Women sad, angry over sale of nonprofit Ohio home

CINCINNATI (AP) — For more than 100 years, the Anna Louise Inn in downtown Cincinnati has been a safe, serene place that thousands of struggling women came to know as home.

But after losing a two-year fight with a Fortune 500 company determined to buy their beautiful, 104-year-old property and turn it into a boutique hotel — even though it wasn't for sale — the women of the Anna Louise Inn have to leave the neighborhood.

While most of the 60 women living there are relieved that the fight with Western & Southern Insurance Group appears over, they can't help but also feel sad and angry.

( Warning, horrible, corporate greed under the cutCollapse )

SOURCE

Chicago police on Friday night launched an investigation into what led an off-duty officer to shoot and kill his neighbor's dog.

The officer, an eight-year veteran of the force, said he was out with his young son on the 5800 block of North Oketo Avenue, on the city's far northwest side, when Maximus, a four-month-old pit bull, charged at them.

The dog's owner, Samantha Maglaya, said that wasn't the case.

( More douchery beyond the cut.Collapse )
The case was turned over to the Independent Police Review Authority.

Source

According to information posted by the Maglaya family on Mrs. Maglaya's facebook account, the officer had previously threatened to kill their puppy on multiple occasions. (ETA: Further information from the family on the wife's facebook notes the officer had also previously referred to them as "Section 8 Scum" and was hostile as a result of them being the only Hispanic family on the street.) They further report they are hiring a lawyer and obtaining sworn statements from neighbors. They further note in the video that their 5-year old daughter was with Maximus and had to watch the asshole unload 8 - 9 rounds into her puppy.

This is not the first time a Chicago officer has shot someone's puppy. On December 1st, an officer writing a parking ticket shot a 7-month old Miniature Bull Terrier puppy named Colonel. Colonel was lucky and managed to survive his horrific injuries, and the family went on to sue the city.

Colorado recently passed a measure requiring officers to receive training on how to handle encounters with dogs without resorting to lethal force, after several high-profile incidents of pets being killed by police.

City leaders in Oxford, Ala. have approved the destruction of a 1,500-year-old Native American ceremonial mound and are using the dirt as fill for a new Sam's Club, a retail warehouse store operated by Wal-Mart.{C}A University of Alabama archaeology report commissioned by the city found that the site was historically significant as the largest of several ancient stone and earthen mounds throughout the Choccolocco Valley. But Oxford Mayor Leon Smith -- whose campaign has financial connections to firms involved in the $2.6 million no-bid project -- insists the mound is not man-made and was used only to "send smoke signals."

"The City of Oxford and its archaeological advisers have completed a review and evaluation of a stone mound that was identified near Boiling Springs, Calhoun County, Alabama, and have concluded that the mound is the result of natural phenomena and does not meet the eligibility criteria for the Natural [sic] Register of Historic Places," according to a news release Smith issued last week.

In fact, the report does not conclude the mound is a result of "natural phenomena" but says very clearly it is of "cultural origin." And while the University's Office of Archaeological Research does not believe the site qualifies for the National Register of Historic Places, the Alabama Historical Commission disagrees, noting that the structure meets at least three criteria for inclusion: its "association with a broad pattern of history," architecture "embodying distinctive characteristics," and for the information it might yield to scholars.

The site is also significant to Native Americans. The Woodland and Mississippian cultures that inhabited the Southeast and Midwest before Europeans arrived constructed and used these mounds for various rituals, which may have included funerals. There are concerns that human remains may be present at the site, though none have been found yet.

( ughCollapse )

Republican Texas judge orders lesbian couple to live apart or lose children

A Republican Texas Judge has ordered a lesbian couple to live apart or give up custody of their children. According to Think Progress, Judge John Roach of McKinney, Texas has given Page Price 30 days to move out of the home she shares with Carolyn Compton and Compton’s two children from a previous marriage because he does not approve of Compton and Price’s “lifestyle.”

Roach has placed a “morality clause” in Compton’s divorce papers, which forbids Compton from having anyone she is not related to “by blood or marriage” in her home past 9:00 p.m. if the children are present. Same sex marriage is illegal in Texas, so by law, Compton cannot live with Price if she wishes to retain custody of her children.

Compton said that she and Price have been together for three years. Compton’s ex-husband rarely bothers to see the children and was previously arrested on charges of third-degree felony stalking in 2011, charges that he was able to plea down to criminal trespassing, a misdemeanor.

In a post on Facebook, Price wrote that Roach had inserted the morality clause into the divorce agreement when Compton’s ex-husband Joshua Compton attempted to gain custody of the children in 2011. The judge wrote that he disapproved of the two women’s “lifestyle.”

“Our children are all happy and well adjusted. By his enforcement, being that we cannot marry in this state, I have been ordered to move out of my home,” Price wrote.

The two women are working with attorneys to figure out what steps they can take to fight the state’s notoriously conservative court system.

Ken Upton Jr., senior staff attorney for Lambda Legal’s Dallas office, told the Dallas Voice newspaper that morality clauses are a holdover from a time when judges tried to keep people with children from living together outside of marriage. Courts often insert the clauses without telling the people involved, particularly in backward, conservative areas like Collin County, Texas. “What the clause has become is an extra burden on gay people because they’re no more likely to violate it than straight people,” Upton told the Voice “It’s a problem that continues with homophobia.”

SOURCE

Hey, hey, Judge Roach:

Hi Folks!
I´m new to this site. And so I thought I may leave my Story here. So you can pick it up, read it and maybe leave a comment.

I figured out that I also was also attracted to Girls in a very young Age. The Household I grew up was very Open minded. So when I became 13-14 I began to saw myself more and more as Bisexual. I never had a "real" Coming Out. To my Parents I just mentioned it when our Conversations came to the Dating Topic. And I said
"maybe I would like to have a Girlfriend as well as a Boyfriend".
My Father where very cool about it, since the first second. He absolutely accepted it as part of me.
I´t wasn´t like "I don´t care", but more like "I understand, think it´s cool you don´t lie about it and its absolutely ok for me as long as you are happy".
I´m still overwhelmed, reminding how much he understood it.
On my Mothers side it wasn´t like bad. More the typical frases like "How could you know,yet?"
"Woulnd´t you date a Boy first?" "Aren´t you to young to know for sure?", stuff like that.
The worst Expierence I had on that was that I told a (I thought) close Friend, saying that´s very sensitive Topic for me and I wish her to don´t tell anybody at school. But guess what happend. Yeah...of curse two Days later people rushed on me asking if its true. And in the end of that week Bisexual became Lesbian.
But I did try to stand strong, not hiding anything. Just said "Yeah I like both sexes and I am totally fine with that" and sometimes tried to explain it properly to the People who where open enought to listen.

