New 911 Calls Released in Trayvon Martin Case; Sanford Police Chief Bill Lee Fired [AUDIO]

Fundraising goes viral for victim of school bus taunting

ROCHESTER, N.Y. – An online fundraising effort to assist a bus monitor who was verbally abused by students raised more than $85,000 in its first day.

The effort was set in motion by a 10-minute video of profane taunting endured on Monday by bus monitor Karen Klein.

Klein didn't report the behavior and said she figured she had just ended the school year on a bad note.

But one of the kids on the Greece Athena Middle School bus captured the incident on a cellphone camera. 

The video was pulled off of Facebook late Tuesday and was posted to You Tube. By early Wednesday, it had gone viral around the world.

In the video, Klein does her best to ignore the harassment.

"I was trying to just ignore them, hoping they would go away, and it doesn't work," Klein said. "Trust me, they didn't go away."

The vile chorus included profanity, taunts, insults, jeers, physical ridicule and outright threats to Klein's person and home.

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WATCH VIDEO OF SCHOOL BUS MONITOR BEING HARASSED BY STUDENTS

Suit says Hebrew National isn't kosher; ConAgra says without merit

ConAgra says that a lawsuit claiming its Hebrew National products aren't kosher is without merit. (ConAgra screenshot)

ConAgra Foods Inc., the company that makes Hebrew National hot dogs and other meats, said a lawsuit questioning the product’s kosher status is “without merit.”

The complaint, filed in federal court in Minnesota, claims that Hebrew National charges high prices for a designation that it doesn’t deserve.

The suit, filed by 11 consumers and seeking class action status, accuses ConAgra of using dirty animals for its meats. Kosher standards demand healthy and clean livestock.

Why it matters that 'House Hunters' is fake

 
 Kathleen Finch, senior vice president and general manager of HGTV. (June 18, 2012)

From bait-and-switch marriage proposals to wig-pulling, cocktail-tossing catfights, it's safe to say we've grown accustomed to absurd contrivance and scripting in "reality" television. But who would expect such dramatic puppet-mastering on HGTV?

Apparently we all should have. Earlier this month on the website Hooked on Houses, former "House Hunters" participant Bobi Jensen called the show a sham. Jensen writes that the HGTV producers found her family's plan to turn their current home into a rental property "boring and overdone," and therefore crafted a narrative about their desperation for more square footage. What's more, producers only agreed to feature Jensen's family after they had bought their new house, forcing them to "tour" friends' houses that weren't even for sale to accommodate the trope of "Which one will they choose?"

New 911 Calls Released in Trayvon Martin Case; Sanford Police Chief Bill Lee Fired [AUDIO]

The Greatest Photograph Ever Taken of Planet Earth?

You've seen our stunning planet, but never quite like this.

(Photo: Electro-L Satellite)

Sure, you may have seen NASA’s epic photograph of the spinning blue marble we call home. But unlike that snapshot, which was actually a composite image, a new 121-megapixel photograph making the rounds is a single-shot.

It was snapped by a new Russian weather satellite, the Electro-L, reports Gizmodo.

Israel says clock ticking after Iran talks fail

Israel has responded to the failure of the latest nuclear talks between world powers and Iran with a familiar refrain: sanctions must be ramped up while the clock ticks down toward possible military action.

Syrian air force pilot defects in fighter jet to Jordan

Jordan says a Syrian air force pilot has flown his Mig-21 fighter jet to the kingdom and asked for political asylum, the Associated Press reports.

"The jetfighter landed at 10:45am and the government is currently considering the pilot's request," Jordanian Minister of State for Information Samih al-Maaytah told The Jordan Times Thursday without elaborating further.

Reuters quotes al-Maaytah as saying the "is being debriefed at the moment."
Reuters says Syrian state television identified the pilot as Col. Hassan Hamada, reporting that he was on a training mission near the border when communications with the plane were lost.

Governor: Oracle's Ellison to buy most of an Hawaiian island

HONOLULU – Oracle CEO Larry Ellison has reached a deal to buy 98% of the island of Lanai from its current owner, Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie said Wednesday.

Blacks Miss Out as Jobs Rebound in New York City

For months now, New York officials have been highlighting how the city has regained all the jobs lost during the long recession and then some. But by several measures, the city’s recovery has left black New Yorkers behind.


Ángel Franco/The New York Times

Kevin Starkes, right, who lives in the South Bronx, said he had been trying for about 10 weeks to find work as an accountant.

More than half of all of African-Americans and other non-Hispanic blacks in the city who were old enough to work had no job at all this year, according to an analysis of employment data compiled by the federal Labor Department. And when black New Yorkers lose their jobs, they spend a full year, on average, trying to find new jobs — far longer than New Yorkers of other races.

