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Friday, January 28, 2011

TODAY'S BIG CONTEST WINNER IS.............

On behalf of Fernando Guerrero, Hal Chernoff and the Main Street Gym, Salisbury News would like to congratulate Cathy as the winner of the two FREE Fernando Guerrero Tickets to the big fight on February 18th. Cathy answered the question correctly within 2 minutes of the Post going up!

Folks, we had more than 88 comments on that Post while people were registering left and right to comment with their answer. We want to thank ALL of you for going to Google and finally registering your names. Between the Tee Shirt Post and the Ticket Giveaway Post we had more than 120 new people register with Google today.

Salisbury News wanted to clean up the comments so everyone could enjoy visiting this Site all together. The only people who became upset over this new rule of registered comments were those who don't belong commenting here anyway.

If you have not registered with Google, take a minute to do so and get back on board with comments. We enjoy your participation and opinion. GO HERE to register with Google and be prepared for several more contests in the very near future.

Cathy, please contact me at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com to make arrangements with your tickets and once again, Congratulations.

I SHOULD ADD: There was an additional 37 people who e-mailed me directly with their answer. If you'll go back to the original Post you'll clearly see we stated your answer had to be on that Post and NOT in an e-mail. Nevertheless, Cathy still beat out everyone with her answer anyway.

Answer: Why did the O-rings fail? On the day of the shuttle Challenger's launch, icicles draped structures at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The unusually cold weather, beyond the tolerances for which the rubber seals were approved, most likely caused the O-ring failure.

MORE BREAKING NEWS

Two more Assistant States Attorneys were let go today in Wicomico County. I can tell you that one attorney has already been replaced and interviews are in progress for the second.

Salisbury News will NOT be providing any more information on this matter but I will say this. There's a new Boss in Town and while some may not agree with some of these changes, just remember that there are two sides to every story.

I firmly stand behind our new States Attorney Matt Maciarello.

BREAKING NEWS

There's been ANOTHER train/vehicle wreck that just happened on Canal Park Drive. More to come.....

UPDATE: We're told the rear end of the car is messed up really bad. The driver of the vehicle is sitting in the drivers seat with the door open talking to people.

UPDATE #2: The driver seems to be fine but he was taken to the Hospital. The driver is a college student and we were told last night the driver was giving his friend a hard time for not paying attention while driving, yet his friend DIDN'T HIT A TRAIN!

Today's Tee Shirt Contest Winners!!!!!

I'd like to congratulate K. Nalah S., Marc, Dreams and Nathan as they are the winners of today's FREE Fernando Guerrero Tee Shirt Giveaway. You may contact me from your Google Account for further arrangements. alberobutzo@wmconnect.com

We want to thank ALL of you for participating in our contests today. Believe me, you're going to want to register with Google and create an account because the FREE Giveaway's are nowhere near over. We have plenty of additional Fight Night Tickets to give away as well as more Fernando Tee Shirts and yes, we will also be giving away FREE "You've Been Blogged" Salisbury News Tee Shirts as well.

So GO HERE to register with Google so you too can participate in these contests.

Since We're On A Roll Today, Would You Like To See Another Contest? UPDATE: 35 Minutes Left To Go!!!!!

Today I went up to the Main Street Gym and bought a bunch of Fernando Guerrero Tee Shirts. Let's show everyone just how many people have registered to comment on Salisbury News.

The FIRST comment and then every 10th comment on this Post will receive a FREE Fernando Guerrero Tee Shirt. I'll stop the contest at 5 PM, or at 100 comments. ONE registered name per winner. Example, 1, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 & 100 are winners up until 5 PM.

As we stated in the earlier contest, you MUST comment on this Post and NOT an e-mail to me.

IF YOU HAVEN'T REGISTERED YOUR NAME WITH GOOGLE, GO HERE.

RULES: After the winners are announced, the winners will have to contact me via e-mail from your Google account. alberobutzo@wmconnect.com.

Win A Pair Of Tickets To The Fernando Guerrero Fight Right NOW!

What mechanical failure most likely caused the explosion on the Space Shuttle Challenger 25 years ago today?

RULES: The first person to answer this question correctly will win the pair of tickets. We will not publish any of the responses but will announce the winner when it is answered correctly on this Post. After the winner is announced, the winner will have to contact me via e-mail from your Google account. alberobutzo@wmconnect.com.

House Committee Hears Proposal To Double Fees For Birth, Death Certificates

Legislative budget analysts are recommending the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene double the price of birth and death certificates from $12 to $24 a piece as a way to raise $7.9 million for fiscal 2012.
Maryland currently charges $12 for each copy of a vital record, including birth certificates, death certificates, and marriage certificates. In 2003, the last time the Department of Legislative Services analyzed vital record fees, Maryland ranked among the lowest and have remained comparatively low, according to the budget report that analyst Simon Powell presented to the Health and Human Resources Appropriations subcommittee.

Powell recommended doubling the cost for a copy of each record to $24.

The Department of Legislative Services also recommended local health departments increase the fee they collect for processing and issuing birth certificates from $10 to $20.

While he agreed the budget is “pretty frugal,” Health Secretary Joshua Sharfstein said he had some concerns about raising the cost of death certificates.

GO HERE to read more.

Extra Fine For Bad Driving Part Of Proposed State

O'Malley would create new fines for drunken driving, speeding to raise revenue

January 27, 2011|By Annie Linskey, The Baltimore Sun
There are speeding tickets and penalties for driving drunk. But if an obscure provision in Gov. Martin O'Malley's budget proposal becomes law, motorists in Maryland will have another sanction to worry about: a fine for bad driving.

Get caught going 85 on the highway twice in two years? On top of the $1,080 in traffic fines you've earned, you'd owe the state $1,500. There would be a new fee for drunken driving too: A conviction would cost an additional $500 every year for three years.

A driver who didn't pay the surcharge could see his or her license suspended.

GO HERE to read more.

Destruction Of Dr. Earl B. Bradley Items

Location: Secure Self Storage, Rehoboth Beach, DE
 
Date of Occurrence:  Wednesday, January 26, 2011
 
 
Resume:
 
Rehoboth Beach- On Wednesday, January 26, 2011, Delaware State Police assisted by DELDOT personnel and equipment, removed the items owned by Dr. Earl B. Bradley from the Secure Self Storage Unit, where the items had been stored.
 
After removal, the items were transported to an undisclosed remote facility, where they were destroyed, rendered useless, and disposed of, under the supervision of the Delaware State Police and the Attorney General’s Office.
 
Through the removal, destruction, and disposal of these items, the Delaware State Police wanted to alleviate the concerns expressed by the families of the victims and the community, and ensure that these items were destroyed and would not be resold or utilized again.
 
The Delaware State Police wishes to thank DELDOT for their assistance in the utilization of their personnel and equipment to facilitate the destruction and disposal of the property.