Since that Time I never made a big deal out of being Bi. I was in a long term Relationship with a Man.
But I never felt like "oh I´m straight now". Never! I never lost my apetite on Woman.
So If I considered myself "Bisexual", why I´m Posting in a Pansexual Community you may Wonder.

Cuz I changed or let´s better say realized, that Bi don´t fits my view on that whole Thing anymore.
The last few Months I watched a lot of Transgender Videos on Youtube. Not because I feel that Way. I´m absolutely ok being a Woman. But rather interrested in the Topic. And I saw myself getting more and more into it. And that as long that I can find something attracting on a Person. Like the Way they move, Parts of their Bodys or their Vioce. I wouln´t mind if he or she is in the middle of Transformation. That The sexual Identity or the biological Sex doesn´t count for me in the Fact If I could have an Releationship with someone.
And so I find myself much more comfortable, finding a word that describes my Feeling so well.

So If you Consider to Comment on that Post. Which I would be very happy about. Than I would like to talk about your Experience with being Pansexual and the Fact its so unknown in Society.

Have a inspired time!
<2

Multiple passengers were injured when two Metro-North trains collided near a station Friday night.

The "major train derailment" happened when a Metro-North train, which left New Haven and was headed to Grand Central Station, collided with a westbound train, which was also out of New Haven, on adjacent track around 6:10 p.m.

Multiple cars from each train were derailed.

Police said 22 people were transported to the hospital with four of them having serious injuries. There were no reported fatalities.

Passengers told Eyewitness News there were some people complaining about neck and back pain.

There is no Metro-North service between Stamford and New Haven. Trains are being stopped at the nearest station.

Sources told Eyewitness News Metro-North service will likely be impacted for several days, will have to set up some sort of shuttle system.

Service on Amtrak Acela and Northeast Regional between New York and Boston has been suspended indefinitely.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy headed to the derailment Friday night. The National Transportation Safety Board gathered information and sent a team of investigators to Connecticut for the collision.

Eyewitness News talked to at least one passenger that said the train was traveling around 50 mph. The collision was "loud" and "jolted" people out of their seats.

"Tracks looks like twisted ribbons of metal," Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch tweeted.

Passengers were held for about 15 minutes until smoke cleared.

Metro-North officials said they will continue to update their customers as more information becomes available.

Source: KLTV CT

CT rail Twitter has updates
saw live coverage on TV. apparently they are doing bridge repairs in this area, so ALL train traffic for the NY/Boston corridor is passing on two parallel lines at this choke point. The derailment occurred there, blocking BOTH lines.

The Missouri legislature has allowed an anti-bullying bill (HB 134) to die, and its Republican sponsor is blaming her gay colleagues for killing it. For all of the effective anti-bullying measures Rep. Sue Allen’s bill included, it specifically banned the creation of enumerated lists of identities to protect, such as sexual orientation and gender identity. Enumerating protections has helped guarantee that anti-LGBT bullying does not go unreported, but according to Allen, they’re too “partisan”:

I typically try to keep partisanship out of my message, but this is an issue for the Democrats who wish for certain students (GLBT –gay, lesbian, bisexual, & transgender) to be “enumerated” within school policies. [...]

What “they” don’t seem to understand is that any stronger policies help ALL students, even those they would have categorized.

So….it seems some people care more about arguing points to make some students more protected when what they’ve really done is to NO better protect ANY student.

The “they” Allen refers to are openly gay lawmakers Sen. Jolie Justus (D) and Rep. Mike Colona (D), who Allen encourages her supporters to contact and blame for the bill’s failure.

Allen clearly does not understand the purpose and function of enumerating groups, calling it “discriminatory” to specify some groups for students and not others. Speaking with the Riverfront Times, she added, “Why are we always segregating?” Of course, enumerating groups does nothing of the sort; instead, it ensures that groups known to be targeted for bullying are specifically listed so that such harassment can be more easily identified. No student is excluded from a bullying policy because they don’t belong to one of the enumerated groups; instead, the groups serve to raise awareness about forms of bullying that are already problematic.

It would also be different if Allen’s bill simply did not address enumerate groups, but it specifically bans them. The only purpose for such a limitation is to ensure protections for the LGBT community are never extended. This is particularly problematic given the incredibly high rates of anti-LGBT bullying that take place in Missouri.

With a bullying epidemic like that, Allen should better appreciate that enumerating protections to groups like LGBT students would actually better protect all students. Instead, she’s encouraging people to bully her gay colleagues for wanting to fix her problematic bill.

source

TRANSCRIPT
HARI SREENIVASAN: Xeni Jardin has been following the story in Guatemala and was the producer on Miles O'Brien's earlier report. [triggers for rape, genocide, and violence. PBS does NOT sanitize genocide]

So, Xeni Jardin, give us an idea, how significant was this trial for the people there?

XENI JARDIN: This is huge.

This is the first time in modern history that a domestic court has convicted a former head of state on these kinds of charges, genocide, crimes against humanity. But for both sides in this case, for the people who support the military, who support Rios Montt, and for the nation's majority indigenous population, this is huge.

This -- you know, it's fair to state that for many people this reopens old wounds. The country's 36-year civil war is not that long ago. And literally everyone in this country is still touched by that legacy in one way or another, some people very directly.
( Read more...Collapse )
source: PBS Newshour

companion piece, the forensic science used in the court cass: TRIGGER WARNINGS for violence, rape, genocide, killing of children this is an excellent report including excavation of mass graves, satellite photos of the devastation, statistics and even documentary footage shot at the time, but it is a TOUGH piece to watch.

France's constitutional court on Friday approved a gay-marriage bill passed by parliament on April 23. President François Hollande is expected to sign the bill into law next week, legalising marriage and adoption for same-sex couples.
By FRANCE 24 (text)


France's Constitutional Council on Friday approved a gay-marriage bill passed by parliament on April 23, rejecting a challenge to the legislation launched by the main opposition party.

France's parliament approved the bill in a third and final vote on April 23, but the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party of former president Nicolas Sarkozy immediately launched a challenge to the bill on constitutional grounds.

President François Hollande is expected to sign the bill into law next week, marking the final step in legalising marriage and adoption for same-sex couples in France. Hollande, who promised to support "marriage for all" throughout his presidential campaign, has said he would sign the bill as soon as the court had ruled.

A Constitutional Council statement added a caveat, however, saying the legality of gay adoption did not establish the "right to a child" and emphasising that the interests of the children involved would continue to be the overriding consideration.