Nationally, the employment outlook for blacks has begun to brighten: there were about one million more black Americans with jobs in May than there were a year earlier, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.

But that is not the case in New York City, where the decline in employment since the recession began here, in 2008, has been much steeper for blacks than for white or Hispanic residents, said James Parrott, chief economist for the Fiscal Policy Institute, a liberal research group.

 

Study Shows Mitt Romney-Paul Ryan Budget Is Real Class Warfare

So, finally we have it. The Republican "Tax Cut Plan" in all its glory.
Mitt Romney and his Republican colleagues were intent on putting forth what they thought would be a nice series of tax cuts and popular, new, simple, reduced tax brackets.

Oops.

This is not actually reducing the burden on middle class families, it is increasing it. A new Joint Economic Committee Study exposes this sham of a plan. Making President George W. Bush's tax cuts permanent and further reducing the top rate to 25 percent is truly class warfare, Robin Hood in reverse, stick it to the middle class. The fact is that to close the so-called loopholes and get rid of the credits, many of which help the middle class, we are seeing a further redistribution of wealth to the wealthy.

The Romney-Ryan plan would increase taxes on wage earners who make between $50,000 to $100,000 by $1,300. It would increase taxes on those who make between $100,000 to $200,000 by $2,600. Another great idea for taking us back to the Bush-era, on steroids.

If you make between $500,000 and $1 million, you get another nice check for $35,000—go buy a new car or a big diamond ring. And if you happen to make over a million dollars, the average redistribution of wealth comes to an unbelievable $285,000.

What Are Friends For? Your Good Health, Maybe

 Whether it's the solitude you get after a long and busy day or the independence -- you can walk around in your underwear all the time! -- living alone has its perks. Some people are perfectly happy to be alone all the time. But being isolated and feeling lonely may put you at higher risk for functional decline and even death, new research finds.

Silly as it sounds, living by yourself carries a small if obvious danger. When family members and roommates are around, they can intervene in a medical emergency. Being on your own means that, well, you're on your own.

As Jamaican Drug Lord is Sentenced, U.S. Still Silent on Massacre

Tomorrow, Jamaican strongman Christopher “Dudus” Coke will face a prison sentence of up to twenty-three years in federal court. As I reported for the magazine in December, at least seventy-three civilians died in the process of getting Coke out of Jamaica and into U.S. custody. At the time, the Jamaican security forces claimed that most of the dead were gunmen who died defending Coke inside the barricaded neighborhood of Tivoli Gardens. But for these seventy-three supposed gunmen, the security forces only recovered six guns. Three of the dead were women. One was a U.S. citizen. Most appear to have been unarmed civilians, rounded up and massacred after the neighborhood was already under control.

Read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2012/06/christopher-coke-tivoli-massacre.html#ixzz1xA4IJ18A

Duh! STUDY: US Teens Smoke More Marijuana Than Cigarettes

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday that 23 percent of high school students said they recently smoked marijuana, while 18 percent said they had puffed cigarettes. The survey asked teens about a variety of risky behaviors.

‘Django Unchained’ Trailer Is Out. Jamie Foxx Plays Slave Out For Revenge!

Quentin Tarantino has been a notable film maker when it comes to airing out the uncomfortable realities of race through cinema.

And Tarantino’s recent trailer for his newest film, “Django Unchained,” is certainly going to punctuate his reputation as an unabashed maker of film that  evokes controversial commentary on how white Hollywood directors present stories of Black history to mostly White audiences.

Walmart workers want better wages, affordable benefits

If she could figure out how to live in her car, Janet Sparks would.

The 52-year-old makes $11.60 an hour as a front-of-the-store manager at a Louisiana Walmart and says she struggles to pay for basic necessities, let alone her $600-a-month rent.

"I'm giving it all I got, I like what I do, and yet I'm struggling so bad. This is not what it was when I started," says Sparks, who began working for America's No. 1 employer and discount store seven years ago.

• Walmart employees protest working conditions

Sparks belongs to a loosely knit association of Walmart employees called the Organization United for Respect at Walmart — OUR Walmart, for short. They are prodding the giant retailer to provide better wages, affordable benefits and reasonably reliable schedules for store employees nationwide. Their campaign comes not only at a time when many low-wage workers in the U.S. are struggling to make ends meet, but also as Walmart is rededicating itself to attracting price-conscious consumers like them — by holding down its expenses and guaranteeing the lowest prices.

OUR Walmart is not a labor union and lacks the right to bargain with the company on workers' behalf. The group receives some financial and technical support from the nation's largest retail workers union — the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), which has tried to organize Walmart workers in the past.

OUR Walmart claims about 5,000 members who pay monthly dues of $5 each.

Members learn how to stand up for themselves with store managers and about their legal protections as workers. They try to recruit fellow associates at their stores, and local groups hold meetings to discuss specific grievances. About three dozen members traveled to Walmart's annual shareholders meeting last week in Bentonville, Ark., to pass out fliers about their cause.

