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US, Washington: Bomb threats at Ritzville Starbucks force evacuations


NWCN.com
Mon, 05 Sep 2011 02:54 UTC
Image
© KREM.com
The Ritzville Police Department is investigating a bomb threat after two threatening calls were made to the Starbucks along Weber Rd.

A Starbucks employee told police that someone called saying that "there is a bomb in your store, everyone is going to die." The call came in at 10:43 a.m., and the employee could not tell if it was a male or female because the voice was altered. Shortly after, Starbucks received a second call saying the same thing.

Authorities evacuated Starbucks and six other nearby businesses.
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Eye 2

Philippines Catches 'Largest Crocodile on Record'

Cecil Morella
Agence France-Presse
Tue, 06 Sep 2011 00:00 UTC
Image
© Agence France-Presse
Villagers look at a 21-foot (6.4 meter) saltwater crocodile caught in the town of Bunawan, on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao. The monster crocodile, believed to be the biggest ever captured, was trapped after a spate of fatal attacks
A monster 21-foot (6.4-metre) saltwater crocodile, believed to be the biggest ever captured, has been trapped in the southern Philippines after a spate of fatal attacks, officials said Tuesday.

The 1,075-kilogramme (2,370-pound) male is suspected of eating a farmer who went missing in July in the town of Bunawan, and of killing a 12-year-old girl whose head was bitten off two years ago, crocodile hunter Rollie Sumiller said.

The hunter examined the crocodile's stomach contents by forcing it to vomit after it was captured Saturday, but there was no trace of human remains or of several water buffaloes also reported missing by locals.

"The community was relieved," Sumiller said of the capture, but added: "We're not really sure if this is the man-eater, because there have been other sightings of other crocodiles in the area."

The local government of the impoverished town of 30,000 people has decided against putting down the reptile, and will instead build a nature park where it will go on display.
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Document

Canada: Innocent Traveller Stuck on Airline Watch List


CBC News
Tue, 06 Sep 2011 09:23 UTC
Image
© CBC News
Ahmad Ali says he's being constantly mistaken by Air Canada for someone else who's on a no-fly list.
A Saskatoon man is fed up with being stopped every time he tries to fly within Canada - mistakenly flagged as a security threat - because he has a similar name to someone on a no-fly list.

"I feel I am either a second- or third-class citizen," said Ahmad Ali, a Canadian citizen. "They are humiliating me...and not catching the right guy."

Ali is a programmer and analyst with the University of Saskatchewan who said he's been delayed a dozen times boarding flights since 2008. He said the RCMP told him there is a similar name to his on a watch list.

"Your name is in there...and you don't even know what these lists are," said Ali.

The RCMP gave him written clearance to show he has no criminal record, which he said no one with the airlines is interested in seeing. Transport Canada confirmed he is not on its official no-fly list, known as "Passenger Protect."

American authorities granted him a Nexus card to enter the U.S. and he said he has no trouble boarding flights with U.S. airlines.
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Pistol

US: Police Say Teen Guns Down Eight at New York House Party

Eric Johnson
Reuters
Tue, 06 Sep 2011 13:14 UTC
Image
© Reuters/NYPD
Dasilva Oneil, 17, is pictured in this undated police photograph, released on September 4, 2011. Oneil allegedly gunned down eight people at a house party in New York City early on Sunday morning, evaded police capture and remains at large, according to New York City police officials.
A male teen allegedly gunned down eight people at a house party in New York City early on Sunday morning, evaded police capture and remains at large, according to New York City police officials.

Dasilva Oneil, 17, opened fire before roughly 3:40 a.m. in the Bronx, a New York City borough, hospitalizing eight, including an 11-year-old male and four teens.

The most seriously wounded in the attack was a 24-year-old male who was shot twice in the chest and remains in critical condition at a local hospital.

The remaining seven victims, five males and two females, were taken to local hospitals with "non-life threatening injuries," according to a statement from New York City police. They remain in stable condition.

Among the teens shot were a 13-year-old female, shot in the thigh, a 14-year-old girl shot in the back, a 17-year-old male shot in the pelvis, and a 19-year-old male shot in the butt.

Wounded also was a 21-year-old man shot in the thigh and a 24-year-old man shot in the forearm. All are in stable condition.

Oneil is from Mount Vernon, New York, roughly three miles north of the Bronx neighborhood where the party was held.
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Pistol

US: 1 Dead, Several Wounded in Shooting at Nevada Restaurant


MSNBC
Tue, 06 Sep 2011 13:03 UTC
Image
Helicopters on the scene to transport victims; their conditions unclear

One person is dead and at least seven people were wounded during a shooting Tuesday morning at a restaurant in Carson City, according to the FBI and local police.

Lt. Rob Van Diest of the Reno Police Department told the Reno Gazette-Journal that one person has been confirmed dead.

Carson City Sheriff Kenny Furlong told The Associated Press the gunman opened fire inside an IHOP restaurant about 9 a.m. on Tuesday. He said multiple people were wounded, including the shooter.