Renewing The Patriot Act While America Sleeps

"Of course, there is no doubt that if we lived in a police state, it would be easier to catch terrorists. If we lived in a country that allowed the police to search your home at any time for any reason; if we lived in a country that allowed the government to open your mail, eavesdrop on your phone conversations, or intercept your email communications; if we lived in a country that allowed the government to hold people in jail indefinitely based on what they write or think, or based on mere suspicion that they are up to no good, then the government would no doubt discover and arrest more terrorists. But that probably would not be a country in which we would want to live. And that would not be a country for which we could, in good conscience, ask our young people to fight and die. In short, that would not be America."

~ Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI), voicing his concerns over Congress’ passage of the USA Patriot Act (Oct. 25, 2001)
Russ Feingold, a staunch defender of the rule of law and the only senator to vote against the ominous USA Patriot Act, recently lost his bid for re-election to the U.S. Senate to a Tea Party-backed Republican. From the start, Feingold warned that the massive 342-page piece of legislation would open the door to graver dangers than terrorism – namely, America becoming a police state. He was right.

The Patriot Act drove a stake through the heart of the Bill of Rights, violating at least six of the ten original amendments – the First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Amendments – and possibly the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments, as well. The Patriot Act also redefined terrorism so broadly that many non-terrorist political activities such as protest marches, demonstrations and civil disobedience were considered potential terrorist acts, thereby rendering anyone desiring to engage in protected First Amendment expressive activities as suspects of the surveillance state.

The Patriot Act justified broader domestic surveillance, the logic being that if government agents knew more about each American, they could distinguish the terrorists from law-abiding citizens – no doubt an earnest impulse shared by small-town police and federal agents alike. According to Washington Post reporter Robert O’Harrow, Jr., this was a fantasy that had "been brewing in the law enforcement world for a long time." And 9/11 provided the government with the perfect excuse for conducting far-reaching surveillance and collecting mountains of information on even the most law-abiding citizen.

Suddenly, for the first time in American history, federal agents and police officers were authorized to conduct black bag "sneak-and-peak" searches of homes and offices and confiscate your personal property without first notifying you of their intent or their presence. The law also granted the FBI the right to come to your place of employment, demand your personal records and question your supervisors and fellow employees, all without notifying you; allowed the government access to your medical records, school records and practically every personal record about you; and allowed the government to secretly demand to see records of books or magazines you’ve checked out in any public library and Internet sites you’ve visited (at least 545 libraries received such demands in the first year following passage of the Patriot Act).

GO HERE to read more.

Missing Olney Teen Located In Texas

(WUSA) -- Montgomery County Police say they have found one of the teens from Olney who has been missing since January 12.

County police learned Nicholas (Cole) Balderson, 17, and Rachel Reilly, 16, might be in the San Antonio, Texas area and began coordinating with the San Antonio Police Department.

Thursday night, county detectives were contacted by San Antonio Police Department investigators who said they took Rachel Reilly into custody at approximately 8:15 p.m.

San Antonio Police had received information that the two teens may be staying at a homeless camp near a San Antonio truck stop, T and A Travel Center of America in San Antonio. They located a homeless camp to the rear of the truck stop, and police say when officers approached, two subjects matching the teens' descriptions fled on foot.

GO HERE to read more.

Massive Demonstrations In Egypt After Friday Prayers

Egypt is witnessing major riots, with demonstrations throughout the country after Friday morning prayers.

At least three people were killed this week in the largest demonstrations in Egypt in 25 years.

At present, leading opposition member and main contender for Mubarak's p[lace,, Mohamed ElBaradei, who returned to Egypt to put his weight behind the protests, is reportedly under siege with his followers inside a mosque which is surrounded by police

The major protests follow the recent successful revolt in Tunisia. Lebanon's Nasrallah encouraged the demonstrators to take over, but resentment of Mubarak's plans to have his son take his place and the economic situation in Egypt are dominant factors. Demonstrators are calling on Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to step down from power and allow open and fair elections.

The country's four primary Internet providers all cut service shortly after midnight. Mobile phone signals were disrupted as well, in an apparent attempt by authorities to make it more difficult for protesters to organize or to get footage of the demonstrations out of the country.

Organizers have switched to contacting friends abroad on landlines. Footage and reports from protests earlier in the week were online almost instantly as demonstrators updated their pages on social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook while riots were ongoing.

Muslim Brotherhood Joins the Fray
The government crackdown is responding to the Muslim Brotherhood's announcement on Thursday that it will join Friday's demonstration. The Brotherhood is Egypt's largest opposition group, and its participation gives the counter-government rallies new strength.

One Brotherhood leader told reporters on Thursday, “Tomorrow is going to be the day of the intifada.” He predicted that many of the Brotherhood's younger members, some as young as 15, would take part in Friday's demonstrations.

According to a report in the Hebrew-language daily Maariv, Mubarak has reason for concern, as those organizing the demonstrations have planned his overthrow in detail. Documents spelling out how to revolt against the administration reportedly include satellite images of strategic sites and major intersections.

The documents, given to activist leaders, also include instructions on how to seize Mubarak's presidential palace, television and radio stations, and the seats of local government throughout the country, according to the report.

INN

Controversial Muslim Cleric Caught Being Smuggled Into U.S. Over Mexico Border

U.S. border guards got a surprise when they searched a Mexican BMW and found a hardline Muslim cleric - banned from France and Canada - curled up in the boot.

Said Jaziri, who called for the death of a Danish cartoonist that drew pictures of the prophet Mohammed, was being smuggled into California when he was arrested, along with his driver Kenneth Robert Lawler.

The 43-year-old was deported from Canada to his homeland Tunisia in 2007 after it emerged he had lied on his refugee application about having served jail time in France.

Jaziri had allegedly paid a Tijuana-based smuggling cartel $5,000 to take him across the border near Tecate, saying he wanted to be taken to a 'safe place anywhere in the U.S.'

According to the court documents, a Mexican guide led Jaziri and a Mexican immigrant over the border fence near Tecate.

They then trekked across the rugged terrain under cover of darkness to a spot popular for drivers who pick up immigrants for smuggling runs into San Diego.

He allegedly told officials he had flown from Africa to Europe, then to Central America and Chetumal, Mexico, on the Mexico-Belize border, where he took a bus to Tijuana.

Read more

BUY A NEW CAR AND GET $5,000?

Here's a proposition you don't hear every day: Buy a new car, put no money down, and walk out of the dealership with a check for $5,000. Is it possible? Yes. It is a good idea? Almost certainly not.

There’s a dirty little secret of the new car sales business -- one that helps dealers but can really get drivers into financial hot water. Dealer-friendly lenders will allow consumers to take out new car loans that actually exceed the value of the loan -- in some cases by up to 20 percent. That means when you buy a $25,000 car, a friendly lender might loan you up to $30,000.


