This is not an Onion story, this is for real! Former Vice President Dick Cheney says he once feared that terrorists could use the electrical device that had been implanted near his heart to kill him and had his doctor disable its wireless function.
Cheney has a history of heart trouble, suffering the first of five heart attacks at age 37. He underwent a heart transplant last year at age 71.
In an interview with CBS’ ”60 Minutes,” Cheney says doctors replaced an implanted defibrillator near his heart in 2007. The device can detect irregular heartbeats and control them with electrical jolts.
Cheney says that he and his doctor, cardiologist Jonathan Reiner, turned off the device’s wireless function in case a terrorist tried to send his heart a fatal shock.
Jay Z’s most mentioned brand is Mercedes Benz, though he also holds a candle for Lexuses, Maybachs, BMWs, Bentleys, Range Rovers, and Porsches (in that order). In terms of designer labels, his change in taste over the years is apparent: His love of Gucci remains restrained but consistent, he was forced to take a hiatus from Versace during its shaky early-aught designs, and his new favorite designer—mentioned for the first time, nine times on his latest album—is Tom Ford. Also, in case you are one of the many people who enjoy Jay Z’s music but are unfamiliar with the 9-mm handgun market, Glock and Kel-Tec are gun brands.
Most obvious is Jay Z’s love-hate relationship with luxury champagne brand Cristal. The beverage is practically worshipped in most of his songs up until Cristal’s infamous snub to the hip-hop community in 2006. From then on the rapper name-dropped the bubbly only to remind us it’s “racist.”
But enough from us—take a look for yourself. Below, the luxury-filled life of Jay Z, charted.
Politico Reports: Republican donors were horrified in November after pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into campaigns for president and Congress with nothing to show for it. A year later they’re appalled by how little has changed, angered by the behavior of Republican lawmakers during a string of legislative battles this year capped by the shutdown, and searching for answers.
In conversation after conversation, donors express growing frustration with the party and the constellation of outside groups they’ve been bankrolling. After getting squeezed last year by an array of campaign committees, party committees and disparate super PACs, many of them are still sitting on their checkbooks — a worrisome sign for the party with the 2014 midterm elections fast approaching.
Some donors are looking to take matters into their own hands.
New York City GOP mega-bundler Paul Singer has held a series of informal, and a few very formal, discussions in recent months with other extremely wealthy donors about how best to spend their cash in 2014, including debating the idea of forming a new entity to play a serious role in the midterm races. Its focus would be on improving the quality of Republican candidates in the hopes of avoiding more Todd Akin-like candidates who blow eminently winnable races.
“He wants to win,” one donor who attended a session said of Singer. The donor stressed that the hedge fund billionaire’s meetings, like other informal gatherings among the monied class this year, were taking place well prior to the government shutdown.
Still, some donors think the reluctance about giving among their ranks may have reached an inflection point over the way a number of Republicans in Washington acquitted themselves the past few weeks.
Donors and business leaders, whose words used to carry great weight with candidates ever worried that the money spigot might be turned off, now face a new reality. It’s a Frankenstein syndrome of sorts, in which the candidates they’ve helped fund, directly or indirectly, don’t fear them, and don’t think they need them.
Many business leaders are exasperated by their diminished influence among congressional Republicans since the 2012 election, and by the rising clout of groups like the Senate Conservative Fund, which have run ads against incumbent Republican senators for not taking enough of a hard line on the shutdown.
Where there is agreement — as is the case with donors who believe the Republican National Committee should be shored up — there is also dissatisfaction with the slow pace of progress.
At issue is not just the shutdown, but legislative battles earlier this year, such as the stymied attempt at immigration reform. Several Republican donors said watching that effort run into headwinds among conservative House members, combined with the tortured standoff over the government shutdown and potential debt default, had left a sour taste in their mouths.
“Come to the flashing lights Avonte.” ~ Vanessa Fontaine, Avonte’s mother
Fourteen year old Avonte Oquendo, a severely autistic teen from New York City, has been missing for two weeks. He doesn’t speak and has trouble performing many basic tasks on his own according to his mother, Vanessa Fontaine’
He was last seen on school video cameras at the Center Boulevard School in the Long Island City section of Queens by a school safety agent on duty at the front door. The videotape shows Avonte walking down the hall, and exiting the school through a side door.
Avonte has an affinity for trains so subway tunnels to train yards are being scoured by police and volunteer search teams.
A van from Citywide Disaster Services, using a recording of Avonte’s mother’s voice, tours the Queens neighborhood near where Avonte disappeared.