Furlong said the person who authorities believe to be the shooter has been transported to a hospital "and is probably going to die." It was unclear if the confirmed death was the alleged gunman.
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X

China seizes 13 million illegal video, music and print products in copyright crackdown


The Associated Press
Sun, 04 Sep 2011 00:00 UTC
China says it seized about 13 million illegal video, music and print products over the past year in a campaign to tackle fakes and copyright theft.

The official Xinhua News Agency reported Sunday that 663 shops producing pirated products, including movies, music CDs, software and books, were shut down from late last year to June.

China has struggled to deal with rampant piracy and the widespread production of bogus goods. Cracking down on such violations has long been a key demand from foreign businesses in China.

Trade groups say illegal Chinese copying of music, designer clothing and other goods costs legitimate producers billions of dollars a year in lost sales.

Source: The Canadian Press
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Family

Torture Alleged at Chain of Children's Homes

Johnny Bonner
Courthouse News Service
Tue, 06 Sep 2011 11:26 UTC
WWASP abuse
© wwaspinfo.net
Teen tied down in dog run
Salt Lake City, Utah - Hundreds of parents claim a group of boarding schools tortured their children: locked them in dog cages, forced them to lie in feces and eat vomit, masturbated them and denied the troubled teens any religion "except for the Mormon faith."

The Utah-based World Wide Association Of Specialty Programs and Schools and its owners - Robert Lichfield, Brent Facer and Ken Kay - went to great lengths to hide the "torture," which began in the mid-1990s and continued for a decade, the 357 plaintiffs claim in Salt Lake County Court.

The plaintiffs say that 59 schools and owners tied to the company "jointly promoted, advertised, and marketed defendants' residential boarding schools as a place where children with problems could get an education while receiving instruction and direction in behavior modification for emotional growth and personal development."
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Bad Guys

No place like home: The millions of Americans living in long-stay motels


DailyMail.Co.Uk
Sun, 04 Sep 2011 09:49 UTC
They are known as the last resort. Millions of Americans are staying in budget long-stay motels as the country's economic problems get worse.

The grisly rooms are seen as the lowest of the U.S. housing ladder, only just above a cardboard box.

In tiny rooms with paper-thin walls and nylon sheets, vulnerable Americans are making their homes for a few hundred bucks a month.
Image
© Getty Images
Last resort: Brittney Nance walks her children past budget hotels on their way to the grocery store in West Sacramento, California.

Many of the people taking advantage of the rock-bottom charges have been made redundant during the recession.

The motels have strict rules. Drugs are banned, but alcohol is allowed.

Rent must be paid on time, but every 28 days guest must clear everything out of their rooms and check in again so as not break hotel licensing rules.

There is no room service and guests have to clean their rooms and wash their own sheets.

But the popularity of what should be temporary accommodation is apparently causing problems for police.
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House

Uncle Sam is a Reluctant Landlord of Foreclosed Homes

Lorraine Woellert and Clea Benson
Bloomberg Business Week
Mon, 05 Sep 2011 10:12 UTC
Image
© Carlos Barria/Reuters
An empty mail box is seen at the front door of a foreclosed house in Miami Gardens, Fla. With even more homes moving toward default, the government is looking for ways to unload them without swamping the already depressed real estate market.
Washington has issued a plea to the public for ideas on how to get rid of houses

For sale or rent by distressed owner: 248,000 homes. That's how many residential properties the U.S. government now has in its possession, the result of record numbers of people defaulting on government-backed mortgages. Washington is sitting on nearly a third of the nation's 800,000 repossessed houses, making the U.S. taxpayer the largest owner of foreclosed properties. With even more homes moving toward default, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Administration are looking for a way to unload them without swamping the already depressed real estate market.

Trouble is, they haven't figured out how to do that. The government admitted as much in August, when Fannie, Freddie and FHA issued a joint plea to the public for ideas about how to solve the problem. (Give it your best shot: You have until Sept. 15 to email ideas to reo.rfi@fhfa.gov.) "They're stuck," says Karen Shaw Petrou, managing partner of Federal Financial Analytics, a Washington-based consultant that advises banks and other clients on government policy. "They don't know what to do."

Since the 2008 financial collapse, the government has spent billions of dollars trying to extricate borrowers from high-cost loans, aid delinquent homeowners and stabilize neighborhoods. The results have been disappointing. The Obama Administration's signature loan-modification program has helped about 657,000 homeowners - far short of its goal of 3 to 4 million. The program was a victim of its complexity and its inability to cope with overwhelming demand. Many families hit hardest by the housing downturn are concentrated in states that are having the most difficulty recovering from the recession, including Florida, Ohio and Nevada.
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Stop

Australia: Man takes female hostage in Sydney office bomb siege


The Telegraph
Tue, 06 Sep 2011 02:50 UTC
Police are negotiating with a shirtless man wearing a barrister's wig who is thought to have a bomb and young female hostage in a law office near Sydney.

The siege began shortly before 9am when the man, aged in his 50s, and his daughter, aged 10 or 11, entered the barristers' chambers on the main street of Parramatta, a suburb about 20 kilometres from central Sydney.

Receptionist Betty Hor said he demanded to talk to a man whom she had never heard of, and when she told him that there was no one in the building of that name he became angrier and more frustrated until he "snapped" and threw a book at the reception desk.


"He said, 'Call the attorney general, I've got a bomb in my backpack". she said.
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