These are called negative equity loans, and they are a necessary evil in a world where consumers often drive onto new car lots with old cars that are "upside down" -– meaning they owe more on their current loan than their old car is worth. They also don't have the means to make up the difference with a cash payment. It’s a widespread problem. J.D. Power and Associates estimated in 2009 that one in four new car buyers with a trade-in were upside down.

GO HERE to read more.

Police: Officer Made Up Story About Shooting Near High School

Los Angeles (CNN) -- A police officer in Los Angeles who claimed he was shot while patrolling near a high school has now been arrested for making up the story, authorities said.

Officer Jeff Stenroos of the Los Angeles Unified School District Police Department had said he was shot in the chest on January 19 in the west San Fernando Valley. He said the shooting happened when he got out of his squad car to check on a man peering into parked vehicles near the El Camino High School.

The alleged shooting prompted an hours-long lockdown of several schools as police scoured the area looking for the shooter.

In the following days, authorities released a sketch of the alleged gunman, and the reward for information grew to $100,000.

But Thursday night, Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said Stenroos had been arrested on a felony count of filing a false police report.

"The current state of the investigation refutes Stenroos' initial account of the incident and we are now certain that there is no outstanding suspect in this shooting," he said in a statement.

GO HERE to read more.

New Spaceships Should Be Safer Than The Space Shuttle

NASA sets higher safety standards, and private rocketeers say they can meet them

NASA says private-sector spaceships will have to satisfy safety standards that the space shuttle can’t meet — and the companies building those spaceships say they'll rise to the challenge.

Friday's 25th anniversary of the Challenger shuttle explosion is focusing fresh attention on the issue of spaceflight safety, with good reason. The loss of the shuttle and its crew of seven, including educator-astronaut Christa McAuliffe, dramatically highlighted the risks associated with the world's most complex flying machine.

Those risks were brought home again with the catastrophic breakup of the shuttle Columbia in 2003. Once again, seven astronauts were lost, due to inherent problems with the space shuttle's design as well as lapses in NASA's "safety culture."

The Challenger and Columbia disasters led risk analysts to estimate that flying the space shuttle carried a roughly 1-in-100 chance that the crew and the spaceship would be lost during a given mission. In the wake of the Columbia tragedy, NASA and the White House decided to retire the shuttle fleet and move on to a simpler, safer launch system.

When NASA was working on plans for its own crew launch system to replace the shuttle and service the International Space Station, the agency set standards that lowered the chance of crew loss to 1-in-1,000.

"Neither the shuttle nor the Russian Soyuz could meet these standards," said John Logsdon, former director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University and a member of the NASA Advisory Council's Exploration Committee.

GO HERE to read more.

Create Your Google Account Now To Have A Chance To Win A Pair Of Fight Tickets At Noon TODAY!

GO HERE to set up your Google Account so you can comment on Salisbury News and perhaps win a pair of tickets to the Fernando Guerrero Fight on February 18th. We'll have a Post up at noon. The first person to answer the question correctly will win a FREE pair of tickets to the fight.

Don't waste any time on this one Folks. Set up your account TODAY so you can participate in this contest as well as others we'll be providing in the near future.

Yemenis Hit Streets, Inspired By Protests In Tunisia And Egypt

Protests for democratic reforms spread Thursday from Tunisia and Egypt to Yemen, where thousands of people gathered in the capital, Sanaa, to demand that the impoverished country’s longtime president step down.

Yemen, which has become a base for al Qaeda terrorists, is a key U.S. ally in counterterrorism intelligence and operations, having allowed U.S. drone attacks on terrorist suspects. It also received about $300 million in military and development aid from the U.S. last year.

The Arab world’s poorest country, Yemen has a population of about 28 million, nearly half of whom live below the poverty line; it also has high rates of unemployment and rampant corruption in its government.

In recent months, Yemenis have been angered by moves to amend the nation’s constitution to extend the term of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has been in power for 32 years. His current term expires in 2013.

More here

Thank God Its Friday

What Will You Be Doing This Weekend?

SPECIAL MEETING

In accordance with §SC2-4 of the Salisbury City Charter, a majority of the City Council have called for a Special Meeting to be held on Monday, February 7, 2011, to conduct claim for refund hearings.

The special meeting will be held at 4:30 p.m. in Conference Room 306 of the City/County Government Office Building (125 N. Division Street).

Volkswagen Unveils A 260 MPG Car

Volkswagen used the backdrop of an auto show in oil-rich Qatar to introduce its most fuel-efficient car ever.

The German automaker claims that its Formula XL1 concept is capable of delivering over 260 miles per gallon. The lightweight, carbon fiber intensive two-seater achieves this incredible efficiency by combining a 47 horsepower, 800cc two-cylinder turbo-diesel engine with a 27 hp electric motor and an extremely streamlined body.

GO HERE to read more.

Tracy Morgan Calls Sarah Palin 'Good Masturbation Material,' Network Apologizes

Cable television network TNT issued an apology late Thursday for a comment made by "30 Rock" star Tracy Morgan about former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin during a live broadcast.

Morgan made a crude remark about the key Republican’s looks during an appearance Thursday on “Inside the NBA."

During a pre-game chat ahead of the Miami Heat-New York Knicks clash, co-host Charles Barkley asked the actor, “Sarah Palin’s good looking, isn’t she?”

Morgan replied, "Let me tell you something about Sarah Palin, she's good masturbation material. The glasses and all of that... She is great masturbation material."


GO HERE to read more.

1970s Marijuana Kingpin Arrested At Seniors Community

A key member of a Miami-based marijuana-smuggling ring was reportedly arrested by the U.S. Marshals Service on Thursday, more than 31 years after skipping out of a federal trial.

Mark Steven Phillips, 62, was arrested in his apartment at Century Village, a seniors community where he had been living in recent months, the Miami Herald reports.

Along with 13 others, Phillips was charged in May 1979 in what was then the country's largest marijuana importation prosecution in history. The ring, known as the "Black Tuna Gang," derived its name from the radio moniker for the group's Colombian source for marijuana.

Phillips, who faces sentencing for a racketeering conviction and adjudication of fugitive charges, told U.S. Magistrate Edwin Torres that he has no property, $600 in a bank account and receives $667 in monthly Social Security benefits.

"I'm retired," Phillips told Torres, according to the Miami Herald. "Your honor, I would like to say something. I have no valid passport. Nothing but a bicycle, but I'm not going anywhere."

Authorities estimate that the ring smuggled 500 tons of marijuana into the U.S. in the mid-'70s.

Three Months Until Gays Can Serve Openly

The Pentagon will announce Friday a three-month timeline for allowing gay members of the military to serve openly, Fox News has learned.

Cliff Stanley, undersecretary of Defense for personnel and readiness and Gen. James Cartwright, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, are expected to lay out a plan that gives the military services roughly three months to train their forces on the new law that allows gays to serve openly in the military, a U.S. official tells Fox News.