The ruling comes after months of controversy and protests both for and against the bill that saw thousands taking to the streets and sporadic outbreaks of violence. France is secular but also overwhelmingly Catholic, and demonstrations against the bill drew tens of thousands ahead of the final parliamentary vote.

Overall, however, surveys indicate that almost 60 percent of the French population support Hollande's vision of "marriage for all".

France24

For those who read French, more info at Le Monde

I think all that's left now is for Hollande to sign it, and it's the law!

WASHINGTON -- Since mass shootings in places like Aurora and Newtown, lawmakers have been searching for answers for how to stop future massacres, examining issues like gun control and mental health. But in a speech this month, Rep. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) pointed to different culprits: the legalization of abortion and a demise in religious values.

Cramer made his remarks during a commencement address at the University of Mary on May 4. He decried a local TV anchor who was fired after accidentally swearing on air and then became an internet sensation, as well as the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision.

From his speech:

"Just in the last several days, a Bismarck news anchor mistakenly uttered vulgarity on live television. He's been heralded by celebrities from New York to California as some sort of pop icon. His bosses have been called goons because they fired him.

We learned this week that the Pentagon is vetting its guide on religious tolerance with a group that compared Christian evangelism to rape, and advocated that military personnel and colluding chaplains who proselytize should be court-marshalled.

Forty years ago, the United States Supreme Court sanctioned abortion on demand. And we wonder why our culture sees school shootings so often."

Cramer also mentioned the 9/11 and Boston Marathon attacks, saying, "Innocent people in New York have airplanes flown into their places of work, and marathoners in Boston are victims of bombs, yet Christianity is singled out as bigotry in our public institutions because politicians and academics lack the courage to speak truth. We've normalized perversion and perverted God's natural law to the point where the only thing not tolerated anymore is a stand for truth."

He added that he expected to face criticism for his remarks, stating, "I was asked recently by a reporter if I'm afraid that some people would attack me if I speak like this. And I said, 'No, I'm not afraid they will, I'm quite certain they will."

Cramer's office declined to comment further.

James Dobson, evangelical pundit and founder of Focus on the Family, made comments similar to Cramer's in December after the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

"I mean millions of people have decided that God doesn't exist, or he's irrelevant to me and we have killed fifty-four million babies and the institution of marriage is right on the verge of a complete redefinition," he said, adding, "I think we have turned our back on the Scripture and on God Almighty and I think he has allowed judgment to fall upon us. I think that's what's going on."

In March, Cramer attracted attention for getting into a heated discussion with Native American victim assistance leaders during a conversation about the Violence Against Women Act. The congressman reportedly said he wanted to "wring the Tribal council’s neck and slam them against the wall". Cramer later apologized for his remarks.

By Amanda Terkel. Posted: 05/16/2013 12:08 pm EDT. Updated: 05/16/2013 8:33 pm EDT.

Source. Full video of Cramer's remarks here, with the aforementioned portion starting around 1:13:00.

More controversy for Japan party as lawmaker accuses Koreans of involvement in prostitution

An emerging Japanese nationalist political party whose co-leader outraged many with remarks about Japan’s wartime and modern sexual services became embroiled in more controversy Friday when a party lawmaker accused ethnic Koreans of involvement in prostitution.

The Japan Restoration Party urged the lawmaker, Shingo Nishimura, to retract his comments suggesting many ethnic Koreans are engaged in prostitution in Japan. Nishimura withdrew his remarks, but the party forced him out anyway.

Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto, a founder and co-leader of the party, angered Japan’s neighbors by saying this week that the Japanese military’s wartime practice of forcing Asian women into prostitution was necessary to maintain discipline and provide relaxation for soldiers. He also angered the U.S. by suggesting that American troops based in southern Japan should patronize legal adult entertainment establishments to reduce sex crime there.

The uproar over Hashimoto’s comments, and Nishimura’s predicament, typify the difficulties Japanese politicians can create for themselves when commenting on sensitive topics without considering how those outside their own circles might react.

Nishimura made the comments during a Restoration Party meeting Friday that was discussing the remarks made by Hashimoto, who continues to insist that other countries also commonly impressed women into military brothels during World War II and that Japan is being unfairly singled out.

Defending Hashimoto, Nishimura objected to media reports describing the women impressed into wartime military brothels as “sex slaves.” Video footage of the meeting was broadcast by the TBS TV network.

“’Comfort women’ is erroneously translated as ‘sex slaves,’ which might encourage anti-Japanese riots and conspiracies,” Nishimura said. “We better fight back by telling them that the words ‘comfort women’ and ‘sex slaves’ are completely different and that there are numerous South Korean prostitutes roaming around Japan.”

( Nishimura said jokingly that he might return to his hometown of Osaka, go to crowded entertainment districts and tell them, 'Hey, you South Korean comfort women!'Collapse )

--

OH MY GOD, EVERY MEMBER OF THE ISHIN NO KAI NEEDS TO SHUT UP.

Join the Boston Sunday Night Film Club this Sunday, May 19th at 7:05p for The Iceman at the Kendall Square Cinema . Look for Dan wearing a multicolored shirt in the theatre lobby about 15 minutes before the film. As always, after the film we will descend on a local establishment for dinner/drinks/discussion.

( Film SynopsisCollapse )

CRACK COCAINE
JOHN COOK
Yesterday 8:28pm

For Sale: A Video of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford Smoking Crack Cocaine
Rob Ford, Toronto's conservative mayor, is a wild lunatic given to making bizarre racist pronouncements and randomly slapping refrigerator magnets on cars. One reason for this is that he smokes crack cocaine. I know this because I watched him do it, on a videotape. He was fucking hiiiiigh. It's for sale if you've got six figures.

It began like this: We've made fun of Ford before for his bizarre pronouncements and nude pictures. Last week, we got a tip from someone claiming to have a videotape of Ford smoking crack. Would we like to buy it?

The tipster made the following claims:

• Toronto Mayor Rob Ford smokes crack cocaine.

• There is a video of Rob Ford smoking crack cocaine, taken within the last six months.

• Rob Ford purchases his crack cocaine from a crew of Toronto drug dealers that service a veritable who's who of A-list...Torontonians? Torontites? Anyway, a lot of prominent people in Toronto purchase and enjoy crack and powder cocaine, and they all buy it from the same folks. The same folks Ford buys it from. Ford's longtime friend, people on his staff, his brother, a prominent hockey analyst, and more.

( Read MoreCollapse )
Gawker Media 2013

Source


I was aware that he had an alcoholism issue, but this? I hope he can be talked into rehab. He needs to step down and go to rehab.