In the two years since OUR Walmart's creation, Walmart has twice raised the number of hours that part-time employees need to qualify for health benefits. Wage caps begun about six years ago block raises for some longtime employees in the same jobs. And some workers say the company's work-scheduling system limits their hours below what they need to qualify for benefits and produces such widely varying schedules that it's difficult to take a second job to make ends meet.

A "Declaration of Respect" that about 100 OUR Walmart members presented to the company last June calls on Walmart to offer affordable health care, create more dependable schedules and pay at least $13 an hour, among other things. 

Walmart says the national average hourly wage for its full-time workers is $12.40 but declined to say what it is for part-time workers. The federal minimum wage has been $7.25 since 2009.

Continue reading this article - click here.

Happy Bless Birthday, Prince!

Prince's Birthday: Singer Turns 54

The purifying waters of Lake Minnetonka have definitely been a fountain of youth for Prince. Today the 'Purple Rain' star turns 54 and after all these years he's still got it.



Not only has the soulful legend revolutionized the music world, his trademark eccentric wardrobe has never failed to turn heads. From ruffles, to bell bottoms, to baring it all. Who could forget these infamously brief chaps?

Happy Bless Birthday to the 'Prince of Purple Rain'!

LOCKED-IN PROFIT Private Prisons Build Empire On Immigration Crackdown

Private Prisons Profit From Immigration Crackdown, Federal And Local Law Enforcement Partnerships

On a flat and desolate stretch of Interstate 10 some 50 miles south of Phoenix, a sheriff's deputy pulls over a green Chevy Tahoe speeding westbound and carrying three young Hispanic men.

The man behind the wheel produces no driver's license or registration. The deputy notices $1,000 in cash stuffed in the doorframe -- payment, he presumes, for completed passage from Mexico. He radios the sheriff's immigration enforcement team, summoning agents from the U.S. Border Patrol. Soon, the three men are ushered into the back of a white van with a federal seal.

This routine traffic stop represents the front end of an increasingly lucrative commercial enterprise: the business of incarcerating immigrant detainees, the fastest-growing segment of the American prison population. The three men loaded into the van offer fresh profit opportunities for the nation's swiftly expanding private prison industry, which has in recent years captured the bulk of this commerce through federal contracts. By filling its cells with undocumented immigrants caught in the web of increased border security, the industry has seen its revenues swell at taxpayer expense.

The convergence of the people on the Interstate on this recent afternoon, as well as the profits that flow from imprisoning immigrants, are in part the result of concerted efforts by the private prison industry to tilt immigration detention policies in its favor, a Huffington Post investigation has shown.

In Washington, the industry's lobbyists have influenced policy to secure growing numbers of federal inmates in its facilities, while encouraging Congress to increase funding for detention bedspace. Here in this southern Arizona community, private prison companies share the spoils of their business with the local government, effectively giving area law enforcement an incentive to apprehend as many undocumented immigrants as they can.

This confluence of forces has contributed to a doubling of the ranks of immigrant detainees, to about 400,000 a year. Nearly half are now held in private prisons, up from one-fourth a decade ago, according to the Department of Homeland Security. The two largest for-profit prison companies, Corrections Corporation of America and The GEO Group, Inc., have more than doubled their revenues from the immigrant detention business since 2005, according to securities filings.

Read more of this article - click here.

Cuba loosens restrictions on private enterprise

BAY OF PIGS, Cuba – Sitting at a wooden table at his 3-week-old restaurant, Saturnino Morrejon Ramos surveyed the turquoise water of this inlet on the Caribbean off Cuba's southern coast.

"I still remember the gunfire," Ramos, 64, said, referring to the failed, CIA-backed invasion by Cuban exiles to depose the regime of Fidel Castro in 1961.

Ramos and others like him are taking part in a decidedly capitalistic change in Cuba in which the communist rulers have relaxed state control of the economy to generate wealth. Results appear mixed because of high taxes on profits and restrictions on economic freedoms that could lead to demands for political liberties.

Ramos is happy about the changes. The tables, chairs and kitchen of the restaurant atop his house were bought using $5,000 worth of remittances, or cash that the family gets from relatives in the USA.

"It's definitely worth paying the taxes to the government because we're earning more money," he said, admiring both the view and the fish caught yards away that lay grilled on the plates of diners. "Everyone's pleased the government has allowed this."

Who Killed American Unions?

A new theory says that a wave of massive technological change gave life to organized labor -- and another wave took it all away

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker doesn't like unions, and unions don't like him. But the most remarkable thing about Walker's relationship to labor isn't that he thinks unions are worthless -- most Republicans agree -- but that he thinks about them, at all.