GO HERE to read more.

Snow More! Northeast Gets Respite From Storms

Winter weather 'seems to have started a whole grass-roots movement of people helping one another'

Between storms, a builder in Connecticut uses his skid loader to plow his neighbors' driveways. In Maryland, a good Samaritan hands out water and M&Ms to stranded drivers. The mayor of Philadelphia urges residents to "be kind" and help one another out — and they respond by doing just that.

Across the Northeast, full of large cities where people wear their brusqueness like a badge of honor, neighbors and even strangers are banding together to beat back what's shaping up to be one of the most brutal winters in years — and it appears to be contagious.

"It seems to have started a whole grass-roots movement of people helping one another," said Cindy Twiss, a school administrator who lives in Milford.

She's among the lucky neighbors of Danny Blanchet, the builder who uses his 7,500-pound yellow "skitsteer" to plow Twiss and others out in mere minutes for jobs that would take their shovels hours to complete.

"Last storm I did 35 people," Blanchet said, beaming and decked out in sunglasses and a sweater knitted by his sister. "I just happen to have a bigger shovel than they do. This is a joy for me."

GO HERE to read more.

Editors Notes: See What We Started!

Alan Hope IS A Special Interest

Urban Salisbury recently hosted yet another forum proposing business owners and property owners in the Downtown area to put up security cameras to keep an eye on the Downtown area.

Guess what, not only wasn't I invited as Press, I wasn't invited as a vested property owner in the Downtown area. Why, because I stand up to  people I believe are doing NOTHING and taking advantage of the Taxpayers of Salisbury. Some wonder WHY there's this distance between me and some of these groups in Salisbury, now you know why. If I'm not going to be invited, YOU have something to HIDE!

The funny part is, I do believe that IF a property owner wants to invest into purchasing a camera system, go for it! In fact, after my building was tagged with graffiti several weeks ago I spoke directly with Chief Duncan about this very topic and encouraged her to move forward with such a concept.

Salisbury should NOT be divided by special groups. Every single property owner should have been contacted and the Chamber of Commerce should also take part in some of that blame. Unfortunately, not much has changed in the City of Salisbury politics.

Why Inflation Is Raging Worldwide And He's Shorting US Treasury Bonds

"I see more inflation and more currency turmoil as we go forward. There are huge debt imbalances in the world. U.S. is the largest debtor nation in the world and all the assets are in Asia. The largest creditors in the world are China, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore – this is where the assets are and the debts are in the West. Those imbalances have to be resolved. They frequently lead to more currency turmoil. We’ll see more inflation, we’ll see more governments fall. We just saw Tunisia fall – more are coming because the world is going to continue to have these problems, and especially inflation that is going to cause more social unrest."

So said investing legend Jim Rogers when he spoke recently with ChrisMartenson.com about the inflationary pressures rising dramatically around the globe, despite some governments' best efforts to downplay them. Jim shares his "outside in" perspective on US monetary and fiscal policy, and how international players find themselves forced to react. He sees a lot of fundamental imbalances that need to be corrected for, as well as shortages of almost everything developing. In his words, "It's going to be a real mess before it's over."

GO HERE to read more from Jim Rogers.

Egyptian Protests Intensify As Clashes Spread Across The Middle East

Egyptian police have been fighting protesters in intensifying clashes, and demonstrations have reported from Yemen and Gabon – a sign that defiance against authoritarian rulers in the Middle East is spreading.

Security forces shot dead a Bedouin protester in Egypt's Sinai region on Thursday, bringing the death in the three days of protests to five. Police in Suez fired rubber bullets, water cannon and tear gas at hundreds of demonstrators calling for an end to the 30-year-old rule of Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president. Protesters chucked rocks and petrol bombs at police lines. In Ismailia, hundreds of protesters clashed with police, who dispersed the crowds with tear gas.

Like in many other countries in the region, protesters in Egypt complain about surging prices, unemployment and the authorities' reliance on heavy-handed security to keep dissenting voices quiet. The protests are inspired by Tunisia, where a democratic movement recently overthrew the government.

More

How Arab Satellite Stations Show The Unrest In The Arab World

With no fewer than five major areas of unrest/revolutions/regime changes going on in the Arab world, Arab satellite television, one of the mainstays of information dissemination in the Middle East, has been playing a major role in communicating news – or attempting, if not to suppress it, then at least to spin it.

For most Westerners (and Israelis), “satellite TV,” like cable TV, means a mix of entertainment and news stations – mostly entertainment. And with the decline of terrestrial TV in most parts of the world, families and individuals who want to watch television usually take out a subscription to a cable or direct satellite service. In Israel, these two services are provided respectively by HOT and YES.

In the Arab world, however, where government control – or at least domination – of the local media is the rule, most householders have a satellite dish, to pick up the hundreds of free to air (fta) television stations broadcasting around the Arab world. Many of these stations are sponsored by governments, and make no attempt to present a balanced picture. There are many religious-oriented stations, as one would expect,, with both Sunni and Shi'ite stations crowding the TV dial. For religious minorities in overwhelmingly Muslim countries, satellite TV broadcasts are often one of the few links to their religious brethren.

Not only do Arab governments use satellite TV to reach the Arab masses; the United States operates several stations in Arabic and Farsi, and has a whole TV station, Al-Hurra, dedicated to explaining its side of the story in Iraq. Many other countries, including Korea, China, France, Britain, and even Holland have their own satellite stations. 

Besides foreign, official and religious broadcasts, there are also dozens of independent stations broadcasting news, sports, and entertainment, in Arabic – and there are even a surprisingly large number of stations that broadcast movies and TV series originating in the United States.

With unrest, regime changes, or heavy protests threatening regime changes, taking place in Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Yemen, and Sudan, a survey of the fta Arab satellite stations broadcasting on the two main satellites that serve the Middle East (Nilesat and Arabsat) yields what many viewers would expect – along with some interesting surprises – in the way the protests and uprisings are being reported.

Here are some examples:

Opposition In Egypt Gears Up For Major Protest

CAIRO — Mohamed ElBaradei, the Nobel laureate who has become a leading opponent of President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, returned to Cairo on Thursday in an attempt to galvanize youth-led street protests that extended into a third day across the country.

Smoke rose over the city of Suez on Thursday as sometimes violent clashes continued there. In the capital, a relative calm settled over the streets in anticipation of a new wave of demonstrations anticipated for Friday.

Raising the stakes, the Muslim Brotherhood, long the country’s largest organized opposition group, intends to end days of official inaction to enter fully into protests on Friday. On its Web site, the group said it would join “with all the national Egyptian forces, the Egyptian people, so that this coming Friday will be the general day of rage for the Egyptian nation.”

Mr. ElBaradei, the former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency who has sought to refashion himself as pro-democracy campaigner in his homeland, is viewed by some supporters as capable of uniting the country’s fractious opposition and offering an alternative to Mr. Mubarak’s authoritarian rule. Critics view him as an opportunist who has spent too little time in the country to take control of a movement which began without his leadership.

