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Pennsylvania Lawmaker 'Choked, Wrestled and Beat Wife and then Drove Away Drunk'


Daily Mail
Thu, 16 Aug 2012 00:00 UTC
Image

State Rep: Joseph Brennan allegedly choked and punched his wife on the porch of their Fountain Hill home on Wednesday afternoon and then drove away drunk
A Pennsylvania state lawmaker faces assault and other charges after police say he punched and choked his wife, then drove away drunk.

Democratic state Rep Joseph Brennan, 48, was arrested on Wednesday following a 911 call about a man hitting a woman outside their home in Fountain Hill, Lehigh County.

Norma Jane Brennan told officers her husband had choked, punched and wrestled her to the ground.

According to the police affidavit, Mrs Brennan had visible injuries to her left hand, knuckles, both feet and her left knee.

Joseph Brennan was pulled over a few blocks away, where police say a breath test found he had a blood-alcohol level more than twice the legal limit for drivers.

Brennan was arraigned and released on $7,500 bail.

He was charged with assault, harassment and drunken driving and was told to have no contact with his wife while he is out on bail.
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Wolf

Angry Wedding Guest Brings Pit Bull To Reception, Orders It To Attack Bride in Denver


CBS News Denver
Fri, 17 Aug 2012 06:43 UTC
Image
© CBC News
A man is on the run from police and a dog is under quarantine at the Denver Animal Shelter after a shocking attack at a wedding party last weekend.

So far it's not clear why the man police say is Joel Neveraz, a wedding guest, encouraged his pit bull to attack the bride and also attacked the woman himself.

Neveraz allegedly got upset about something at Brittany Schults' wedding on Saturday in North Denver. He then left and came back later with his pit bull.

Schults told CBS4 Neveraz suffers from several mental illnesses and at one point spent time in a mental hospital.

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Pistol

Pizza Franchise Creates 'Not After Dark' Delivery Rule In Detroit After Driver Shot


CBS News Detroit
Fri, 17 Aug 2012 10:21 UTC
Jet's Pizza
US, Michigan - Has it come to this? Yes it has, according to Joan McKenna, whose son Tim McKenna, 19, was shot while delivering pizza in Detroit.

In the wake of the shooting, a Jets Pizza franchise in Dearborn ruled it will no longer deliver to Detroit after dark. Before the shooting, they sent two drivers to every nighttime Detroit delivery, one of whom was armed, Joan McKenna said.

"They usually send somebody with a guy ... who carries a gun," she said. "Usually they have two go into Detroit after dark, if they have a delivery ... One guy has a legal, he can carry a gun. That night, Timmy was the only one left, they had this one run to do, he said 'yeah, I'll do it.' He's a kid, he doesn't think anything's going to happen to him."

Tim McKenna was shot in the ribs, and the bullet hit a lung, but he survived and plans to return in the fall to Adrian College, where he plays football. Pizza delivery was his summer job.

"He can't play football right now, he's on the team at Adrian, it's really hard ... It went right in the chest, this guy shot him right in the chest," Joan McKenna said, adding, "It was a robbery, the guy wanted his money, he hit the gas and the guy went 'pop pop' and he was shot in the chest."

Her son had about $35 on him, which is what the drivers carry, McKenna said.
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Arrow Down

More California Cities at Risk of Bankruptcy

Hannah Dreier and Gosia Wozniacka
The Associated Press
Fri, 17 Aug 2012 06:12 UTC
Image
© The Associated Press/Ben Margot
A Stockton city worker walks away from city hall in Stockton, Calif. Stockton is one of three California cities to file for bankruptcy this year, which has led Moody's Investors Service to begin a review of municipal finances in the state because of what it sees is a growing threat of increased city bankruptcies and bond defaults.
One of the nation's top credit rating agencies said Friday that it expects more municipal bankruptcies and defaults in California, the nation's largest issuer of municipal bonds.

Moody's Investors Service said in a report that the growing fiscal distress in many California cities was putting bondholders at risk.

The service announced that it will undertake a wide-ranging review of municipal finances in the nation's most populous state because of what it sees as a growing threat of insolvency.

The report has both investors and government leaders worried.

Three California cities - Stockton, San Bernardino and Mammoth Lakes - have filed for bankruptcy so far this year. They are not likely to be the last, Moody's said.

Moody's reports that some cities are turning bankruptcy as a new strategy to take on budget deficits and avoid obligations to bondholders, an emerging dynamic that could have ripple effects throughout the investment community.

The municipal bond market has long been characterized by low default rates and relatively stable finances, Moody's said, but that outlook is beginning to change as bankruptcy becomes a tool for cash-strapped cities.
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Stormtrooper

Chilean Police Storm Student Sit-in, Arrest 139


RT
Fri, 17 Aug 2012 00:00 UTC

Chilean Police deployed tear gas and water cannons against student protestors as they stormed schools in Santiago where the activists had held a weeklong sit-in. Officers arrested 139, claiming the use of force was "necessary to maintain order."

Police action occurred at the Dario Salas, Miguel de Cervantes and Confederacion Suiza schools at the behest of Santiago Mayor Pablo Zalaquett. Water cannons and tear gas were used to disperse students who resisted arrest and brawled with police.

Police officers forcibly entered Miguel de Cervantes with a water cannon and climbed over fences to capture the students.

After failing to negotiate an agreement with students, Zalaquett threatened to withdraw their scholarships, provoking the ire of other mayors who branded it an "abuse of power."

