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US: Police warn Southern California homeless people about serial killer after 3 men found dead


The Washington Post
Thu, 05 Jan 2012 14:00 UTC
Image
© The Washington Post
Anaheim, California - Police and advocates on Thursday warned homeless people in Orange County not to sleep alone on the streets because a serial killer has already killed three homeless men.

The Orange County Rescue Mission is handing out flashlights and whistles to the homeless, in an effort to help them protect themselves, said Jim Palmer, the group's president.

Palmer's group is encouraging area homeless to sleep in groups, or better yet, come inside to a shelter.

"Our goal is to get them into those beds and fill those beds," he said.

Darryl Bossier, 49, said he sleeps outside the Orange County administration building in downtown Santa Ana - one of a dozen transients who use the benches that zigzag across the courtyard as a place to rest each night.

"I'm a watchdog. I don't want them to get anybody," Bossier said of the killer, adding he sleeps only about four hours a night. "Who wants to wake up next to somebody dead?"
      Read More...
Sherlock

'Murder-suicide' involving 2 Navy pilots rocks elite community of aviators


The Washington Post
Fri, 06 Jan 2012 05:41 UTC
San Diago Police
© AP
San Diago - The two Navy fighter-jet pilots were in their prime, having made the cut into one of the military's most competitive programs.

Their deaths in a murder-suicide on New Year's Day has rocked the tight-knit community of Naval aviators as investigators try to find out what happened in the condominium on the picturesque peninsula of Coronado, an enclave of 24,000 just across the bay of San Diego that recorded only one homicide in 2010.

There were no eyewitnesses, investigators say, and they have found no motive yet for the eruption in gunfire that also killed one of the pilot's sisters and a 31-year-old man the group had just befriended at a nightclub only hours before the incident.

John Robert Reeves, 25, shot himself in the head, and the three others with him were murdered, the San Diego County Sheriff's Department said, citing autopsy results. Fellow Navy pilot David Reis, also 25, was killed by a gunshot wound to the torso, and his 24-year-old sister, Karen, suffered a gunshot wound to the head and chest, officials said. Matthew Saturley, 31, of suburban Chula Vista, was shot multiple times.

Sheriff's Capt. Duncan Fraser said there were no outstanding suspects in the case, and police have found no evidence indicating there was an exchange of gunfire, although he declined to say if Reeves was the shooter, explaining that "we don't have forensic evidence yet to say that definitively."
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Health

US: Doctors Going Broke

Parija Kavilanz
CNN Money
Thu, 05 Jan 2012 11:37 UTC
Image
© Dr. Mike Gorman
Dr. Mike Gorman has taken out an SBA loan to keep his rural solo practice running in Logandale, Nev. "If things don't improve fast, I will have no choice but to close my doors," he said.
Doctors in America are harboring an embarrassing secret: Many of them are going broke.

This quiet reality, which is spreading nationwide, is claiming a wide range of casualties, including family physicians, cardiologists and oncologists.

Industry watchers say the trend is worrisome. Half of all doctors in the nation operate a private practice. So if a cash crunch forces the death of an independent practice, it robs a community of a vital health care resource.

"A lot of independent practices are starting to see serious financial issues," said Marc Lion, CEO of Lion & Company CPAs, LLC, which advises independent doctor practices about their finances.

Doctors list shrinking insurance reimbursements, changing regulations, rising business and drug costs among the factors preventing them from keeping their practices afloat. But some experts counter that doctors' lack of business acumen is also to blame.
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Vader

US, Florida: Man Wearing Darth Vader Mask Attacked Trooper


Click Orlando
Thu, 05 Jan 2012 07:22 UTC
Unprovoked attack occurred near Orlando construction site, officials say


A Florida Highway Patrol trooper was attacked in Orlando early Thursday by a man wearing a Darth Vader mask, authorities said.

Michael Cole, 28, of Orlando, was arrested on felony charges of resisting arrest and battery on an officer.

According to the FHP, a construction worker informed the trooper around 2:45 a.m. of an intoxicated man wearing a Darth Vader mask who was walking in the middle of a road near Summerlin Avenue and Anderson Street.
      Read More...
Sheriff

US, Florida: Tampa Police Search for Woman who Shocked Shopper in Indian-Style Clothing


WTSP 10 News
Thu, 05 Jan 2012 03:32 UTC
stun gun, taser
© The Associated Press
Tampa police are investigating a stun gun attack on a shopper wearing an Indian-style tunic.

Police spokeswoman Irene Thomas says authorities want to question the woman who used a Taser on the victim.

Thomas says "it's just a matter of why" the woman attacked the 61-year-old victim who was wearing a salwar-kameeze, the Indian tunic paired with loose pants, while shopping at Walmart on New Year's Day.