Police have also elicited the help infra-red cameras that detect heat signatures of live bodies, multi language missing posters and even psychics to locate the teenager. A $70, 000 award is being offered for Avonte’s safe return to his family, who are frantic.
Recently the teen’s family has indicated that they may file a lawsuit against the city, angered over the fact that Avonte, who needs constant supervision, was able to just walk out of the school without an aide. The school waited an hour before notifying police and his parents that he was missing according to interviews.
New York’s police commissioner James Kelly, however, says the school safety officer, who was the last person to see the boy did nothing wrong.
“We have spoken to the school safety agent who was on duty at the front door. We looked at the video tape. She directs the young man to go back upstairs [when] he’s just at the front door. He goes down the hall and actually exits the building from a side door. You see nothing after this juncture that shows the conduct of the school safety agent was inappropriate or there was any misconduct involved.” says Kelly.
Really. Ms. Fontaine’s attorney, David Perecman, questioned why a side door would even be unlocked and unguarded in a school with autistic students. He also questioned whether it was sufficient for the guard to simply tell Avonte to return to his class, or should he have followed to make certain he did. Or at least contact someone else to have done so.
“They dropped the ball; there’s no other way to put it,” Daniel Oquendo Sr., Avonte’s father, told the New York Daily News. “He was seen, but nobody did anything!”
One thing’s for sure, either Avonte’s family has some pull, or — and not to devalue in any way the importance of the safe return of that boy to his mother — the commissioner is envisioning the possible repercussions of a lawsuit. Many in black neighborhoods have repeatedly complained that less effort and media attention are given to missing black children, than white ones. There have also been calls for more and better security to be provided in city schools. In response, The New York City Police Department is pulling out all the stops to find Avonte. Mr. Kelly said Wednesday;
“We’re using a significant amount of resources to look for this young man,”
And the police department has devoted a significant number of officers to the search and has deployed water and air search teams to aid in the effort.
A psychic’s tip sent police to search a tunnel in the East Village section of Manhattan, but there was no sign of Avonte.
The family told CBS New York that they believe Avonte is alive. I hope so.
Avonte was last seen wearing a gray striped shirt, black jeans and black sneakers, police said. He is 5 foot 3 inches tall and weighs 125 pounds.
Anyone with information is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 800-577-TIPS. You can also submit tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website at www.nypdcrimestoppers.com.
Cue the predictable Tea Party reactions of “What’s the big deal?” “Kids will be kids” “lower the drinkin’ age” “FREEEEEEDOM!!!!” in 3… 2… 1…
Kentucky authorities say they have cited U.S. Sen. Rand Paul’s 20-year-old son on alcohol possession by a minor at a Kentucky racetrack.
Kentucky Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control spokesman Dick Brown says agents cited William Hilton Paul on Friday during a “targeted enforcement detail” at Keeneland in Lexington. Brown told the Lexington Herald-Leader that William Paul can pay a $25 fine and court costs in advance or appear in court Nov. 15 to answer the citation. Paul is a full-time student at the University of Kentucky,
William Paul also faced alcohol-related charges in North Carolina this year, but they were dismissed in a deferred prosecution program.
Rand Paul spokeswoman Moira Bagley had no comment on the latest citation.
Law enforcement officials are investigating a threat against Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who was vaulted into national prominence with his push to defund ObamaCare.
A person identifying himself as Troy Gilmore Jr., posted on Twitter Friday morning: “Take down Ted Cruz, at his home” and listed Cruz’s home address in Houston.
“What goes around comes around CRUZ!!” the person wrote.
The author of the threat uses the Twitter handle @ArmyVet54 and identifies himself as having served in the U.S. Army and Navy.
Sean Rushton, Cruz’s spokesman, said, “We’re aware of it and have alerted the proper authorities.”
“I can’t comment further on security matters,” he said.
At about 5:30 pm on Friday, @ArmyVet54 posted another apparent threat, urging that Cruz “needs tobe [sic] taught a street wise [sic] lesson”.
The person posted Cruz’s home address several other times this month and repeatedly used threatening language.
The apparent threats are not directed at any audience in particular because @ArmyVet54 does not have any Twitter followers. But a search of Cruz’s name on Twitter can find them.
The Capitol Police takes all threats to members of Congress seriously.
“We are looking into that matter,” said Officer Shennell Antrobus, a spokesman for the Capitol Police.
We use cookies to improve your experience on our site. By agreeing to this, we can analyze browsing behavior and unique IDs on this site. Declining or revoking consent may affect certain features.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