But his return adds a new element to the unrest in several big cities that has shaken assumptions that Mr. Mubarak’s security apparatus can keep a tight lid on popular protest.

More here

‘We’re Living On A Volcano,’ Experts Warn

As with Iran in ’79, Islamists could hijack pro-democracy movements; ex-IDF research chief: “We're on thick ice, but even that melts eventually."

Israeli security experts are casting an uneasy eye at the civil unrest spreading through the region.

On Thursday, Yemen joined the list of Arab states experiencing unprecedented demonstrations calling for authoritarian leaders to step down, and Egypt braced for more civil unrest.

While no analysts here predict any immediate ramifications for Israel’s national security, some said mass protest movements that begin as pro-democracy uprisings could easily be hijacked by Islamists.

“We need to understand that we are living on a volcano,” said Maj. Gen. (res.) Ya’acov Amidror, former head of the IDF’s Research and Assessment Directorate.

“Conditions can change from today until tomorrow. We must ask ourselves, what is the worst case scenario,” he said. “We are on thick ice, but even that melts eventually."

“Advice we have heard from certain countries in Western Europe [suggesting that the uprisings could lead to a wave of democratic revolutions] should not be followed,” he said. “There’s no immediate fear of any security escalation. The main question is: In the long term, will we be ready for all scenarios?” Maj.-Gen. (res.) Giora Eiland, a former national security adviser, and a senior research fellow at Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), said, “There’s a reasonable chance that if a revolution takes place in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood would rise to power. That would be bad not just for Israel but for all democracies.”

The true struggle in Egypt was not between “Mubarak and pro-democracy elements, but between Mubarak and the Muslim Brotherhood,” Eiland said.

More from JPost

Crisis Report Spreads Broad Blame For Financial Meltdown

Government regulators and policymakers, as well as titans of Wall Street finance, are culpable for the financial crisis of 2007 and 2008, according to an official report released Thursday by the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC).

The report, a 633-page tome, constitutes the first official governmental take on the underpinnings of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. In it, the commission finds that the crisis was avoidable and driven largely by human error or inaction.

But this official take did not receive unanimous support of the congressionally appointed FCIC commissioners. Rather, the findings were approved down party lines, with the six commissioners appointed by Democrats signing off on the report, while the four selected by Republicans issued two separate dissents.

The report reaches far and wide to cast blame for the financial crisis.

"A crisis of this magnitude cannot be the work of a few bad actors," the report states.

It points fingers at government officials and regulators for failing to anticipate the crisis.

"We had allowed the system to race ahead of our ability to protect it," the report says.

In particular, the report homes in on the Federal Reserve for its "pivotal failure to stem the flow of toxic mortgages" by not demanding more prudent mortgage-lending standards.

"The Federal Reserve was the one entity empowered to do so, and it did not," the report states.

Read more here

Johanns Bill To Repeal 1099 Provision Reaches 60 Co-Sponsors

A bipartisan bill in the Senate that would repeal the unpopular 1099 provision in the healthcare law garnered 60 co-sponsors on Thursday, giving the legislation its best chance at passage so far.

Lawmakers have quickly signed onto the measure that would eliminate the requirement that businesses must file the forms to the IRS for every vendor with whom they have at least $600 in transactions since Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Mike Johanns (R-Neb.) introduced the bill on Tuesday.

"Today we hit the magic number 60 and I feel great about that," Johanns told The Hill on Thursday.

He credited President Obama's backing of the repeal combined with lawmakers learning about this issue for his bill's fast popularity in the 112th Congress.

"We can start right now by correcting a flaw in the legislation that has placed an unnecessary bookkeeping burden on small businesses," Obama said in his State of the Union address on Tuesday.

More here

Hawaii Bill Would Charge $100 For Obama Birth Info

Hawaii's government would charge $100 for a copy of President Barack Obama's birth records under a bill introduced in the state Legislature by five Democrats. The bill would change a privacy law barring the release of birth records unless the requester is someone with a tangible interest, such as a close family member or a court.

The measure hasn't been scheduled for a public hearing, a required step before it can move forward. A decision on considering the bill will be made by the House's Democratic leadership and committee chairmen.

The idea behind the measure is to end skepticism over Obama's birthplace while raising a little money for a government with a projected budget deficit exceeding $800 million over the next two years.

"If it passes, it will calm the birthers down," said the bill's primary sponsor, Rep. Rida Cabanilla. "All these people are still doubting it because they don't want the birth certificate from Obama. They want it from our state office."

Read more

Posts Every 5 Minutes Until Noon

Once again, (today) we are providing Posts every 5 minutes from 8 AM to 12 PM. There's a lot going on out there, stories from around the world we felt you'd be interested in.

Radical Muslims Murdering Christians

By Peter Hoekstra

I met her in a small church in Turkmenistan. She was frightened and thought she was being followed. I met another in the slums of Cairo who was engaged in phenomenal work to educate poor children.

I wanted to visit others in Iraq but the U.S. military couldn’t guarantee my safety. It was just too risky. These people had one thing in common: They were all non-Muslims living in Muslim lands who were afraid for their personal safety. They are Coptic Christians, Chaldean Christians, Jews, and other minority religions living in fear because violent Islamic fundamentalists have declared war on them throughout the Middle East.

This focused effort by radical Islamists against religious minorities, specifically Christians, is real. The evidence is overwhelming. International Christian Concern, a human rights organization, recently released its “Hall of Shame” on global persecution of religious minorities and identified Islamic fundamentalists as the No. 1 persecutor of Christians, besting other notorious oppressors such as China, North Korea, and Cuba.

Egypt and Iraq were recently added to the list of countries with the highest levels of persecution joining countries like Iran, Pakistan, and Nigeria. Islamic majority countries are not only quickly moving up the list, they have begun to dominate it.

In late October, violent Islamic extremists brutally murdered more than 50 people inside a cathedral in Baghdad.

The following day, al-Qaida declared Christians throughout the Middle East to be legitimate targets of the Mujahedeen. On New Year’s Day in Alexandria, Egypt, 23 people were killed outside a Coptic church.

Shortly thereafter, the Shumukh-al-Islam al-Qaida website published pictures, names, and addresses of Coptic churches around the world.

On Christmas Eve, dozens were killed and more than 100 injured in an attack on Christians in Nigeria. On Jan. 4, 2011, Salman Taseer, the governor of Pakistan’s Punjab province, was brutally murdered by a bodyguard. His offense? He dared to speak out against Pakistan’s blasphemy laws that are being used to persecute minority religions in Pakistan.

The trend is clear and frightening.

Where is the international outrage? The Western news media could not contain itself over supposed bias against U.S. Muslims last fall due to popular opposition to the building of the ground zero mosque in Manhattan.

