby," he said. Earlier on Tuesday, Prime Minister Reinfeldt said: "We've had two nights with great unrest, damage, and an intimidating atmosphere in Husby and there is a risk it will continue. We have groups of young men who think that that they can and should change society with violence. Let's be clear: this is not okay. We cannot be ruled by violence." More than 80% of Husby's 12,000 or so inhabitants are from an immigrant background, and most are from Turkey, the Middle East and Somalia. - BBC

    Blackbox

    WHO chief warns the world is unprepared for a massive virus outbreak?

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    The world is unprepared for a massive virus outbreak, the deputy chief of the World Health Organization warned Tuesday, amid fears that H7N9 bird flu striking China could morph into a form that spreads easily among people. Keiji Fukuda told delegates at a WHO meeting that despite efforts since an outbreak of another form of avian influenza, H1N1, in 2009-10, far more contingency planning was essential. "Even though work has been done since that time, the world is not ready for a large, severe outbreak," Fukuda said. Rapid-reaction systems were crucial, given that health authorities' efforts are already hampered by lack of knowledge about such diseases, he insisted.

    "When people get hit with an emerging disease, you can't just go to a book and know what to do," he said. According to the latest official data, H7N9 avian influenza has infected 130 people in China, and killed 35, since it was found in humans for the first time in March. It is one of a vast array of flu viruses carried by birds, the overwhelming majority of which pose little or no risk to humans. Experts are struggling to understand how it spread to people, amid fears that it could adapt into a form that can be transmitted easily from human to human. "Any new influenza virus that infects humans has the potential to become a global health threat," WHO chief Margaret Chan told the meeting.

    Alarm Clock

    Mystery illness claims the life of 2 area teens, a third is critical


    A hospital spokeswoman at Texas Children's in Houston said in a written statement that a 17-year-old boy in their facility is not believed, by them, to be connected two cases in which area teens died from a mystery illness.

    Comment: And this reported yesterday:
    Mysterious respiratory illness strikes 7 in Alabama; 2 dead