Today, unions have been swept into dusty corners of the U.S. workforce, such as Las Vegas casino cleaners and New York City hotel staff. For much of the 20th century, things were different. Almost every person living in the Northeast, Midwest and California "was in a union himself/herself, had a family member in a union, or, at least, had a friend or neighbor in a union," Rich Yeleson, veteran in the labor movement, writes in The New Republic. The apogee of the unions was also the apogee of the middle class, when it commanded more than half of total income. As the union membership rate dropped, middle class share of income fell, too.

Warmest U.S. spring on record: NOAA

So far, 2012 has been the warmest year the United States has ever seen, with the warmest spring and the second-warmest May since record-keeping began in 1895, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported on Thursday.

Temperatures for the past 12 months and the year-to-date have been the warmest on record for the contiguous United States, NOAA said.

The average temperature for the contiguous 48 states for meteorological spring, which runs from March through May, was 57.1 degrees F (13.9 C), 5.2 degrees (2.9 C) above the 20th century long-term average and 2 degrees F (1.1 C) warmer than the previous warmest spring in 1910.

Automatic Budget Cuts Could Cause 1 Million Layoffs

Former officials say November layoffs at companies that depend on massive government contracts could shake up the election

Hundreds of thousands of Americans could head to the polls in November with fresh pink slips from firms that do business with the federal government, potentially upending key races across the country.

If Congress fails to pass a broad debt-reduction package this year that would reduce the federal debt by $1.2 trillion, around $500 billion in separate cuts to defense and domestic entitlement budgets would go into effect Jan. 1. The impact would force government entities like the Pentagon to cancel contracts, lay off workers and terminate programs, experts of all political stripes agree.

The Bipartisan Policy Center, in a report released Thursday, predicts the result would be a fresh injection of unemployed Americans into the still-staggering U.S. economy.

Rumored Marvel Comics Film Adaptation Of Black Panther Could Spark Necessary Revolution

19 indicted after investigation of Hells Angels Motorcycle Club

COLUMBIA -- 

United States Attorney Bill Nettles and Special Agent in Charge David A. Thomas of the Federal Bureau of Investigation said 19 individuals were arrested today after the return of a 91-count indictment charging members and associates of the Rock Hell City Nomad Chapter of the Hells Angels with racketeering and racketeering conspiracy, narcotics violations, Hobbs Act robbery, money laundering and firearm violations.
Those arrested were Daniel Eugene Bifield, aka Diamond Dan (Leesville); Mark William Baker, aka Lightning (Lancaster); David Channing Oiler, aka Gravel Dave (Lancaster); Bruce James Long, aka Bruce-Bruce (Columbia); Richard Thrower, aka Little Mark, Rat (Lancaster); David Pryor, aka Yard Owl (York); James Frederick Keach Jr., aka Big Fred (Pelion); Frank Enriquez Jr., aka Big Frank (Rock Hill); Donald Boersma, aka Brooklyn Donnie (Clover); Lisa Ellen Bifield, aka Lisa Ellen Meyers, Lisa Ellen Stockton (Leesville); Johanna Looper, aka JoJo (York); Kerry Chitwood (Gastonia, N.C.); Carlos Hernandez (Charlotte); Ronald Dean Byrum Jr., aka Big Ron (Gastonia); Trent Allen Brown (Columbia); Bruce Ranson Wilson, aka Diesel (Swansea); Thomas McManus Plyler, aka Uncle Tom (Rock Hill); Jamie Hobbs Long (Lancaster); and Somying Anderson, aka Ying (Columbia).

The arrest warrants were served along with the execution of 23 search warrants in North and South Carolina. During today’s operation, law enforcement seized methamphatamine, cocaine, marijuana, pills and 100 firearms, including two automatic machine guns. Special Agent in Charge David Thomas said, "The significance of the extensive and long-term investigative efforts that resulted in the arrests today represent the FBI's continuing commitment to the dismantling of organized criminal organizations. By working in a joint environment with federal, state and local counterparts, we send a clear message that such pervasive criminal activities will not be tolerated."

Shop Amazon Gold Box - New Deals. Every Day 

 

 "Where Is the Right to Privacy? It Doesn't Exist If You're a Muslim"

Meet the New Jersey Muslims taking on the New York Police Department over its sweeping surveillance program.

"For a number of years, there was a certainly a feeling that people were being singled out and targeted for scrutiny by law enforcement," Khera says. "It created a lot of fear and concern in the community, but also a lot of tremendous anger and frustration. Americans who are simply going about their daily lives, attending school, running their businesses, attending their places of worship, and haven't engaged in wrongdoing—and yet they're being subjected to surveillance by the largest police department in the country."

