XIAM007 - Making Unique Observations in a Very Cluttered World

Friday, 8 October 2010

Man Sinks Teeth Into Police Dog - if a dog bites a man it's not news, but if a man bites a dog, NOW you've got a story -

It's often said, if a dog bites a man it's not news, but if a man bites a dog, you've got a story.

Well, here is that story.

West Haven officer Scott Bloom was on patrol with his K-9, Onyx, near the Rite Aid on Elm Street early Thursday morning, when he noticed Roderick Lewis walking toward him.

Lewis yelled out "I need a bag of dust," referring to Angel Dust, according to police.

Lewis, 23, walked toward the officer and reached into his waistband. The officer grabbed Lewis' arms and told him to stop. That's when Lewis punched officer Bloom in the face, according to police.

Onyx, the police dog, jumped from Bloom's cruiser and attacked the suspect, latching onto his leg, according to police.

But then Lewis did his own chomping, biting into the dog's side, police said. Lewis didn't let go until the officer had to physically pull him off the dog, police said.

Lewis was charged with assault on a police officer, disorderly conduct and cruelty to animals.

Officer Bloom and Onyx were treated for their injuries.

Thursday, 7 October 2010

US Postal Service Union Vote Delayed Because Ballots Lost In the Mail -

Federal News Radio reports:

"Members of the American Postal Workers Union, for obvious reason, elect their national officers via mail ballot. Most postal clerks, who sort the mail, belong to the union. Their union brothers with the National Association of Letter Carriers deliver the mail. And their track record, considering the massive daily mail volume, is very good."

However, there seems to be a slight kink in the hose at the moment.

The counting of the ballots, mailed out well in advance, was to be completed this week. Now, the election committee has been forced to push back the voting deadline to October 14th. Why? It seems that a large percentage of the APWU's members didn't receive their ballots.

It's almost painful to type this, but, as luck would have it...the missing ballots were apparently lost in the mail.

This is not a joke. I mean, it is a joke. But it's true. Here--click on this link and see for yourself.

Anyone who did not receive a ballot has until 5pm today to request a duplicate by phone. Or...

By e-mail.

Read more - http://www.minyanville.com/dailyfeed/us-postal-service-union-vote/

Social Security Administration sent about 89,000 stimulus payments of $250 each to dead and incarcerated people -

The Social Security Administration sent about 89,000 stimulus payments of $250 each to dead and incarcerated people — but almost half of them were returned, a new inspector-general’s report has found.

The agency was charged with distributing the one-time payments, worth about $13 billion in total, as part of the economic-stimulus package passed in February 2009. Most of the payments were made in May 2009.

The inspector general found that about 72,000 payments were sent by electronic-transfer and as checks to people who would have qualified to receive them — had they still been alive. The report said that of these payments, about 55,000 were sent because the recipients had died recently, and the Social Security Administration had not been informed of their deaths by states, families or funeral homes at the time the payments were sent. The remaining 17,000 of the mistaken payments were attributed to the SSA failing to properly process death records that it did have.

Another 17,000 payments went to recipients who were in prison at the time the payment was made in May 2009. However, not all of those payments were necessarily against the letter of the law. While lawmakers intended to prevent payments to people in prison, the law included only a provision prohibiting payments to people incarcerated in the three months before the plan was passed — from November 2008 through January 2009.

There’s a startling bright spot in the report: The inspector general estimates that about 41,000 of the payments were returned. It is illegal to spend social-security money issued to somebody else, but such actions are rarely prosecuted for small amounts. At least one person has been prosecuted for cashing a stimulus check not issued to them, in one of the few accusations of stimulus fraud to date.

Wednesday, 6 October 2010

Food Stamp Recipients at Record 41.8M Americans in July, U.S. Says - as the jobless rate hovered near a 27-year high -

The number of Americans receiving food stamps rose to a record 41.8 million in July as thejobless rate hovered near a 27-year high, the government said.

Recipients of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program subsidies for food purchases jumped 18 percent from a year earlier and increased 1.4 percent from June, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said today in a statement on its website. Participation has set records for 20 straight months.

Unemployment in September may have reached 9.7 percent, according to a Bloomberg News survey of analysts in advance of the release of last month’s rate on Oct. 8. Unemployment was 9.6 percent in July, near levels last seen in 1983.

An average of 43.3 million people, more than an eighth of the population, will get food stamps each month in the year that began Oct. 1, according to White House estimates.

Insider Selling to Buying ratio this week has nearly DOUBLED, hitting a ridiculous 2,341 to 1 - $200M in stock last week -

Sorry kids, we just report the news... as ugly as they may be. After last week saw an insider selling to buying ratio of 1,411 to 1, this week the ratio has nearly doubled, hitting a ridiculous 2,341 to 1. And while Wall Street's liars and CNBC's clowns will have you throw all your money into "leading" techs like Oracle and Google, insiders in these names sold a combined $200 million in stock in the last week alone (following Oracle insider sales of $223 million in the prior week).Insiders can. not. wait. to. get. out. fast. enough. This Fed-induced rally is nothing short of a godsend for each and every corporate executive. But yes, there may be value: there was insider buying in 2 (two) companies last week: General Dynamics and Best Buy, for a whopping total of $177,064. At the same time sales were a total of $414 million: so is anyone wondering why JPMorgan is reopening its gold vault... Anyone left holding the bag on this market when the FRBNY props are taken away, will be left with the same return as all those investors who entrusted their money with Madoff. Guaranteed.