Police say two women are seen on a store surveillance video following the victim through a couple of aisles, but the attack was not captured. One woman acted as a lookout while a second woman shocked the victim.

The victim, who had two small marks on her back, does not want to be identified since the attackers are still on the loose.

Source: The Associated Press
      Read More...
Pistol

US, New York: Middle Schoolers Star in Graphic Film About Gang life

Michael J. Feeney
New York Daily News
Thu, 05 Jan 2012 05:36 UTC
Film shot in the neighborhood features kid actors toting guns
Image
© Viorel Florescu/New York Daily News
Termaine (M5) Brown (with glasses) and some of the actors of his new independent film Toddlers. From left are Jordan Pena "il tune," Pedro Cruz and Henry Sanchez "Chicky Thing."

The streets of Harlem are being run by baby-faced gun-toting kids who aren't afraid to pull the trigger and leave a bloody trail of bodies in a new independent film that's quickly making the rounds uptown.

There's wild shoot outs, drugs and sex in Toddlers - shot in Harlem using neighborhood kids as young as 12 making their acting debut.

The DVD, released last month, has anti-violence activists charging the movie glorifies guns. They're thinking about boycotting the video store selling the film.

Director Termaine (M5) Brown insisted he's not promoting gun violence, just showing a harsh reality.
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Pistol

British Red Cross Doctor is Kidnapped at Gunpoint in Pakistan


Daily Mirror
Fri, 06 Jan 2012 00:00 UTC

A British Red Cross doctor was kidnapped at gunpoint in Pakistan yesterday.

Dr Khalil Dale is understood to have been abducted by unidentified assailants close to his base in Quetta, in the troubled south-western Baluchistan province earlier today.

A spokesman for the charity said colleagues were "very concerned" for his welfare.

Dr Dale, a health programme manager who was seconded to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), was abducted as he made his way home in a clearly-marked ICRC vehicle at around 1pm local time.

His assailants are said to have bundled him into a car some 200 meters from an ICRC residence, in an upscale housing complex.
      Read More...
Chalkboard

US: 10 Years On - No Child Left Behind Facing Mixed Results And Uncertain Future

Joy Resmovits
The Huffington Post Education
Thu, 05 Jan 2012 00:00 UTC
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When President George W. Bush joined congressmen John Boehner, George Miller and Edward Kennedy to sign the No Child Left Behind Act in January 2002, he touted the moment as a bipartisan victory for America's children.

"Today begins a new era, a new time in public education in our country," Bush proclaimed in Princeton, N.J., as he signed the bill into law on Jan. 8, 2002. "As of this hour, America's schools will be on a new path of reform, and a new path of results."

But 10 years later, results matching Bush's rhetoric haven't yet arrived -- and the law itself is unlikely to change any time soon.

Comment: For more information on the education crisis in America see:

American Education's Failure: The Cause and Cure

Who Controls Our Children ? (Public Education Dumb Down Kids)

You can't blame teachers for quitting when entire families are hostile to education

      Read More...
Cowboy Hat

Go Away, Daddy! The Revolting Bob Parsons and His Toxic Internet Empire

Lynn Parramore
AlterNet
Tue, 03 Jan 2012 00:00 UTC
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If unbridled capitalism is the plague, Go Daddy Founder Bob Parsons and his horrible company are the infected boils on the body politic.

In late December, domain registrar Go Daddy spat on the notion of the open society by announcing support for the widely-denounced Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). Technology firms and human rights activists quickly cried foul, revealing that the "copyright-enforcing" bill, with its overly broad definitions, was less about stopping piracy and more about restricting the flow of information to citizens. The firm caved to public pressure and withdrew support for the bill, which the US House Judiciary Committee will be voting on soon. The furore caused many Web sites (including AlterNet) to decide to pull their registrations from Go Daddy. And it shined a light on the notorious Go Daddy founder, cheekily and rather fondly profiled just days ago in the New York Times Magazine.

I refer to the Big Daddy himself, Bob Parsons.
      Read More...
Passport

France Stiffens Citizenship Requirements

Kim Willsher
Los Angeles Times
Mon, 02 Jan 2012 00:00 UTC
Image
© Michel Euler / AFP/Getty Images
France's President Nicolas Sarkozy, right, and Interior Minister
Foreigners must take a tough new language test and swear allegiance to 'French values.' Critics call it a far-right ploy for votes in upcoming elections.

France has made it harder for foreigners to obtain French citizenship by forcing them to take a tough new language test and swear allegiance to "French values."

Critics of the new regulations, introduced by President Nicolas Sarkozy's government just four months before presidential and parliamentary elections, say it's a cynical vote-winning ploy pandering to the far right.
      Read More...
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