Female lawmakers blast Hashimoto, call him the 'shame of Osaka'

A multipartisan group of female lawmakers demanded that Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto retract his remark about wartime “comfort women,” saying he has embarrassed Japan and shown the world he does not understand human rights.

Ten Diet members held a news conference on May 16 at the Upper House members’ building in Tokyo to express their outrage and seek an apology from the mayor.

Criticism around the world erupted after Hashimoto said earlier this week that “comfort women,” a euphemism for women sent to front-line brothels, were necessary for battle-weary Japanese soldiers during World War II.

The lawmakers said Hashimoto’s comment could not be overlooked because it was a major statement that trampled on human rights.

( Hashimoto is the shame of Osaka.Collapse )

--

This is a day or so old, sorry - LJ hated me so no posting. :( Since this came out, Hashimoto has continued to open his big mouth and is not backing down. It has been a wild couple of days in regards to this.

Politicians here have been all but falling over themselves to distance themselves from Hashimoto's idiotic remarks. Also, it's been interesting to see the cultural divide, as it were, on social media in Japan. The Japanese twitterverse has been full of people blasting Hashimoto, while 2chan (where the netoyou haunt) have defended him.

Donning vintage outfits from the 1960s, a group of North Carolina women sent the message to state lawmakers on Wednesday that while they enjoy watching AMC's "Mad Men," they don't want to live in an episode of it.

The costumed protest, organized by Planned Parenthood of Central North Carolina, took place at a House Judiciary Committee hearing on a bill that would allow employers and pharmacists to refuse to cover or dispense contraception for moral reasons. If passed, the law would violate President Barack Obama's contraception mandate, which requires employers to cover birth control at no cost to women, and would effectively reverse a 14-year-old state law requiring all employers who cover other prescription drugs to also cover contraception.

Planned Parenthood supporters showed up at the hearing wearing 1960s garb to suggest that lawmakers are turning back the clock on women's reproductive rights.

“We love a good vintage look -- but not when it's running the state legislature," Melissa Reed, Vice President of Public Policy for Planned Parenthood Health Systems, said in a statement. "That is why we are here to remind these politicians and bosses who continue to insist that they should be the ones who decide if and when women can access birth control.”
north carolina birth control

Despite the protest, the Republican-controlled committee approved the bill by a vote of 8 to 6, continuing the North Carolina General Assembly's streak of advancing bills that limit reproductive rights.

The House Health and Human Services Committee approved a bill earlier this month that would require teenagers to present a notarized parental consent form in order to access sexually transmitted disease testing and treatment, mental health counseling, pregnancy care or substance abuse treatment. And a bill approved by the Senate Health Committee last week would require North Carolina’s health instructors to teach that abortions can cause premature births in later pregnancies, a statement that was strongly disputed by medical health experts at the bill's hearing.

“We’re here to say to state legislators who want to turn the clock back to the 1950s: We like watching Mad Men -- but we don’t want to live in it,” Paige Johnson, Vice President of Public Affairs for PPCNC, said in a statement on Wednesday. “Women's preventive care — including birth control -– is basic health care. Politicians and bosses have no business denying women access to this basic health care. This shouldn't be a revolutionary idea, but unfortunately it is to some.”

( Committee meeting aricleCollapse )

( On the NC House floor -- stripped of birth control provisionCollapse )

( Passes, sent to NC SenateCollapse )

HuffPo & WRAL 2 3

Many different articles and it's a long read but this bill was and still is very harmful. It was a very sneaky move of the GOP to slip this bill through on the day before crossover. And sorry for yesterday, LJ went off the rails and used me for their antics.

Source One:

“I really like your idea. If we had guns that shot chocolate, not only would our country be safer, it would be happier. People love chocolate.”

– Joe Biden in a handwritten response to a 7-year-old Milwaukee boy named Myles, who wrote the vice president a letter a few months ago suggesting that gun injuries could be prevented if bullets were made of chocolate. His teacher shared the letter with reporters after it arrived in the mail at their Montessori school on Monday, reports AP.

----

Source Two:

MILWAUKEE — It might not be unusual for schoolchildren to write to the president or vice president. But one Wisconsin boy got an unexpectedly personal response.

The 7-year-old, second-grade student at Downtown Montessori Academy wrote a letter to Vice President Joe Biden and other officials a few months ago with a simple idea for making the world safer.

His teacher Jenny Aicher says his letter suggested that if guns shot chocolate bullets, no one would get hurt.

The student — and the rest of the school — got a surprise Monday when Biden’s handwritten response arrived in the mail.

In the note, the vice president says he agrees that chocolate bullets would make the country safer and happier. The note concludes: “People love chocolate. You are a good boy, Joe Biden.”

Source has a great picture of the original note

Source

OP: Those aren't tears. It's just raining on my face.

http://europeanprochoicenetwork.wordpress.com/2013/05/12/usa-republican-paul-ryan-protects-rapists-rights-in-new-fetus-bill/
 

Matt Barber "Progressives and lefists are to blame" for drug-resistant STD

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of treatment-resistant gonorrhea infections is on the rise due to a new strain of the virus that is resistant to all previously prescribed treatments.

While this news may be troubling, it is also the unfortunate trend in medicine. Viruses constantly require new vaccines and treatments because the next generation will have spawned from whatever strains did resist the prior treatment.

This is not some great revelation. In medicine, it's common knowledge. This is the reason you require a flu vaccine every year -- because next year's flu virus will have originated from a strain of the virus that was resistant to the previous vaccine.

( More...Collapse )

When a patient arrives at Bayonne Hospital Center in New Jersey requiring treatment for the respiratory ailment known as COPD, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, she faces an official price tag of $99,690.

Less than 30 miles away in the Bronx, N.Y., the Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center charges only $7,044 for the same treatment, according to a massive federal database of national health care costs made public on Wednesday.

Americans have long become accustomed to bewilderment and anxiety when confronting health care bills. The new database underscores why, revealing the perplexing assortment of prices for medical care, with the details of bills seemingly untethered to any graspable principle.

Even within the same metropolitan area, hospitals charge prices that differ by staggering degrees for the same procedures. People without health insurance pay vastly higher costs for care when less expensive options are often available nearby. Virtually everyone who seeks health care winds up paying inflated prices in one form or another as these stark disparities in price sow inefficiencies throughout the market.

( While this basic picture has emerged as the consensus reality among health care experts, their evidence has been primarily anecdotal. Hospitals have protected their price lists -- documents known as charge masters -- as closely guarded secrets.Collapse )

Video at Source.