Read more - Credit to - http://www.zerohedge.com/article/insider-selling-buying-2341-1

Tuesday, 5 October 2010

Navy Bombs Guam With Dead Frozen Mice - scientists drop mice packed with acetaminophen to kill invasive brown tree snakes

Navy Bombs Guam With Dead Frozen Mice - scientists drop mice packed with acetaminophen to kill invasive brown tree snakes -

In a ploy to rid Guam of its population of invasive brown tree snakes, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is bombing the island with drugged frozen mice, military news outlet Stars and Stripes reported.

Using Naval Base Guam as a starting point, scientists drop mice packed with acetaminophen from helicopters into the jungle canopy.

The drug -- commonly found in Tylenol -- provided a regulatory advantage because it had already undergone extensive testing, Dan Vice, assistant state director of USDA Wildlife Services in Hawaii, Guam and the Pacific Islands, told Stars and Stripes.

Guam’s snake problem began in the 1980s, when the creatures arrived on the island accidentally in military cargo. The mildly venomous snakes can grow up to 10 feet long and, according to the Department of Land and Natural Resources for the State of Hawaii, are the leading cause of endangerment for some of Guam’s native animals.

“The discovery that snakes will die when they eat acetaminophen was a huge step forward,” Anne Brooke, conservation resources program manager for Naval Facilities Command Marianas told Stars and Stripes. “The problem was how you get the snakes to eat it.”

The solution was to drop the mice into the snakes’ natural habitat, the branches of trees in the jungles of Guam. By outfitting the mice with cardboard wings and green party streams, the bait could float down to the jungle and catch on the branches. The result is a hanging, deadly snack for the snakes.

Researchers began testing the system at the beginning of September, dropping 200 mice into 20 acres around the base, Stars and Stripes reported.

The effectiveness of the drop will offer insights into how well it might work elsewhere on the island -- and whether it might be a key to solving a longtime ecological problem, Vice said.

One in 28 US kids has a parent in prison - Prison population has more than quadrupled since 1980, from 500,000 to 2.3M -

The US's exceptionally high rate of incarceration is causing economic damage not only to the people behind bars but to their children and taxpayers as a whole, a new study finds.

The study (PDF) from the Pew Research Center's Economic Mobility Project, released Tuesday, reports that the US prison population has more than quadrupled since 1980, from 500,000 to 2.3 million, making the US's incarceration rate the highest in the world, beating former champions like Russia and South Africa.

This means more than one in 100 Americans is in prison, and the cost of prisons to states now exceeds $50 billion per year, or one in every 15 state dollars spent -- a figure the study describes as "staggering."

According to the authors, one in every 28 children in the US has a parent behind bars -- up from one in 125 just 25 years ago. This is significant, the study argues, because children of incarcerated parents are much likelier to struggle in life.

A family with an incarcerated parent on average earns 22 percent less the year after the incarceration than it did the year before, the study finds. And children with parents in prison are significantly likelier to be expelled from school than others; 23 percent of students with jailed parents are expelled, compared to 4 percent for the general population.

Sun Chips is pulling most of its biodegradable packaging - following an outcry of complaints the new bags were too noisy -

Frito-Lay, the snack giant owned by PepsiCo Inc., says it is pulling most of the biodegradable packaging it uses for its Sun Chips snacks, following an outcry from consumers who complained the new bags were too noisy.

Touted by Frito-Lay as 100% compostable, the packaging, made from biodegradable plant material, began hitting store shelves in January. Sales of the multigrain snack have since tumbled.

Frito-Lay is returning to its old, nondegradable packaging, for five of the six Sun Chips flavors. It will continue to use the noisy packaging for its Sun Chips Original brand. It has been working on trying to find a quieter version of the packaging since it first introduced the new bags. A process that is continuing.

"We chose to respond to the consumer feedback but still want to show that we are committed" to compostable packaging, says Chris Kuechenmeister, a spokesman for Frito-Lay.

Consumers have posted videos on the Web poking fun at the new bags and lodged fierce complaints on social-networking sites. Since January, year-on-year sales of Sun Chips have decreased each month, according to SymphonyIRI, a Chicago market-research firm that tracks sales at retailers. SymphonyIRI data exclude Wal-Mart Stores Inc. PepsiCo doesn't break out sales figures for Sun Chips.

The uproar about the new packaging was the subject of a Page One story in The Wall Street Journal in August.

This isn't the first time PepsiCo has had an issue with its packaging. Last year, the company dumped new packaging for its Tropicana orange juice after consumers complained they didn't like the new look.