Shop Amazon - Father's Day Gifts 

 

Entire DNA of fetus revealed through risk-free testing

Researchers use blood from the mother and saliva from the father to determine a fetus' entire DNA sequence. If refined, the technique could provide a risk-free way to screen for genetic disorders.

Rumored Marvel Comics Film Adaptation Of Black Panther Could Spark Necessary Revolution

When the rumors hit the web that Marvel Studios had given an official green light to a long-discussed Black Panther movie project, fans of the super-hero comic book hero rejoiced universally. Although a breaking report from Latino Review has not been confirmed by the heads of Marvel, it didn’t stop the snowball effect of the spreading news, with mounds of speculation still piling up. If the rumors do result in a film, what could this mean for the face of an industry that is lacking in positive Black images, especially in the realm of comic book adaptions?

Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created the Black Panther character in 1966, with some saying that Kirby was the one who introduced the idea to Lee with an early incarnation of the character with the name “Coal Tiger,” which would have been a terrible choice. Several accounts from early Marvel employees reveal that Lee and other artists were aware of race relations within America and wanted to promote balance in their comics by featuring Black characters. This gracious gesture has spawned several Black heroes – and villains – over the course of Marvel’s long tenure in the comic biz.

Watch an episode of Black Panther here:



The story of Black Panther is a fascinating one indeed. Hailing from the African warrior country of Wakanda, known in the Marvel universe as the most technologically advanced nation in the world, Black Panther is an exceptional fighter and a valued scholar. With his birth name being T’Challa, Black Panther leads Wakanda against foes who seek to rob the secrets of his country. The nation is also where the fictional metal vibranium is forged, the same material used to fashion Captain America’s shield weapon.

Is Black Pepper The New Fat Fighter?

The research, published in ACS’ Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, pinpoints piperine — the pungent-tasting substance that gives black pepper its characteristic taste, concluding that piperine also can block the formation of new fat cells.

Shop Amazon Athletic  

 

Beware Of Contact Solution?

 
A patient-safety group is warning that, amid numerous reports of severe eye pain, burns, and chemical injuries linked to the misuse of Clear Care contact lens solution, Ciba Vision has failed to adequately warn consumers about potential health hazards related to their product. The consumer complaints started two years ago and continue today.



Clear Care contains 3 percent hydrogen peroxide, which isn’t normally used in a contact lens rinse. Unless it’s neutralized in a special Clear Care lens case, the powerful cleaning and disinfect product “will burn and sting your eyes,” manufacturer Ciba Vision now cautions on its website. The problem is that people use the solution in a conventional flat contact lens case to rinse or soak their lenses before inserting the lenses into their eyes, rather than using the special case made by the company that has a built-in neutralizer ring that takes six hours to work.

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How Would You Like A Graduate Degree For $100?

Ask Sebastian Thrun what makes him tick, and the inventor and Google Fellow ­offers up three favorite themes: big open problems, a desire to help people and “disrespect for authority.” Thrun, 45, has been aiming high—and annoying the old guard—for nearly two decades. As a college student in Germany he dashed off to conferences to present major papers on machine learning without getting his professor’s permission. Thrun made the cover of FORBES in 2006 with his talk of creating self-driving cars that could navigate traffic and follow directions without human guidance. As the founding head of Google’s advanced-research X Lab, Thrun helped turn those robocars into reality. After 200,000 miles of road tests his vehicles are safe enough for Nevada to approve them on public roads. California may follow suit.

Financiers at Charles River Ventures have already pumped $5 million into Thrun’s online-ed startup, Udacity. “I like to back people who have disruptive ­personalities,” explains CRV partner George Zachary.

“They create disruptive solutions.”

Udacity’s earliest course offerings have been free, and although Thrun eventually plans to charge something, he wants his tuition schedule to be shockingly low. Getting a master’s degree might cost just $100. After teaching his own artificial intelligence class at Stanford last year—and attracting 160,000 online signups—Thrun believes online formats can be far more effective than traditional classroom lectures. “So many people can be helped right now,” Thrun declares. “I see this as a mission.”

Creating Innovators: Why America's Education System Is Obsolete

America’s last competitive advantage — its ability to innovate — is at risk as a result of the country’s lackluster education system, according to research by Harvard Innovation Education Fellow Tony Wagner.
Taking the stage at Skillshare’s Penny Conference, Wagner pointed out the skills it takes to become an innovator, the downfalls of America’s current education system, and how parents, teachers, mentors, and employers can band together to create innovators.

American schools educate to fill children with knowledge — instead they should be focusing on developing students’ innovation skills and motivation to succeed, he says:

“Today knowledge is ubiquitous, constantly changing, growing exponentially… Today knowledge is free. It’s like air, it’s like water. It’s become a commodity… There’s no competitive advantage today in knowing more than the person next to you. The world doesn’t care what you know. What the world cares about is what you can do with what you know.”