Army investigates sergeant for alleged sexual assault

The Army announced Tuesday that a sergeant first class assigned to an assault prevention program at Fort Hood, Texas, is under investigation for sexual assault.

The soldier, who was not named in an Army statement, has been suspended from all duties.

Specifically, the soldier is under investigation for "pandering, abusive sexual contact, assault and maltreatment of subordinates," the statement said. Special agents from the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command are conducting the probe.

No charges have been filed.

"This is so contrary to everything upon which the Army was built," Secretary of the Army John McHugh said during testimony before the House Appropriations Committee Defense subcommittee, according to the statement. "To see this kind of activity happening in our ranks is really heart-wrenching and sickening."

( This just happened in Virginia, too... TW for some description of groping.Collapse )

Source.

Clothing brand American Apparel gets severely criticized for sexist marketing of its unisex shirt. The shirts appear in images where men wear jeans and women wearing only panties to same shirt - which when men wear it is buttoned.

The company, which wants to be associated with political activism and on its website claims to fight for immigrant and gay rights, is considered to degrade women on the same site

On the blog "En blommig tekopp" Swedish blogger Emilie Eriksson writes: "Unisex. UNI and SEX. What is it really?" and notes that it may be about sex, at least when women wear American Apparel shirts.

( Read more...Collapse )

Sometime in the late ’50s, Frieda Fromm-Reichmann sat down to write an essay about a subject that had been mostly overlooked by other psychoanalysts up to that point. Even Freud had only touched on it in passing. She was not sure, she wrote, “what inner forces” made her struggle with the problem of loneliness, though she had a notion. It might have been the young female catatonic patient who began to communicate only when Fromm-Reichmann asked her how lonely she was. “She raised her hand with her thumb lifted, the other four fingers bent toward her palm,” Fromm-Reichmann wrote. The thumb stood alone, “isolated from the four hidden fingers.” Fromm-Reichmann responded gently, “That lonely?” And at that, the woman’s “facial expression loosened up as though in great relief and gratitude, and her fingers opened.”

Fromm-Reichmann would later become world-famous as the dumpy little therapist mistaken for a housekeeper by a new patient, a severely disturbed schizophrenic girl named Joanne Greenberg. Fromm-Reichmann cured Greenberg, who had been deemed incurable. Greenberg left the hospital, went to college, became a writer, and immortalized her beloved analyst as “Dr. Fried” in the best-selling autobiographical novel I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (later also a movie and a pop song). Among analysts, Fromm-Reichmann, who had come to the United States from Germany to escape Hitler, was known for insisting that no patient was too sick to be healed through trust and intimacy. She figured that loneliness lay at the heart of nearly all mental illness and that the lonely person was just about the most terrifying spectacle in the world. She once chastised her fellow therapists for withdrawing from emotionally unreachable patients rather than risk being contaminated by them. The uncanny specter of loneliness “touches on our own possibility of loneliness,” she said. “We evade it and feel guilty.”

Her 1959 essay, “On Loneliness,” is considered a founding document in a fast-growing area of scientific research you might call loneliness studies. Over the past half-century, academic psychologists have largely abandoned psychoanalysis and made themselves over as biologists. And as they delve deeper into the workings of cells and nerves, they are confirming that loneliness is as monstrous as Fromm-Reichmann said it was. It has now been linked with a wide array of bodily ailments as well as the old mental ones.

In a way, these discoveries are as consequential as the germ theory of disease. Just as we once knew that infectious diseases killed, but didn’t know that germs spread them, we’ve known intuitively that loneliness hastens death, but haven’t been able to explain how. Psychobiologists can now show that loneliness sends misleading hormonal signals, rejiggers the molecules on genes that govern behavior, and wrenches a slew of other systems out of whack. They have proved that long-lasting loneliness not only makes you sick; it can kill you. Emotional isolation is ranked as high a risk factor for mortality as smoking. A partial list of the physical diseases thought to be caused or exacerbated by loneliness would include Alzheimer’s, obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, neurodegenerative diseases, and even cancer—tumors can metastasize faster in lonely people.

The psychological definition of loneliness hasn’t changed much since Fromm-Reichmann laid it out. “Real loneliness,” as she called it, is not what the philosopher Søren Kierkegaard characterized as the “shut-upness” and solitariness of the civilized. Nor is “real loneliness” the happy solitude of the productive artist or the passing irritation of being cooped up with the flu while all your friends go off on some adventure. It’s not being dissatisfied with your companion of the moment—your friend or lover or even spouse— unless you chronically find yourself in that situation, in which case you may in fact be a lonely person. Fromm-Reichmann even distinguished “real loneliness” from mourning, since the well-adjusted eventually get over that, and from depression, which may be a symptom of loneliness but is rarely the cause. Loneliness, she said—and this will surprise no one—is the want of intimacy.

Today’s psychologists accept Fromm-Reichmann’s inventory of all the things that loneliness isn’t and add a wrinkle she would surely have approved of. They insist that loneliness must be seen as an interior, subjective experience, not an external, objective condition. Loneliness “is not synonymous with being alone, nor does being with others guarantee protection from feelings of loneliness,” writes John Cacioppo, the leading psychologist on the subject. Cacioppo privileges the emotion over the social fact because—remarkably—he’s sure that it’s the feeling that wreaks havoc on the body and brain. Not everyone agrees with him, of course. Another school of thought insists that loneliness is a failure of social networks. The lonely get sicker than the non-lonely, because they don’t have people to take care of them; they don’t have social support.

To the degree that loneliness has been treated as a matter of public concern in the past, it has generally been seen as a social problem—the product of an excessively conformist culture or of a breakdown in social norms. Nowadays, though, loneliness is a public health crisis. The standard U.S. questionnaire, the UCLA Loneliness Scale, asks 20 questions that run variations on the theme of closeness—“How often do you feel close to people?” and so on. As many as 30 percent of Americans don't feel close to people at a given time.

Loneliness varies with age and poses a particular threat to the very old, quickening the rate at which their faculties decline and cutting their lives shorter. But even among the not-so-old, loneliness is pervasive. In a survey published by the AARP in 2010, slightly more than one out of three adults 45 and over reported being chronically lonely (meaning they’ve been lonely for a long time). A decade earlier, only one out of five said that. With baby-boomers reaching retirement age at a rate of 10,000 a day, the number of lonely Americans will surely spike.

Obviously, the sicker lonely people get, the more care they’ll need. This is true, and alarming, although as we learn more about loneliness, we’ll also be better able to treat it. But to me, what’s most momentous about the new biology of loneliness is that it offers concrete proof, obtained through the best empirical means, that the poets and bluesmen and movie directors who for centuries have deplored the ravages of lonesomeness on both body and soul were right all along. As W. H. Auden put it, “We must love one another or die.”
( Read the rest of the longest article in the worldCollapse )
source

Read at your own risk--I simply couldn't bold it all.