Read more on Newsmax.com

Recall Elections Are Hot In Local Politics

More mayors across America are finding their stays in office threatened as growing anti-tax and anti-government sentiment spurs an increase in recall elections,  The New York Times reports. While most of these mid-term removal campaigns fall short, they are becoming a more common feature of municipal politics.

“There seems to be a recall fever going on in this country,” said Tom Cochran of the United States Conference of Mayors.

With few votes left to count this week, Jim Suttle, the Democratic mayor of Omaha, Neb., appears to have narrowly survived a recall drive that arose after he raised local taxes. A tax hike recently cost the mayor of Livingston, Calif., his job when residents voted overwhelmingly to fire him in the middle of his first term.

Newsmax

Pence Won't Run For President, Mum On Governor

U.S. Rep. Mike Pence, a former talk show host and one of the more outspoken conservatives in Congress, said Thursday he won't seek the Republican nomination for president in 2012 because he wants to focus on issues "closer to home" — a message some supporters are interpreting as his clearest sign yet that he'll run for Indiana governor.

While Pence stopped short of announcing his candidacy for the state's top job, many in political circles have assumed he is mulling it since he stepped down last year from his House leadership position. The 51-year-old Pence made multiple trips to states that host early presidential primary contests, fueling some speculation he might seek the White House instead.

"We have been especially humbled by the confidence and support of those who believe we should pursue the presidency, but after much deliberation and prayer, we believe our calling is closer to home," Pence said in a letter to supporters. "In the choice between seeking national office and serving Indiana in some capacity, we choose Indiana. We will not seek the Republican nomination for president in 2012."

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The Global Revolution Is Accelerating - Mike Krieger Explains

Terrorism is the best political weapon for nothing drives people harder than a fear of sudden death.- Adolf Hitler

 

Sometime around the year 2005, perhaps a few years before or after, America will enter the Fourth Turning. A spark will ignite a new mood. It will catalyze a Crisis. In retrospect, the spark might seem as ominous as a financial crash, as ordinary as a national election, or as trivial as a Tea Party. It could be a rapid succession of small events in which the ominous, the ordinary, and the trivial are commingled.

 

Remnants of the old social order will disintegrate. Political and economic trust will implode. Real hardship will beset the land, with severe distress that could involve questions of class, race, nation and empire. The very survival of the nation will feel at stake. Sometime before the year 2025, America will pass through a great gate in history, commensurate with the American Revolution, Civil War, and twin emergencies of the Great Depression
-  Strauss & Howe in “The Fourth Turning” written in 1997

 

All people who try to get elected to government are in love with government, it’s just that the Democrats are in love with one kind of government and the Republicans are in love with another kind of government, and government is going to continue to grow until there is revulsion for government.
-  Jared Dillian (he puts out a great daily piece I would look into it at http://www.dailydirtnap.com/ [1]/)

The Global Revolution:  Welcome to Phase Two
When first I mentioned the food riots in Tunisia and Algeria in my note two weeks ago the former authoritarian leader Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali had yet to flee to Saudi Arabia with much of his nation’s gold.  What I find so amazing about this whole situation is why someone in their right mind would take the time to take some shiny little element that is in a bubble and that you can’t eat in the chaos surrounding one’s escape to another nation.  Surely he has hidden foreign bank accounts and since gold is just another “fiat” currency according to a Wall Street strategist, why bother?  He must be some right-wing radical that likes the Constitution and is therefore anti-American.  Isn’t that right Mr. Potok?

So back to the food situation.  When I say that we are in Phase Two I am actually not referring to the simple fact that a leader with a 23 year rule under his belt was deposed in weeks seemingly out of nowhere, I am referring to the actions that are being taken and will be taken all over the world in response.  As I have said time and time again, government’s today throughout the world could care less about their citizens.  When they show signs of caring it is merely to satiate the people back to sleep so that they can stay in control.  The leaders of governments throughout the world today consist of the worst humanity has to offer.  The most egomaniacal, narcissistic specimens on the planet (with some exceptions of course, Ron Paul for one).  They care about power and maintaining it.  So what does this have to do with food?  A lot.  I have stated in the past that we are in revolutionary times.  The system that has existed for most of our lives (all of my life) is crumbling under its own weight of insanity, immorality and fraud.  The last ditch effort by the global elites has been to flood the world with money and make sure nothing they are invested in ever fails or defaults.  This bought them a little time and their hope was that rising asset prices would boost confidence and lead to a recovery that could maybe keep this scam monetary system running for another decade or two.  The problem with this strategy is that we are in the Fourth Turning.  My generation is coming into its own and we don’t buy the bull shit of our parents’ generation.  We don’t believe in Democrat or Republican.  We don’t believe in the system itself.  We will be the ones making the decisions going forward.  We will default on the astronomic promises our parents made to themselves.  We will create an entirely new monetary and financial system.  Real free-market capitalism will flourish, not this socialism for the rich garbage Obama loves so much.   We will focus on doing good while doing well.  Not because the government forces us to, rather because we are witness to and victims of this sick, twisted creation of our parents generation that celebrates total greed without the slightest concern of the consequences to others.

GO HERE to read more.

The Big Squeeze - Predicting The Effects Of Savings Extortion And Abuse Of The Middle Class

Submitted by Charles Hugh Smith from Of Two Minds [1]

The Big Squeeze - Predicting The Effects Of Savings Extortion And Abuse Of The Middle Class
I am pleased to present a uniquely clear-sighted three-part series by frequent contributor Zeus Y. on the consequences of our corrupt financial-political Status Quo being exploited by a rapacious Financial Elite.

Part I: Oligarchy Becomes Anarchy Introduction

By now it should be clear even to the most optimistic observer that the global financial system has given itself over to systemic lawlessness
. Once international banks were effectively allowed to print their own money in an unregulated “shadow” system and have it redeemed full value by national taxpayers, the charade was over. The only thing left, at this point, given the full cooperation of governments and an eerie world-wide non-enforcement of law, is for banks, like a cancer to savage and consume every concrete store of non-counterfeit productivity and asset value.

Not only have governments from China to the United States committed themselves to a chess game meant to eke out relative advantages on a sinking ship, but they have positively rewarded those who are speeding the collapse. A simple, cannibalistic economic rule now persists until a new system emerges: Economic manipulation, destruction, and extortion are simply more profitable, far more profitable, than good old fashion value creation. Disaster capitalism will be pursued full force.

Whether a country is communist or capitalist, authoritarian or marginally democratic, no longer matters. Citizens globally have been made to be the pawns and patsies of a universal financial Ponzi scheme that can only end in carnage. Who cares if this insures debt peonage for the world and likely mass austerity, suffering, and shortages. There’s a buck to be made! Who cares if my own children will be choking on the garbage I spewed into the financial air and water system. I’m rich!