Knowledge that children are encouraged to soak up in American schools — the memorization of planets, state capitals, the Periodic Table of Elements — can only take students so far. But “skill and will” determine a child’s ability to think outside of the box, he says.


Over two year of research involving interviews with executives, college teachers, community leaders, and recent graduates, Wagner defined the skills needed for Americans to stay competitive in an increasingly globalized workforce. As lined out in his book, “The Global Achievement Gap,” that set of core competencies that every student must master before the end of high school is:
- Critical thinking and problem solving (the ability to ask the right questions)
-  Collaboration across networks and leading by influence
- Agility and adaptability
- Initiative and entrepreneurialism
- Accessing and analyzing information
- Effective written and oral communication
- Curiosity and imagination

Read more - click here.

Enquirer Report: Oprah No Longer in Control of OWN (Video)

*Oprah has been stripped of her executive powers at her own struggling network, according to a report in the National Enquirer.

Her chief financial backer, Discovery Communications, supported the motion to revoke her privileges. Sources say she was reduced to tears.

“Oprah’s situation is equivalent to Donald Trump telling one of his ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ contestants: ‘You’re fired!’” declared a TV insider.

But that’s not the end of the madness. She gets to keep the title of CEO, but it’s only for looks. Discovery, was on board with the launch of OWN back in 2011, even if it turned out to be a disaster. But now the tables have turned and it looks like someone else has to take over.

“They now realize that she was too inexperienced to run the network,” said the insider. “So she was stripped of her power. She’s no longer in a position to make executive decisions or hire staff without consulting top Discovery executives first.”

Read more - click here.

Samsung Galaxy S III U.S. Version Uses Qualcomm Snapdragon

Samsung's Galaxy S III goes on sale in the U.S. later this month, with Qualcomm's dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor providing the power behind its performance.

LinkedIn passwords 'leaked by hackers'

Social networking website LinkedIn is investigating claims that over six million of its users' passwords have been leaked onto the internet.

Hackers posted a file containing encrypted passwords onto a Russian web forum.
They have invited the hacking community to help with decryption.

New Jersey Muslims file federal suit to stop New York Police Department from spying on them

WASHINGTON — New Jersey Muslims have filed a federal lawsuit to try to put an end to years of spying by the New York Police Department.
It is the first lawsuit to directly challenge the NYPD for targeting Muslims for widespread surveillance in the years after the 9/11 attacks.

Haverhill teen convicted of motor vehicle homicide in fatal crash tied to texting

 “We hope this sends a message that it’s not OK to text and drive,’’ Burleigh said.

13+ Things A Funeral Director Won’t Tell You

Read the money-saving secrets funeral directors from across the country aren't taking to the grave with these insider tips for planning a funeral.

13 Things a Movie Theater Employee Won’t Tell You

Find out behind the scenes info about your favorite place to see the next blockbuster.

39 More Secrets Your HR Person Won’t Tell You

HR professionals reveal their insider secrets.

DEA makes smuggling arrests in Puerto Rico airport

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) – U.S. federal agents say they raided Puerto Rico's international airport and other areas early Wednesday, arresting at least 33 people suspected of smuggling millions of dollars' worth of drugs aboard commercial flights.

1940 U.S. Census to Become Searchable by Name

Americans are in for a cyber-surprise on Wednesday: They’ll be able to plug family names into an online 1940 U.S. census and come up with details about the lives of New Yorkers — from Joe DiMaggio and Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy to their own relatives.



Starting after midnight, it will no longer be essential to provide exact addresses from seven decades ago to look for a New York connection.

With names, free searches of the 1940 U.S. census first made public in April will unlock personal information about residents of New York — then the largest U.S. state and an immigrant hub from which people moved all over the country.

Google Issues New Warning for State-Sponsored Attacks

Starting Tuesday, look out for an unusual warning atop your Gmail inbox, Google home page or Chrome browser. It will not mince words: “Warning: We believe state-sponsored attackers may be attempting to compromise your account or computer.”

Google said it planned to issue the warning anytime it picks up malicious–possibly state-sponsored–activity on a user’s account or computer. How does Google know whether an attack is state-sponsored? It won’t say.

“We can’t go into the details without giving away information that would be helpful to these bad actors, but our detailed analysis—as well as victim reports—strongly suggest the involvement of states or groups that are state-sponsored,” Eric Grosse, Google’s vice president of security engineering, wrote in a blog post.
The announcement is timed just one week after security researchers discovered Flame, a massive, data-mining virus, had been spying on computers in the Middle East– predominantly in Iran– for at least the last four years.

What's Troubling America?

This is a beautiful country, but the human beings within it are being turned into something that God Himself is angry at and sick of. To make God angry is to incur His wrath. John the Revelator said, "And the nations were angry and Thy wrath is come. It is the time of the dead that they should be judged and given justice."

