Breaking News - YOUR MONEY

Los Angeles spent $70 million in stimulus funds to create 7.76 jobs
A new piece of evidence has emerged in the debate over the effectiveness of President Obama's 2009 stimulus package, and it's not good for Democrats. According to two newly released audits performed by the Los Angeles controller, L.A. spent enormous portions of the $594 million in stimulus funds it received on projects that created or saved just a handful of jobs. All told, the audits - available - examined $111 million in stimulus spending by the city's Department of Transportation and Department of Public Works, and found that the money went to projects that created or retained just 54 jobs. That works out to roughly $2 million per job.

The $71 million that went to the Department of Public Works, which funded 15 road-surfacing and similar projects, was projected to save or create 238 jobs. But according to the audit, the money created just 7.76 jobs or slightly more than $10 million per new job and saved 37.7 (the fractions are a result of calculating the number of jobs by hours worked). The Department of Transportation's $40 million created or retained just nine jobs, the audit found.

Breaking News at Discovery Channel HQ

WASHINGTON - One hostage has been taken by a man with a handgun at the Discovery Channel headquarters building in suburban Washington, Montgomery County police told ABC television Wednesday.

Police Corporal Dan Friz said the building in Silver Spring, Maryland, was on lockdown but he could not confirm gunshots were fired as a Discovery employee had told ABC television. Go To:  James Jay Lee

Iraq War Footage

Iraq War Fraud Grosses $100 Million More

Even though another $100 million is "missing" in so-called "reconstruction" funds, it may never be known how much Paul Bremer's Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) actually skimmed in Iraq War Fraud. An audit by Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction Stewart Bowen found that officers "cannot properly account for or support $96.6 million in cash and receipts." "There was no assurance that fraud, waste, and abuse did not occur in the management and administration of cash assets," the May 2005 audit concludes. The latest black hole of Iraq War fraud is the Rapid Reconstruction Response Program (R3P) which let the Coalition Provisional Authority, headed by Paul Bremer, dispense cash with little or no oversight. Indeed the audit concluded that RSP officials did not "properly document transfers of cash," or reconcile the amount disbursed and the amount received by its agents. These monies were part of "Development Fund of Iraq," (DFI), entrusted to the CPA by the United Nations. 

I find it disturbing to see videos of Donald Rumsfield shaking hands with Saddam Hussein 20 years ago. It just goes to show you how you cannot trust anybody. If that can happen then anything is possible. It just goes to show how the leaders of our countries today that make out they are there to care and to protect us could also change and in the future become our enemies. I believe that the whole American Government is a fuck up. Democrats and Republicans don't seem to know what they are doing. America has been in debt for well over 20 years. Of course, I am not a conservative nor am I a liberal. I just want to preserve our constitutional rights.

80% Of Today's Delinquent Homeowners Will Lose Their Homes

If you know 5 people behind on their mortgage payments, 4 of them are going to end up losing their homes, according to a new study released by John Burns Real Estate Consulting.

They say that there is a "shadow inventory" of approximately 5 million houses with delinquent mortgages that will go on the market in the next few years. However, because they'll only get released as homeowners' fingers are slowly pried from their deeds, there probably won't be another drop in prices. Sorry, bargain hunters.

The consultants also say that the current efforts to modify loans, few of which are accompanied by a balance deduction, will only delay the inevitable. I can hear the clatter of jingle mail already!

dallas car chase dallas high speed chase news

Dallas car chase June 29 2009,

Pet python strangles two-year-old girl

A pet python has strangled a 2-year-old girl in the bedroom of her Florida home after it broke out of its enclosure.

Reports from the US say the snake's owner, boyfriend to the girl's mother, discovered the 2.5 metre snake was missing from its aquarium before finding it on the girl who had bite marks on her head.
He then stabbed the snake and removed the child from its grasp, AP said.
The snake was still alive when it was removed by the authorities.
The man did not have a permit for the snake and investigators are reported to be looking into whether any laws have been broken or any child neglect has occurred.
The Humane Society of the United States says up to 12 people have been killed in the US by pet pythons since 1980.

Australian city on crocodile alert

SYDNEY (AFP) – Australia's northern city of Darwin was on high alert on Thursday after a large crocodile was spotted prowling the city's beaches. Lifesavers hunted the animal on jetskis and swimmers were urged to stay out of the water after the three-metre (10-foot) saltwater croc was seen near shore trying to snap up dogs. Surf Life Saving NT chief executive Tony Snelling said extra volunteers had been called in to watch for the animal. He expressed concern over the "hundreds, if not thousands" of people who flock to night markets on Darwin's Mindil Beach to watch the sunset. The Northern Territory has suffered two fatal crocodile attacks already this year and is estimated to have Australia's largest population of the animals -- some 80,000.

Bizzarre Florida

The charge? 'Quackery'
The charges actually were “unlicensed practice of a health care profession” and “unlicensed practice of medicine,” but we like Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd’s description of the charges: “quackery.”