When morality, reason, and sovereignty collapse together, we are left with outright anarchy, in everything but name. This is a reality so uncomfortable that hundreds of trillions dollars more of citizen retirement savings and other assets are likely to be tragically liquidated trying to regain stability and finance the “lean times” in the hopes of the promised upturn.
GO HERE to read more.

Lawmaker Says Race Played Role In GOP's 2010 Wins

WASHINGTON (AP) - Democratic Rep. Jim Moran of Virginia is saying his party's November election losses were partly due to voter antagonism toward a black president.

Moran, a 20-year House veteran, made the remarks Tuesday to the Arab television network Alhurra (ahl-HUR'-ruh) after President Barack Obama's State of the Union address.

Referring to widespread Republican wins in congressional and state contests, Moran said "a lot of people in this country, I believe, don't want to be governed by an African-American." He said that was particularly true of a liberal president
.
As some groups criticized the remarks, Moran's spokeswoman Anne Hughes issued a statement defending him, saying it's no secret the U.S. "continues to struggle with racial equality." She says Moran thinks it's better to discuss than to ignore such issues.

Source

30,000 Local Felony Warrants Have Not Been Issued

WASHINGTON - More than 30,000 wanted felons are allowed to walk the streets due to regional police departments' backlog in serving warrants, which in some cases are so old they can not longer be prosecuted.
 
There are more than 1,700 open felony warrants in Montgomery County, more than 2,200 in Fairfax County, almost 400 in D.C. and more than 26,000 in Prince George's County.
 
Many of these warrants are for felony murder, with about 100 open in Prince George's County and 30 in Montgomery County.
 
Prince George's County Sheriff Melvin High says it's important to put these numbers in perspective.
 
"If you look at the numbers alone, it's frightening," High says. "We probably have less than 200 people who pose a risk to public safety and those are our top priority."
 
High says he knows the location of a majority of the 100 people wanted for murder.

GO HERE to read more.

The 8 Least Evil Banks In America

Banks that aren't evil? Really? CNN Money rounded up eight American banks that might not be consumer paradises, but offer free checking, no ATM fees, and comparatively high interest rates for savings accounts.

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Cancer Patient Loses Health Insurance Over $.02 Error

The wife of a Vietnam War vet with multiple myeloma accidentally typed a "7" instead a "9" when she made a payment to Ceridian, the company that administers his COBRA benefits, meaning the $328.69 payment was short by two cents. And as the couple learned, being .006% in arrears is enough to have one's health coverage canceled.

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Taco Bell Releases New Statement On Class Action: We're 88% Beef!

Earlier this week a class action lawsuit was filed against Taco Bell, alleging that their beef is actually only 36% meat and the rest is "extenders" and other non-meat substances. Taco Bell's President and Chief Concept Officer Greg Creed has released a new and more in-depth statement that goes into detail about the percentage of ingredients in the recipe, like how it contains 88% USDA-inspected quality beef.

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Mom Jailed For Falsifying Address To Send Kids To Better School District

An Ohio mom has been convicted and sent to jail for lying about her address so she could send her daughters to a better neighboring school district. School officials said she was cheating the system by having her daughters receive an education she hadn't paid the taxes for. "Those dollars need to stay home with our students," said school officials. To snare her, the school hired a private investigator, who videotaped her driving the children into the district.

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Congressman Dennis Kucinich Sues Capitol Cafeteria After Being Attacked By Rogue Olive Pit

It's not just ordinary citizens who file big-ticket lawsuits against eateries. Ohio congressman and occasional presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich is suing a cafeteria in the Capitol Complex for $150,000 after a particularly harrowing run-in with an olive pit.

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What To Do When An Employer Goofs Up Your Tax Form

Although it's tempting to duck and cover to protect yourself from the onslaught of tax forms filling up your mailbox these days, it's a good idea to examine the numbers on your W2s and 1099s to ensure they're accurate. If an employer or bank screws up and reports it gave you more money than it really did and you don't notice, you're on the hook for the extra taxes.

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Guess What? Letting Corps. Make Anonymous Unfettered Political Donations Quadrupled Contributions!

A year ago, the Supreme Court ruled that corporations could not be banned from political spending during elections through either independent expenditures from corporations' general funds or "electioneering communications," i.e. political ads. Detractors cried out that it would let loose a flood of corporate cash into elections, and they were right. A new Public Citizen report shows that outside groups quadrupled their contributions during the last mid-term election from the previous, and we will never know exactly where a good deal of the money came from.

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Synthetic Hydrogen Fuel For $1.50 a Gallon?

Multisource political news, world news, and entertainment news analysis by Newsy.com

The latest innovation is a synthetic hydrogen fuel from a British company which promises to produce it in mass for just $1.50 a gallon.

Radio Interview Fuels Obama Birth Certificate Fire

Multisource political news, world news, and entertainment news analysis by Newsy.com

Journalist Mike Evans claims he misspoke during a radio interview, in which he claimed there were no records of President Obama's birth certificate.

New Documents Show Hedge Fund Magnetar Influenced Deal, Despite Denials

A Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission document shows the hedge fund Magnetar selected hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of assets that went into a billion dollar Merrill Lynch mortgage securities deal, despite having long asserted otherwise.

As we reported last year, Magnetar helped Wall Street investment banks create at least $40 billion worth of mortgage securities deals known as collateralized debt obligations, or CDOs. The hedge fund also bet against many of those CDOs as part of an investment strategy that paid off handsomely when the housing market crashed and those CDOs collapsed. (Our story was done in collaboration with NPR's Planet Money and Chicago Public Radio's This American Life.)

GO HERE to read more.

Govt's Loan Mod Program Crippled By Lax Oversight And Deference To Banks

The Obama administration’s $75 billion foreclosure prevention program has been weakened, perhaps fatally, by a posture of cooperation—rather than enforcement—with the nation’s biggest banks.
GO HERE to read more.

Texas Bank Robber

A hooded robber burst into a Texas bank and forced the tellers to load a sack full of cash. On his way out the door, a brave Texas customer grabbed the hood and pulled it off revealing the robber's face. The robber shot the customer without a moment's hesitation.
 
He then looked around the bank and noticed one of the tellers looking straight at him. The robber instantly shot him also. Everyone else, by now very scared, looked intently down at the floor in silence.

The robber yelled, 'Well, did anyone else see my face?'

There are a few moments of utter silence in which everyone was plainly afraid to speak. Then, one old cowboy tentatively raised his hand, and while keeping his head down said, 'My wife got a pretty good look at you.'

Australia's Katrina Moment

When you fly over the earth's oldest land mass, Australia, the view can be shocking. Scars as long as European countries are the result of erosion. Salt pans shimmer where native vegetation once grew. This change is almost impossible to reverse. The first species to die are those that are most vulnerable.