In America, we have millions today who are homeless. We have many more millions who are sick, imprisoned, impoverished and weak, and it appears as though the conservative element of the country is moving away from care for the poor, the weak, the helpless, and the children and catering to the desires of those that have. But it is the poor and the weak who built the country. It is the poor and the weak who have fought, bled and died to maintain America as a great nation. Now America is turning her back on the weak and blaming the condition of the country on the poor, on the Black, on the Hispanic. In reality, the mismanagement of the wealth and people of this country is the fault of those who are at the top who have held power, who have manipulated the masses of the people against the good of America and the good of the world.

How will America answer to Christ, with human beings sleeping under bridges and America is spending over half a trillion dollars to bail out the savings and loan industry, but won't spend money to bail out those veterans who fought, bled and died, who are sleeping under bridges, who have fallen on hard times, whose homes and cars have been repossessed?

What is America coming to? The cities are filled with crime and violence. People can't walk the streets in safety. The elderly of the nation are preyed upon by wicked, unscrupulous people who sometimes rob them of their life savings and of their little social security checks. The babies of the nation are abused, murdered, drowned in hot water, even put in ovens by their parents. The stress of life in America is such that some parents can't handle the crying of children. So babies are coming to hospitals dying of trauma, shock, their heads bashed, thrown against the wall, thrown out of windows by parents who have had enough. Young girls in a sex-mad society are having their sexual nature titillated by sick television programs, sick movies, sick video tapes, sick songs from a sick, decadent culture that is using the talent of gifted people to spread degenerate life in the name of music and art. Babies are having their sexual nature titillated. Mothers are not home because they have to work. Daughters are left to be savaged by brutal men, sometimes their own fathers and uncles, cousins and brothers. And we ask, “What is the world coming to?”

America the beautiful is becoming America the ugly. They say love her or leave her. We have no place to go. Some of us will say we will run to Africa. But Africa is suffering, too. We say we will run to Europe. Be careful. We say we will run to South America or to Mexico. There is no hiding place today. The Judgment of God has touched every nation in every corner of the globe.

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Guard rescued at SC prison; officers control unit

COLUMBIA, S.C. — A guard held hostage at a South Carolina high security prison was rescued early Wednesday after a standoff of more than six hours, a corrections department spokesman said.

The officer was rescued and prison officials regained control of the building around 3:15 a.m. when negotiations with the inmates failed, said said Clark Newsome, a spokesman for the Department of Corrections.

About 100 corrections officers and State Law Enforcement Division agents blew open a door and regained control of the building. The inmates did not resist, Newsome said. The correctional officer had been dressed in an inmate's uniform to disguise him but he was recognized and rescued, Newsome said.

During the standoff, the inmates never left the wing of the Lee Correctional Institution in Bishopville and there was no danger to the community, Newsome said.

"No attempt was made to actually get out," Newsome said. "That probably would have been fruitless because there were so many officers on the grounds."

The officer appeared to have a suffered a head injury that was not thought to be serious and was taken to a hospital for evaluation. His name has not been released.

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Untreatable gonorrhoea spreading around world: WHO

 
The World Health Organization (WHO) headquarters is seen in Geneva November 9, 2009.

Credit: Reuters/Denis Balibouse

Drug-resistant strains of gonorrhoea have spread to countries across the world, the U.N. health agency said on Wednesday, and millions of patients may run out of treatment options unless doctors catch and treat cases earlier. Scientists reported last year finding a "superbug" gonorrhoea strain in Japan that is resistant to all recommended antibiotics and warned then that it could transform a once easily treatable infection into a global health threat.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) said those fears are now reality, with many more countries around the world, including Australia, France, Norway, Sweden and Britain, reporting cases of the sexually transmitted disease resistant to cephalosporin antibiotics - normally the last option for drugs against gonorrhoea.

"Gonorrhoea is becoming a major public health challenge," said Manjula Lusti-Narasimhan, from the WHO's department of reproductive health and research.

"We are very concerned about recent reports of treatment failure from the last effective treatment option - the class of cephalosporin antibiotics," she added. "If gonococcal infections become untreatable, the health implications are significant."

Gonorrhoea is a bacterial sexually transmitted infection which, if left untreated, can lead to pelvic inflammatory disease, ectopic pregnancy, stillbirths, severe eye infections in babies, and infertility in both men and women.

It is one of the most common sexually transmitted diseases in the world and is most prevalent in south and southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. In the United States alone, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the number of cases is estimated at around 700,000 a year.

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Russia's Putin says to push military ties with China

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday he will boost military cooperation with China, including holding more joint exercises, after the United States announced plans to shift most of its warships to the Asia-Pacific by 2020.

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IPv6: Trillions of new net addresses now possible

The new system will run concurrently with the old for the next few years.