Promises of millions, a new face and detailed instructions on a double-agent conspiracy in Moscow. Bearing the hallmarks of a Cold War spy thriller, Russia’s counterintelligence agency says it caught a CIA officer trying to flip a Russian operative.

The Federal Security Service (FSB) Public Relations Center announced that detained individual was Ryan Christopher Fogle, a career diplomat working as the third secretary of the Political Section of the American embassy in Moscow.

The agency stressed that Christopher had “special technical equipment” in his possession, including an additional wig, a microphone, multiple pairs of dark sunglasses and a lot of cash in euro – along with a Moscow atlas, a compass, a knife, and an American Bic lighter.

( From Russia with Love...Collapse )

Colorado has now become the 12th state in the country to designate an official state pet. While other states have chosen specific breeds, North Carolina’s state dog is the Plott Hound, Maryland has the Chesapeake Bay Retriever, Massachusetts the Boston Terrier, and Alaska with the Malamute, Colorado went in a different direction, honoring all shelter dogs (and cats, too!) as their official state pet.

So, no matter what breed a dog is in Colorado, if he was adopted from a shelter, he’s an official state pet.

The bill was originally proposed by a group of Colorado school children in an effort to teach them about the state legislative system.
( Read more...Collapse )
New training for Colorado law enforcement in the aftermath of deadly dog shootings will be a requirement under a bill signed into law.

The measure requires sheriff and police departments to offer three hours of online training on how to recognize dog behaviors and employ nonlethal methods to control the animals. Gov. John Hickenlooper signed the bill Monday morning at the Denver animal shelter.
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Bullying Results In North Suburban Girl’s Hair On Fire

WAUKEGAN, Ill. (STMW) — The seventh-grade student knew her friends weren’t joking about her hair being on fire when they slapped her on the head as she began to smell smoke, said Park City 14-year-old Tatyana Butler.

Waukegan police are investigating the incident at Thomas Jefferson Middle School, the Lake County News-Sun is reporting. Police Cmdr. Gabe Guzman said the incident occurred Tuesday and the two offenders, a 13-year-old and 14-year-old, were disciplined by the school.

Butler recalls walking down the hallway Tuesday afternoon with three friends when two eighth-grade girls that had been bothering her all year started to call her names as she passed them.

“I saw them with the lighter. Then they came behind me and they were flicking the lighter,” she said. “So they go past me and start talking stuff.”

( More...Collapse )

I was laid off about a month ago, luckily I have found another, more awesome job but it looks like there'll be a gap in my health insurance coverage for maybe a month before the new plan is available to me. I'm wondering if I need to do anything actively or sign up for COBRA in order to avoid penalties at tax time, or if the relevant docs will come in by themselves. Has anyone else experienced this issue and if so can you offer input? Thanks!

The Duval County Public School District in Florida says Circuit Court Judge Henry Davis cannot ban a 14-year-old girl from every public school in the county, even if Davis says the student poses a serious danger to others, CBS News reports. ( Read more...Collapse )

Presumably few Republican operatives have a better handle on the national Repubublican [sic] party's efforts to court Hispanic voters than Pablo Pantoja, a native of Puerto Rico, and Florida State University alum appointed by the Republican National Committee to oversee Hispanic outreach in Florida last year. He also worked as a field director in the 2010 midterm elections.

Now - amid another debate over immigration reform and a widely touted Heritage foundation study on immigrants touted by a fellow who used to argue that Hispanics have a lower IQ than non-Hispanic immigrants - Pantojo has decided he's more comfortable joining the Democratic party.

( Here's an email he sent today:Collapse )

Source.

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—In what may be the most serious allegation ever made against the former Secretary of State, Fox News Channel reported today that Hillary Clinton was involved in the conspiracy to murder President Abraham Lincoln.

The latest charge against Mrs. Clinton was reported by Fox host Sean Hannity, who said that the evidence of her role in the Lincoln assassination came mainly in the form of e-mails.

According to Mr. Hannity, “If it’s true that Hillary Clinton killed Lincoln, this could have a major impact on her chances in 2016.”

The accusation against Mrs. Clinton drew a strong response from Sen. Lindsey Graham (R.—S. Carolina): “There’s been a concerted effort by Hillary Clinton to cover up her role in President Lincoln’s murder. She has said nothing about it. This is bigger than Watergate, the Cuban missile crisis, and the Second World War put together.”

Responding to the allegation, Mrs. Clinton issued a terse statement indicating that she could not have participated in Lincoln’s assassination because she was born in 1947.

“That’s what she wants us to believe,” Sen. Graham said.

Source can not stop laughing

The GOP-led U.S. House voted to allow employers to replace overtime pay, as currently required by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), with compensatory time off, or comp time. This sounds great until the bill, inappropriately titled “The Working Families Flexibility Act”, is actually looked at. Despite its claim of increased flexibility, it will make it easier for employers to schedule lots of overtime without paying, and give workers far less flexibility in their lives.

While the comp time would be provided at the same time-and-a-half rate as the FLSA requires for overtime, it would hurt the many low-wage, hourly workers in this country who so frequently depend on overtime pay to make ends meet.

( The bill also doesn’t contain provisions for allowing workers to use their comp time when they need it, say, for emergencies, sudden illness, parental obligations, surgery, etc.Collapse )

Source

No one knows for sure how long Jodon Romero had been pacing outside that Phoenix Denny's. He doesn't attract much attention — this 5-foot-6, 33-year-old man in a black Raiders jersey. But then again, his .45-caliber Glock is hidden away in his waistband.

It's an unremarkable Friday, hot and swollen with the last gulps of summer. This appears to be Romero's second carjacking attempt of the day — his first try, at an apartment complex three blocks away, ended with the driver speeding off, the back of his car dented from Romero flinging a still-unidentified object at it.

This time will be different. Romero will pick two younger men to follow. He'll wait for them to climb into their maroon Dodge Caliber and then he'll get in the backseat with them. He'll pull out his gun and point it at their heads and they will run.

By the time he'd stepped off the sidewalk, Romero may well have known how this story would end. But he couldn't have known there would be hundreds of thousands of people watching it.

( Read more...Collapse )

hi all -

anyone rent a room or rooms at The Edison downtown for a private party? or been to one?

experiences?

thanks!