He said Enrique Vela, 68, and wife Ute Marquez, 56, diagnosed two undercover detectives with various ailments, then provided natural remedies they claimed would cure them,

TheLedger.com reports.
The sheriff’s office began investigating the Alternative Therapy Center in Winter Haven after the Health Department received an anonymous complaint alleging Vela and Marquez were diagnosing patients with cat parasites and arsenic poisoning.

Vela referred to himself as a doctor of homeopathic medicine, and told one of the detectives he could cure early stages of cancer. He told another detective plagued with appendicitis that she had hookworm larvae, among other ailments, the reports said.

Low Five

Following Directions

Eastern Mediterranean Event - Calculated yield of about 2 Hiroshima bombs

The Eastern Mediterranean Event was a high-energy aerial explosion over the Mediterranean Sea, -between Libya and Crete, Greece- on June 6th, 2002.This explosion, similar in power to a small atomic bomb, has been related to an asteroid undetected while approaching the Earth. The object disintegrated and no part was recovered. Since it did not reach the surface and it exploded over the sea, no crater was formed.It was detected by satellites and seismographic stations, with a calculated yield of about 26 kilotons of TNT, approximately double the yield of the Hiroshima bomb, comparable to a small modern nuclear bomb.

Post from Chuck

Sorry Folks for not posting the last few days but I've been down with flu.... so here we go once again.

Ayatollah: Death to the treacherous UK, Isreal, USA

Crowds chanted "Death to the UK" as Iran's supreme leader described the British government as the "most treacherous". Tens of thousands of Iranians chanted "Death to the UK, Isreal, and the US" as Ayatollah Ali Khamenei made his first address to the nation since opposition supporters flooded Tehran's streets in an unprecedented challenge to the country's ruling clerics. Khamenei blamed Great Britain and Iran's "external enemies" for the unrest. Source: www.metro.co.uk

My heart is bleeding for you, people of Iran...You are so courageous fighting for democracy and human rights!

tornado

By JEFF BAENEN, Associated Press Writer Jeff Baenen, Associated Press Writer – Fri Jun 19, 12:19 am ET
MINNEAPOLIS – Powerful storms across the Midwest brought heavy rain, strong winds and unleashed several tornadoes, damaging homes and businesses, tossing railcars off their tracks and knocking out power to thousands. In southeastern Minnesota, daylight Thursday revealed heavy destruction in the town of Austin, where vehicles were thrown about, homes were heavily damaged and power lines were knocked down. A few minor injuries were reported. Austin Mayor Tom Stiehm said it appeared up to five twisters had hit Wednesday night. The National Weather Service said one tornado on the north side of town was about 10 miles long and lasted for more than 20 minutes. The weather service said that at its worst point, the twister registered an EF2 on the Enhanced Fujita scale, meaning it generated winds between 111 mph and 135 mph.

Chernobyl Scrap Metal

Hundreds of pieces of Russian army hardware is left on the small field right near to Chernobyl. All this machinery has participated in Chernobyl accident liquidation and is radioactive from top to toe. Now it dies out under the open skies of deserted Chernobyl. You can get a Google Sat view of it too here.

Accused complained that interrogators tortured lies out of him

Accused al Qaeda mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed complained that interrogators tortured lies out of him, though he proudly took credit for more than two dozen other terror plots, according to newly released sections of government transcripts. ''I make up stories,'' Mohammed said at one point in his 2007 hearing at Guantánamo Bay. In broken English, he described an interrogation in which he was asked the location of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. ''Where is he? I don't know,'' Mohammed said. 'Then he torture me. Then I said, 'Yes, he is in this area or this is al Qaeda which I don't know him.' I said no, they torture me.'' Yet at the same military tribunal hearing, Mohammed ticked off a list of 29 terror plots in which he took part. The transcripts were released as part of a lawsuit in which the American Civil Liberties Union is seeking documents and details of the government's terror detainee programs. Previous accounts of the military tribunal hearings had been made public, but the Obama administration went back and reviewed the still-secret sections and determined that more portions could be released. Most of the new material centers on the detainees' claims of abuse during interrogations while being held overseas in CIA custody. source: www.miamiherald.com...

America tortures people, it's official and that is weak. I thought the US was above that sort of stuff, and shame on the people in charge. Comparisons to the worst regimes in history can be made, history will judge harshly on those involved. People have different opinions and people can be hypocrites, some believe torture is never justified, others think torture should be allowed in certain circumstances, still others think torture is great and happily kick a cat to death, and there is a range of opinion in between. But does not basic human nature state that when tortured people say what they think will get the torture to stop.

Wldfires raged near Los Angeles - Photo from Space

Driven by powerful Santa Ana winds, wildfires raged near Los Angeles, California, in mid-October 2008. Not only did the winds fan the fires’ flames, they also sent the smoke far out to sea. (NASA-Aqua)

Twister

Attacks on US Border Patrol Agents in San Diego, CA

NOT GOOD