Frito-Lay declined to disclose how much it spent to create the biodegradable packaging but it has been working on finding and testing degradable material for several years.

$69M in Calif. welfare money spent out of state - destinations like Las Vegas, Hawaiian beaches and Florida cruise ships -

Thousands of documents show tens of millions of welfare dollars have been spent out of state, some at vacation resorts. The discovery is leading to new legislation to prevent welfare abuse.

One lawmaker is calling for an end to taxpayer-funded vacations, as he calls it, for welfare recipients, but welfare supporters say that is just a political ploy. California already has one of the lowest fraud rates in the country.
Welfare offices in California have been jam-packed during this recession with applicants needing cash assistance for basic needs like food and shelter.

However, under new legislation about to be introduced by Assemblyman Ted Gaines, R-Roseville, welfare recipients may have to start spending their benefits only within the state.
A Los Angeles Times analysis found $69 million was spent outside state lines during a three and a half year period beginning in January 2007 at tourist destinations like Las Vegas, Hawaiian beaches and cruise ships in Florida. Critics call that "taxpayer-funded vacations" at a time when taxpayers can't afford one themselves.
"These are for folks that are hurting, that are out of job, and you see that money is spent on a cruise, then obviously, it's fraudulent," says Gaines.
Benefits are deposited electronically onto welfare cards that are used like a debit card in stores or to withdraw cash at certain ATMs.
The Times analysis found nearly $12 million was spent in Las Vegas, $1.5 million in Florida, $387,908 in Hawaii, and $16,010 withdrawn from ATMs on cruise ships.
But welfare supporters point out $69 million is less than 1 percent of the $11 billion the state gave out during that period.
"When people go on assistance, they're going to have the same kind of life situations come up as anyone else. You're going to visit your sick relative. You're going to go to funerals out-of-state. That's what's going on here," says Mike Herald from the Western Center on Law and Poverty.
The state says accounts aren't normally flagged until out-of-state transactions continue for more than 30 days because recipients aren't supposed to be gone that long.
"The vast majority of our families who are receiving benefits do so in a legal, lawful manner," says John Wagner, Director of the California Department of Social Services. "If someone is withdrawing benefits to feed their kid while they're taking care of an aging grandparent, that's allowed."
Taxpayer groups say it's time to move to a voucher system.
"Giving welfare recipients cash is always risk-inherent," says Jon Coupal from the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.
Another problem is when welfare recipients don't use certain ATMs, taxpayers pick up those extra fees. Last year, the state paid more than $11 million in ATM surcharges, and

Read more - http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/state&id=7704795

Firefighters in rural Tennessee let a home burn to the ground last week because the homeowner hadn't paid a $75 fee -

Firefighters in rural Tennessee let a home burn to the ground last week because the homeowner hadn't paid a $75 fee.

Gene Cranick of Obion County and his family lost all of their possessions in the Sept. 29 fire, along with three dogs and a cat.

"They could have been saved if they had put water on it, but they didn't do it," Cranick told MSNBC's Keith Olbermann.

The fire started when the Cranicks' grandson was burning trash near the family home. As it grew out of control, the Cranicks called 911, but the fire department from the nearby city of South Fulton would not respond.

"We wasn't on their list," he said the operators told him.

Cranick, who lives outside the city limits, admits he "forgot" to pay the annual $75 fee. The county does not have a county-wide firefighting service, but South Fulton offers fire coverage to rural residents for a fee.

Cranick says he told the operator he would pay whatever is necessary to have the fire put out.

His offer wasn't accepted, he said.

The fire fee policy dates back 20 or so years.

"Anybody that's not inside the city limits of South Fulton, it's a service we offer. Either they accept it or they don't," said South Fulton Mayor David Crocker.

The fire department's decision to let the home burn was "incredibly irresponsible," said the president of an association representing firefighters.

"Professional, career firefighters shouldn’t be forced to check a list before running out the door to see which homeowners have paid up," Harold Schatisberger, International Association of Fire Fighters president, said in a statement. "They get in their trucks and go."

Firefighters did eventually show up, but only to fight the fire on the neighboring property, whose owner had paid the fee.

"They put water out on the fence line out here. They never said nothing to me. Never acknowledged. They stood out here and watched it burn," Cranick said.

South Fulton's mayor said that the fire department can't let homeowners pay the fee on the spot, because the only people who would pay would be those whose homes are on fire.

Cranick, who is now living in a trailer on his property, says his insurance policy will help cover some of his lost home.

"Insurance is going to pay for what money I had on the policy, looks like. But like everything else, I didn't have enough."

After the blaze, South Fulton police arrested one of Cranick's sons, Timothy Allen Cranick, on an aggravated assault charge, according to WPSD-TV, an NBC station in Paducah, Ky.

Police told WPSD that the younger Cranick attacked Fire Chief David Wilds at the firehouse because he was upset his father's house was allowed to burn.

WPSD-TV reported that Wilds was treated and released.