In the wake of the evictions, Zalaquett said he would have preferred for there to have been no arrests, but added that the "students were given a chance to leave peacefully, but they didn't take it." The Chilean government rejects the sit-ins as a form of protest, he said, calling on the students' parents to intervene.
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Megaphone

Over 50 Detained at Pussy Riot Courthouse Demo (Photos)


RT
Fri, 17 Aug 2012 00:00 UTC
Image
© Reuters/Sergei Karpukhin
Police detain a Pussy Riot supporter outside the Khamovnichesky Court
More than 50 of Pussy Riot's supporters and detractors have been detained outside the Moscow court where three members of the punk rock collective were sentenced to two years in prison for hooliganism and inciting religious hatred.

Hundreds of people, many clad in Pussy Riot T-shirts, had packed onto a narrow street outside of the Khamovnichesky Court as the verdict was being handed down. Supporters cried "shame" and "Putin scum" upon hearing the verdict, while opponents held religious icons and sang prayers.

Police said those taken into custody had committed various acts in violation of public order. A source within the police station where the detainees were taken said some would get off with a warning, while others would be charged with unspecified administrative offenses.

Opposition leaders Gary Kasparov and Sergey Udaltsov were also taken into custody outside the court.

Kasparov told the TASS news agency by phone that he had been slightly roughed up, but would not need medical assistance as he was "able to bear it." Police, however, accused Kasparov of biting an officer while he remanded the former world chess champion into custody. The officer was reportedly forced to go to hospital for treatment and police say they are looking into the incident. Kasparov called the accusation "nonsense."
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Brick Wall

Bitter Blow to Free Speech in Russia: Pussy Riot Convicted

Michelle Ringuette
Amnesty International
Fri, 17 Aug 2012 00:00 UTC
Image
© Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
Nadezhda Tolokonnikova (L), Maria Alyokhina (C) and Yekaterina Samutsevich (R), were given 2 year sentences for a performance.
A Russian court's decision today to sentence members of the punk rock protest band Pussy Riot to 2 years imprisonment in a penal colony is a bitter blow for freedom of expression in Russia - and it sends a dangerous message throughout the world (take action here).

Three members of the all-female group were outrageously charged with "hooliganism on grounds of religious hatred" after they gave a politically charged and impromptu performance - a peaceful performance - poking fun at President Putin at a cathedral in February.

Say what you will about Pussy Riot: this may not be your kind of music. Some people find their shows offensive.

But it doesn't change the facts: freedom of speech is a human right, and it's vital to a free and just society.
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Health

Brazil Worker Survives Bar Through Skull

REenata Brito
Associated Press
Fri, 17 Aug 2012 13:55 UTC
Tomography Scan
© AP Photo/Miguel Couto Hospital
This tomography scan released Thursday, Aug. 16, 2012 by the Miguel Couto hospital, show the skull of 24-year-old construction worker Eduardo Leite pierced by a metal bar in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Doctors say Leite survived after a 6-foot metal bar fell from above him and pierced his head. Luiz Essinger of Rio de Janeiro's Miguel Couto Hospital Friday told the Globo TV network that doctor's successfully withdrew the iron bar during a five-hour-long surgery.
Rio De Janeiro - A 24-year-old construction worker survived after a 6-foot metal bar fell from above and pierced his head, doctors said Friday.

Luiz Alexandre Essinger, chief of staff of Rio de Janeiro's Miguel Couto Hospital said doctors successfully withdrew the iron bar from Eduardo Leite's skull during a five-hour surgery.

"He was taken to the operating room, his skull was opened, they examined the brain and the surgeon decided to pull the metal bar out from the front in the same direction it entered the brain." Essinger said.

He said Leite was conscious when he arrived at the hospital and told him what had happened.

He said Leite was lucid and showed no negative consequences after the operation.
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Arrow Up

Dave Mustaine Refuses to Apologise for His Comments That Barack Obama 'Staged' Recent Massacres


NME.com
Fri, 17 Aug 2012 20:43 UTC

Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine has attempted to clarify his comments after he accused US President Barack Obama of "staging" the recent shootings in Aurora, Colorado and at the Wisconsin Sikh temple, but has refused to apologise.

The singer was performing with his band last Tuesday (August 7) in Singapore when he delivered the bizarre rant against the president, who he said was trying to secure new laws to control gun ownership by staging the shootings.

Speaking in a fan-shot video, which you can see at the top of the page, Mustaine also said that he believed the United States was "turning into Nazi America."

He said: "Back in my country, my president is trying to pass a gun ban, so he's staging all of these murders. Like the 'Fast And Furious' thing down at the border and Aurora, Colorado, all the people that were killed there and now the beautiful people at the Sikh temple."

Despite the stunned silence from the crowd, he continued, saying:
I don't know where I'm gonna live if America keeps going the way it's going because it looks like it's turning into Nazi America.
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Dollar

Shunning the banks: 'buy local' movement printing their own currencies


America Now News
Fri, 17 Aug 2012 16:53 UTC
local currency
© worldnow.com
With big banks causing big worries and small-town economies struggling to survive, a growing number of communities around the country are trying to motivate the 'buy local' movement by printing their own money.

It's a trend that started in Ithaca, New York, in 1991. Now, over 80 communities in the U.S. have attempted printing a local currency.

But don't get rid of all your dollars just yet.

In Massachusetts, about 400 local businesses bag up goods paid for with the Berkshare.

You can buy bananas with Bay Bucks in Traverse City, Michigan, or if you're shopping in the Piedmont area of North Carolina, you can pay for everything from peanut butter to your local wireless provider with the Plenty.

"We know that money is not leaving this community; it's not going to some corporate headquarters. It's staying right here and being distributed all around this town, and it's spreading the wealth locally," says Tami Schwerin, the executive director of The Abundance Foundation.
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