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, Australia's devastation of its natural environment has caused more mammal extinction than in any other country. The iconic koala is used to attract tourists; the queen and Oprah Winfrey are photographed cuddling one, unaware that this unique creature has enriched the state of Queensland for decades with its industrial slaughter and the sale of its skin to Britain and America. Today, the belatedly "protected" koala is not threatened by flood or drought, but by rapacious land clearing, of which Queensland is the national champion. Each year, according to the World Wildlife Fund for Nature, the state effectively destroys 100 million birds, mammals and reptiles.

The land is "cleared" by fire or machinery, often with a heavy chain tied between two bulldozers. The technique was developed by Queensland's most notorious land-clearer, the late Sir Johannes Bjelke-Petersen, the conservative state premier for 19 years, whose self-awarded knighthood was given for "services to parliamentary democracy" such as winning gerrymandered elections with 20 percent of the votes. In 1992, a defamation jury found that Bjelke-Petersen had been bribed "on a large scale and on many occasions." Two of his ministers and his police commissioner were jailed for corruption. Lucrative land became a prize for cronies known as the "white shoe brigade." Brown envelopes of cash were handed over at a five-star hotel recently lapped by floodwaters in the centre of Brisbane.

GO HERE to read more.

Chase Bank Overcharged Troops For Mortgages

A Marine who refused to roll over when mortgage giant JP Morgan-Chase imposed too high an interest rate on his loan and repeatedly pressed him for payments he'd already made has won a victory for thousands of military families including his own.
Chase says it will pay more than $2 million to about 4,000 servicemember mortgage holders that were overcharged in interest while they were on active duty. The bank's decision is linked to a five-year legal battle with Marine Capt. Jonathan Rowles, an F/A-18D weapons system officer who sued after the institution continued to charge him 9 or 10 percent interest on his mortgage -- a violation of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act -- and threatened to take his home. Under the SCRA, troops may have their mortgage rates lowered to 6 percent and are protected from foreclosure.
Rowles sought those legal protections beginning in 2006 after he went on active duty and found the bank was charging him the original, higher interest rate. He thought it was resolved, but later the bank continued to calculate Rowles' mortgage payment on the higher rate, according to various media reports.
Then Chase began hounding him for what it said was unpaid balances, according to an NBC report.
"Saturday, Sundays, middle of the night. It did not matter if it was a holiday," Julia Rowles told the network. "Collection calls at 3 in the morning. He would state, ‘I'm in California. I'm stationed here in Miramar. It's 3 in the morning. What are you doing calling me?' ‘Well, sir, this is an attempt to collect a debt.'"
The bank told the family it would foreclose on the house if the payments were not made. At that point Rowles got a lawyer and filed suit against JP Morgan-Chase on behalf of himself and other military families.
Rowles' attorney, Dick Harpootlian, told NBC: "They ought to only have to worry about fighting the fight and keeping alive, not about whether their wives and children and going to be put out on the street.
Chase now acknowledges that it was wrong. Not only on the Rowles' mortgage but on thousands more, including those of about 14 families it did foreclose on. The bank says it is now putting those families back in their homes.
More.

Man Breaks Into Bank, Tries To Steal Fake Money

PRINCESS ANNE, Md. (AP) -- Princess Anne police have arrested a man they say broke into a bank and tried to steal fake money.

Police Chief Scott Keller says a motion detector alarm went off in the PNC Bank on Somerset Avenue Tuesday about 11 p.m. Officers saw broken glass at the drive-up window.

Keller says officers found a man inside the bank, taking fake bills that are used for bank training. Keller says the suspect though the bills were real money.

Twenty-five-year-old George Ballard of Princess Anne has been charged with burglary.

Source

Westminster Man, 32, Suffers Cardiac Arrest, Dies After Shoveling Snow

Sheriff's Office says passersby, and deputy, attempted CPR

The Carroll County Sheriff's Office is reporting that just after 10 a.m. Thursday morning, a Westminster man suffered cardiac arrest and died, reportedly after shoveling snow.

The Sheriff's Office said that Deputy First Class John Iannone was notified by a citizen that a person had collapsed in the 1200 block of Cherrytown Road, Westminster, and was not breathing. 

Iannone responded and noted two passing motorists had stopped and were performing CPR on the man, who was lying in a driveway. 

The man, later identified as Michael Harmony, 32, of the 1200 block Cherrytown Road, was in cardiac and respiratory arrest, according to the Sheriff's Office report.  He was observed an hour earlier by his father in the driveway of their residence shoveling snow, officers said..

GO HERE to read more.

You Can Leave The Military, But It Never Really Leaves You

By Ken Burger, The Charlestown Post and Courier, Thurs, March 4, 2010

Occasionally, I venture back out to the air base where I'm greeted by an imposing security guard who looks carefully at my identification card, hands it back and says, "Have a good day, tech sergeant." Every time I go back onto Charleston Air Force Base it feels good to be called by my previous rank, but odd to be in civilian clothes, walking among the servicemen and servicewomen going about their duties as I once did, years ago.

The military, for all its flaws, is a comfort zone for anyone who has ever worn the uniform. It's a place where you know the rules and know they are enforced; a place where everybody is busy but not too busy to take care of business. Because there exists behind the gates of every military facility an institutional understanding of respect, order, uniformity, accountability and dedication that becomes part of your marrow and never, ever leaves you.

Personally, I miss the fact that you always knew where you stood in the military, and who you were dealing with. That's because you could read somebody's uniform from 20 feet away and know the score. Service personnel wear their careers on their sleeves, so to speak. When you approach each other, you can read their name tag, examine their rank and, if they are in dress uniform, read their ribbons and know where they've served.

I miss all those little things you take for granted when you're in the ranks, like breaking starch on a set of fatigues fresh from the laundry and standing in a perfectly straight line that looks like a mirror as it stretches to the endless horizon. I miss the sight of troops marching in the early morning mist, the sound of boot heels thumping in unison on the sidewalks, the bark of sergeants and the sing-song answers from the squads as they pass by in review.

To romanticize military service is to be far removed from its reality, because it's very serious business, especially in times of war. But I miss the salutes I'd throw at officers and the crisp returns as we crisscrossed on the flight line. I miss the smell of jet fuel hanging heavily on the night air and the sound of engines roaring down runways and disappearing into the clouds. I even miss the hurry-up-and- wait mentality that enlisted men gripe about constantly, a masterful invention that bonded people more than they'll ever know or admit.

I miss people taking off their hats when they enter a building, speaking directly and clearly to others and never showing disrespect for rank, race, religion or gender. Mostly I miss being a small cog in a machine so complex it constantly circumnavigates the Earth and so simple it feeds everyone on time, three times a day, on the ground, in the air or at sea. Mostly, I don't know anyone who has served who regrets it, and doesn't feel a sense of pride when they pass through those gates and re-enter the world they left behind with their youth.

Face it guys [and gals], we all miss it. Whether you had one tour or a career, it shaped your life.

One Nation Under GOD.