A new standard which will enable the creation of trillions of new web addresses has been enabled.

Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) - a replacement to the existing IPv4 system - launched at 00:01 GMT on Wednesday.

The new system is necessary to prevent the internet running out of available addresses for new devices.

Experts said users should not notice any difference in their web use, and new devices should be using the new system as standard.


The Transit of the Planet Venus Between the Sun and Earth

Enjoy these wonderful photos of the planet Venus during its transition across the Sun on June 5th and 6th (depending where you live), 2012.  NOTE: The 'black spot" or "black dot" is the planet Venus transitioning across the Sun.

To see more, and who are credited for taking these photos, click here.

Cheering at Graduation Leads to Arrest, Diplomas Being Withheld

Cheering on your family and friends at graduation has become a risky proposition as schools around the country have cracked down on celebrations, withholding diplomas from students and arresting parents who "misbehave" during commencement.

In Florence, S.C., proud mother Sharon Cooper was handcuffed and escorted out of the arena where daughter Iesha Cooper was graduating from high school last Saturday. According to South Carolina news station WPDE, the school had warned parents earlier that anyone who cheered or yelled during the roll call would be escorted from the building, and that people who were disorderly while being led out would be arrested.

Cooper was taken out of the civic center and placed in handcuffs, according to the report.

"'Are you all serious? Are you all for real?' I mean, that's what I'm thinking in my mind," Cooper told WPDE."I didn't say anything. I was just like OK, I can't fight the law."

Disney to banish junk-food ads from kid shows

Disney says its programming will no longer be sponsored by junk food.

The Walt Disney Co. said Tuesday that it will become the first major media company to ban such ads for its TV channels, radio stations and websites intended for children. That means kids watching Saturday morning kids' shows on the company's ABC network will no longer see ads for fast foods and sugary cereals that don't meet Disney's nutrition standards.

Stars align behind Airtime video chat, but is it Skype or Color?

Despite the flame-out of Chatroulette, the idea of fostering live real-time, one-to-one video chats with friends and strangers is still intriguing, at least to Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker. The two Napster founders have finally taken the wraps off of Airtime, their social video chat service that is part Skype, part Chatroulette, and part SocialCam with Facebook as the layer for matching users by their interests.
There are three features in Airtime:

• There’s a simple one-to-one, web-based video chat service that doesn’t require registration or a download. You just log-in through Facebook. You can talk to other Facebook friends and get notifications for chats through Airtime’s Facebook integration.
• Users can watch shared video together in real time and stay in a video chat as they view the video. For instance, you can watch a YouTube video together with a friend while also being able to see each other. Videos that a user previously shared on Facebook are listed under their Airtime profile and can be clicked on for live viewing. Or users can find new videos with using YouTube video search.
• And there’s the Chatroulette-like feature that allows strangers to meet outside of their Facebook connections. Users can talk to other people in their area, friends of friends and people with common interests. And chat users can share their interests with each other easily and see what they have in common.

Which countries have the best-performing residential real estate markets?

Home prices may be slipping in the U.S., but they’re booming in some other nations. The Knight Frank Global House Price Index measures the performance of residential real estate markets around the world. According to the firm’s June report, these 10 countries saw the greatest increase in housing prices in the one-year period that ended in the first quarter of 2012.

Rev. Wright made claim before about being offered bribe to stay quiet

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/06/05/rev-wright-made-claim-before-about-being-offered-bribe-to-stay-quiet/#ixzz1wwhrXD71

Both the Obama administration and many traditional news outlets have blown off the claim in journalist Ed Klein’s book that Eric Whitaker, a close friend of President Obama’s, tried bribing the Rev. Jeremiah Wright to stay quiet during the 2008 election.

But it turns out that Klein’s book — “The Amateur” — actually isn’t the first recorded instance of Wright, Obama’s former inflammatory pastor, claiming someone tried to pay him off to stay quiet while Obama ran for president.

In David Remnick’s 2010 book, “The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama,” the author quotes Wright saying he was offered cash to shut up by a friend concerned that his history of incendiary sermons could doom Obama’s hopes of winning the White House.

“One Obama supporter—a ‘close friend of Barack’s,’ Wright claimed—even offered to send Wright money if he would only be quiet,” Remnick wrote. “Wright refused. He was retired now and needed to earn a living and help support grandchildren in college.”

Remnick quoted Wright saying he wasn’t interested in the money being offered.

“Where’s the money going to come from?” he said. “I’m just going to be quiet until November the fifth? I’m not supposed to say a word? What do I tell these people who have invited me to preach? All of these dates between April and November? So, no, I didn’t cancel engagements, and I didn’t cancel what I was supposed to be doing.”

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/06/05/rev-wright-made-claim-before-about-being-offered-bribe-to-stay-quiet/#ixzz1wwhA6UdD