Women Forced Into WWII Brothels Served Necessary Role, Osaka Mayor Says

The mayor of one of Japan’s largest cities, who is seen by some as a possible future prime minister, drew an outcry on Monday after he said women forced into wartime brothels for the Japanese Army during World War II had served a necessary role in providing relief for war-crazed soldiers.

Toru Hashimoto, the populist mayor of Osaka, also said American soldiers stationed in Okinawa should make more use of the island’s adult entertainment industry, which he said would reduce the incidence of sexual crimes against local women.

Lawmakers and human rights groups swiftly condemned the remarks. So did South Korea, whose citizens made up the bulk of the so-called comfort women who served Japanese soldiers in military brothels.

South Korea’s Yonhap News quoted a senior government official there as saying Mr. Hashimoto’s comments exposed “a serious lack of historical understanding and a lack of respect for human rights.”

The conduct of the Japanese military in Asia before and during World War II remains a highly charged topic between Japan’s neighbors, who say Tokyo has not properly atoned for its history of wartime atrocities, and those, like Mr. Hashimoto, who feel that Japan has been unfairly demonized.

Some historians estimate that 200,000 women were rounded up from across Asia to work as comfort women for the Japanese Army. Other historians put that number in the tens of thousands, and say they served of their own will. Japan formally apologized to the comfort women in 1993.

( Mr. Hashimoto told reporters in Osaka on Monday that they had served a useful purpose.Collapse )

--


AHAHAHA NO I CAN'T EVEN. Hashimoto is trying to take over the "asshole politician" void left when Ishihara quit.

ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Minnesota Senate Monday voted to legalize same-sex marriage, sending the measure to Gov. Mark Dayton, who has said he will sign it into law.

The Senate vote, 37-30 came three days after the House also approved the legislation allowing same-sex couples to be legally married in the state.

The Senate vote was seen as a foregone conclusion, and the debate lacked much of the drama seen days before in the House. But crowds were back at the Capitol and cries of support and opposition from the halls filtered through the Senate chamber during the debate.

( Read more...Collapse )

Source.

OP's comments: FUCK YEAH! Minnesota will become number 12 tomorrow! Also, tag suggestions welcome.

HARTFORD, Conn. -- Each Wednesday, barber Anthony Cymerys sets up his chair in the shade of an oak tree in Hartford's Bushnell Park. For longtime clients, the homeless or those just down on their luck, the fee is always the same: a hug for a haircut.

The 82-year-old Cymerys, who is known as Joe the Barber, began offering his services 25 years ago after retiring from a career in business. He had cut hair for his family but decided to put his clippers to work for the less fortunate after being inspired by a church sermon about the homeless.

He wanted the homeless not to look homeless.

His clients line up on park benches, some of them also turning out for free meals provided on Wednesdays by a local church. One by one they take a seat in a folding lawn chair above a car battery Cymerys uses to power his clippers.

As he finished a trim on one customer recently, a loud squeal came from the battery. He gathered the mobile shop, connected the clippers to his car and picked up where he left off.

"It really is love. I love these guys," Cymerys said. He paused and turned to his client in the chair, "You know I love you, right?"

"That's what it's all about."

source is trying not to cry

Only 6 days till Big Bi Fun Day 2013!

For the fourth year running there will be fun, chatting and laughter in Leicester on 18th May at the Friends Meeting House.
It's a family friendly event where children are welcome.  Although children must be supervised by their parents or guardians as no childcare is provided and it's a semi-public event.

Doors open at 1pm and chuck out is 5pm.  A perfect chance to have a lazy day, travel over and then chill out.

Bring food!
Bring games!
Bring crafts!
Bring things you want to swap or give away or share!  I'll be bringing books and a few other bits to give away.

Fingers crossed for sunshine as in the past few years, but if not, we have two large indoor rooms to relax in and of course the kitchen and garden.

For more information look here:
http://www.bigbifun.tk
and here
https://www.facebook.com/events/165388783608322/

Please note, this event is funded only by donations from attendees.  Last year the event just about broke even, so please donate as much as you can.  Any surplus goes towards paying for Big Bi Fun Day 2014.

SPREAD THE WORD! Let people know about Big Bi Fun Day.

Only 6 days till Big Bi Fun Day 2013.

For the fourth year running there will be fun, chatting and laughter in Leicester on 18th May at the Friends Meeting House.
It's a family friendly event where children are welcome.  Although children must be supervised by their parents or guardians as no childcare is provided and it's a semi-public event.

Doors open at 1pm and chuck out is 5pm.  A perfect chance to have a lazy day, travel over and then chill out.

Bring food!
Bring games!
Bring crafts!
Bring things you want to swap or give away or share!  I'll be bringing books and a few other bits to give away.

Fingers crossed for sunshine as in the past few years, but if not, we have two large indoor rooms to relax in and of course the kitchen and garden.

For more information look here:
http://www.bigbifun.tk
and here
https://www.facebook.com/events/165388783608322/

Please note, this event is funded only by donations from attendees.  Last year the event just about broke even, so please donate as much as you can.  Any surplus goes towards paying for Big Bi Fun Day 2014.

According to a new survey of America's beekeepers, almost a third of the country's honeybee colonies did not make it through the winter.

That's been the case, in fact, almost every year since the U.S. Department of Agriculture began this annual survey, six years ago.

Over the past six years, on average, 30 percent of all the honeybee colonies in the U.S. died off over the winter. The worst year was five years ago. Last year was the best: Just 22 percent of the colonies died.

"Last year gave us some hope," says Jeffrey Pettis, research leader of the Agriculture Department's Bee Research Laboratory in Beltsville, Md.

But this year, the death rate was up again: 31 percent.

Six years ago, beekeepers were talking a lot about "colony collapse disorder" — colonies that seemed pretty healthy, but suddenly collapsed. The bees appeared to have flown away, abandoning their hives.

( Beekeepers aren't seeing Colony Collapse Disorder so much anymore...Collapse )

Source is heading back to Melissa Majoria.

Edited to remove members-only lock on post.

ETA: Links!

• For Canadians, Elizabeth May's petition to ban the use of neonicotinoids in Canada (Thanks the_siobhan)


• Honeylove.org, a group devoted to urban beekeeping (see also their facebook page). Their Yellow Tie Event is coming up on June 8th. (Thanks tiddlywinks103)

The Family Research Council has posted a series of videos, featuring Boy Scout leaders threatening to pull their families out of the BSA if the board votes to include openly gay members and scout leaders.

The pressure has been on the administrators behind the Boy Scouts of America to decide whether they will lift the ban on openly gay leaders and scouts. Officials are expected to call for an end to the organization’s ban on gay scouts but recommend continuing to prohibit gay adults from serving as troop leaders. The final vote is scheduled to occur later this month at the national council.

The FRC's videos encouraging their supporters to Stand With the Scouts, feature scoutmasters and former members who believe adding gay members would expose current scouts to harm, or violate the Boy Scouts' oath.

A few of the videos, posted at Back2Stonewall, below:

( Read more...Collapse )

Our outrageous Enron-style justice system
Jeffrey Skilling's reduced sentence exposes old and new double standards poisoning how America treats defendants

There is Too Big to Jail – and now there is Too Big to Keep In Jail.

This is the envelope-pushing precedent being set by the Justice Department in its dealings with convicted Enron executive Jeffrey Skilling – a.k.a. one of the hucksters whose rip-off schemes were responsible for, among other things, losing more than $2 billion of retirees’ pension funds.
( Read moreCollapse )

A high school student in Wichita, Kansas, was suspended for the rest of the school year after tweeting a mild criticism of the school sports programs.

Senior Wesley Teague was president of his class and an athlete himself. In his view, the various sports teams at Wichita Heights High School had a tough year, which led him to tweet, “‘Heights U’ is equivalent to WSU’s football.”

The tweet referenced “Heights U” — the nickname that other students use to refer to sports teams at Wichita Heights — and Wichita State University football, which was disbanded in 1986.

“We weren’t that good at sports this year,” he said in a statement to a local news channel.

Some other students were offended by the tweet, and the school feared they would cause a disturbance. Administrators suspended several of the threatening students, and also Teague.

( Read more...Collapse )

[Source]

One of the most liberal members of the U.S. Supreme Court, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg could be expected to give a rousing defense of Roe v. Wade in reflecting on the landmark vote 40 years after it established a nationwide right to abortion.

Instead, Ginsburg told an audience Saturday at the University of Chicago Law School that while she supports a woman's right to choose, she feels the ruling by her predecessors on the court was too sweeping and gave abortion opponents a symbol to target. Ever since, she said, the momentum has been on the other side, with anger over Roe fueling a state-by-state campaign that has placed more restrictions on abortion.

"That was my concern, that the court had given opponents of access to abortion a target to aim at relentlessly," she told a crowd of students. "... My criticism of Roe is that it seemed to have stopped the momentum that was on the side of change."

The ruling is also a disappointment to a degree, Ginsburg said, because it was not argued in weighty terms of advancing women's rights. Rather, the Roe opinion, written by Justice Harry Blackmun, centered on the right to privacy and asserted that it extended to a woman's decision on whether to end a pregnancy.

Four decades later, abortion is one of the most polarizing issues in American life, and anti-abortion activists have pushed legislation at the state level in an effort to scale back the 1973 decision.

Ginsburg would have rather seen the justices make a narrower decision that struck down only the Texas law that brought the matter before the court. That law allowed abortions only to save a mother's life.

( A more restrained judgment would have sent a message while allowing momentum to build at a time when a number of states were expanding abortion rights, she said. She added that it might also have denied opponents the argument that abortion rights resulted from an undemocratic process in the decision by 'unelected old men.'Collapse )

Source

At least 12 shot during Mother’s Day parade in New Orleans

Twelve people are being treated for gunshot wounds following a shootout at a second line parade on Mother’s Day in New Orleans. The youngest victim in the surprise attack was 10 years old, according to a local resident.

Over 100 people were participating in the residential festival, on Frenchmen Street, in the north of the city, when several shots were fired. The incident occurred around 2pm local time on Sunday.

Police believe three suspects were responsible for the gunfire.

“The shots just started ringing out, and everybody just started running, and the next thing I heard, 10-15 people got shot,” one witness told local station WDSU.

Police confirmed the number of casualties stood at 12 following some discrepancies in initial hospital reports, suggesting that between five and 11 may have been injured.

No fatalities have been confirmed, but three are reportedly in a critical condition.

Police and local media appealed for anyone with information on the incident to contact crime stoppers in the hope of tracing the gunman, or gunmen.

A week ago, police were also called out to investigate a triple shooting near the corner of Frenchman street.

source ***TW: BLOOD***

sigh.

Rep. Steve King Says $20 Billion Cut In Food Stamps Won’t Be ‘Noticeable’

Few will even notice major cuts in our nation’s food stamp program, according to Rep. Steve King (R-IA).

Speaking on the floor Tuesday, King argued that a $20 billion cut to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program “spread out over ten years is not something that is going to be noticeable.”

KING: We do calculate our budget and spending in a 10-year window, so that means $800 billion is the universe of money we’re talking about. … Over the time period of 10 years, there would be $20 billion trimmed off of $800 billion. What comes to about a 2.5 percent decrease in the overall projected expenditures of the food stamp program known as SNAP. After all of that technical gibberish, the bottom line is a $20 billion cut is a $2.5 billion cut in the increase. $20 billion spread out over ten years is not something that is going to be noticeable.

Watch it:



Last year, the House Agriculture Committee passed a bill that included $16.5 billion in cuts to food stamps. As a result, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimated, 2 to 3 million low-income people would no longer receive food assistance. The legislation touted by King would go even further.

Food stamps are an essential part of the American safety net and keep millions out of poverty. In 2011, SNAP lifted 4.7 million people out of poverty, nearly half of whom were children, despite the fact that most recipients receive less than $1.50 per meal on average.

Source

OP:

(Reuters) - Hundreds of fast-food employees in Detroit walked off the job on Friday, temporarily shuttering a handful of outlets as part of a growing U.S. worker movement that is demanding higher wages for flipping burgers and operating fryers.

The protests in the Motor City - which is struggling to recover from the hollowing out of its auto manufacturing sector - marked an expansion in organized actions by fast-food workers from ubiquitous chains owned by McDonald's Corp, Burger King Worldwide and KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut parent Yum Brands Inc.

Fast-food workers, who already have taken to the streets in New York, Chicago and St. Louis, are seeking to roughly double their hourly pay to $15 per hour from around minimum wage, which in Michigan is $7.40 per hour.
Organizers said more than 400 people turned out for the Detroit event, the most to date.

They also said the walk-outs forced the temporary closures of two McDonald's restaurants, a Burger King, a Subway, a Long John Silver's and a Popeyes in Detroit - a claim some chains disputed.

Outside a Burger King on 8 Mile in Detroit, employee Claudette Wilson said she's tired of poor wages, especially at a time when the fast-food industry continues to grow.

"I make minimum wage, which is what I made when I started working in fast food three years ago," the 20-year-old college student said. "I can't understand how the industry is growing but our wages aren't."

( Read more...Collapse )