Year: 2014

Categories
Politics shooting

And Now This – Man Guns Down 15 Year Old Girl in Arkensas

Adrian Broadway

An Arkansas man is facing first degree murder charges after he allegedly shot a 15-year-old girl to death over the weekend because she was participating in a prank on his 16-year-old son.

Shortly before 1:00 a.m. on Saturday morning, Little Rock Police responded to the Kum & Go gas station after a call about a shooting, according to KARK. Officers found a white Hyundai Sonata with bullet holes, broken glass, and four teens between the ages of 14 and 18.

A 15-year-old girl who was inside the car was identified as Adrian Broadway. She later died from a gunshot wound after being taken to nearby hospital. The car’s 18-year-old driver, Dshone Nelson, suffered minor injuries from broken glass.

The surviving teen victims reportedly told police that they had attempted to prank 48-year-old Willie Noble’s son by covering his car in eggs and leaves, KTHV reported.

Willie Noble

“Apparently Mr. Noble’s teenage son had done a prank on some of the kids that were inside the vehicle on Halloween Night,” Lieutenant Sidney Allen explained. “As a result they were doing a retaliation prank and it ultimately had deadly results.”

After the shooting, the driver attempted to flee the scene to get help.

“It was a joke. We was friends, we was gonna come over there and clean it up,” 16-year-old Kortazha Williams, who was in the car, told KTHV. “It was supposed to be a prank; we were supposed to get up right now, and we were supposed to laugh.”

Adrian Broadway’s family and friends gathered at for a candlelight vigil on Sunday night at Benny Craig Park.

Noble was charged first degree murder, committing a terrorist act, and five counts of aggravated assault.

Categories
Politics

Republicans Will Not Implement Big Policies This Year

As if they have implemented big policies before in recent memory.

After a tumultuous week of party infighting and leadership stumbles, congressional Republicans are focused on calming their divided ranks in the months ahead, mostly by touting proposals that have wide backing within the GOP and shelving any big-ticket legislation for the rest of the year.

Comprehensive immigration reform, tax reform, tweaks to the federal health-care law — bipartisan deals on each are probably dead in the water for the rest of this Congress.

“We don’t have 218 votes in the House for the big issues, so what else are we going to do?” said Rep. Devin Nunes (Calif.), an ally of House Speaker John A. Boehner (Ohio). “We can do a few things on immigration and work on our principles, but in terms of real legislating, we’re unable to get in a good negotiating position.”

Added Frank Luntz, a Republican pollster who works closely with party leaders: “It is an acknowledgment of where they stand, where nothing can happen in divided government so we may essentially have the status quo. Significant immigration reform and fundamental tax reform are probably not going to happen.”

Categories
Mitch McConnell Politics Texas

Republican Ad – Mitch McConnell “Looks and Fight Like a Turtle” – Video

What has the world come to when Republicans running for Congress compare their fearless leader in the Senate to a turtle? I’d say things are moving along just as plan, but, what do I know?

This Republican from Texas is mounting a challenge against Senate Republican Whip John Cornyn. His name is Dwyane Stovall and in an ad attacking Cornyn, Stovall also mentioned the man who would be his boss if he is successful in defeating Cornyn – Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. In a Texas county’s Tea Party Straw Poll, Stovall is presently leading Cornyn by a huge margin for the seat.

Now, this statement is usually made by a number of liberal comedians, but hearing Stovall compare Mitch McConnell to a turtle brings a warmth the heart.

It’s cold outside. Here’s a heart-warmer.

Categories
News

A Near Hit – Massive Asteroid Goes By Earth Tonight

An asteroid with an estimated diameter of three football fields is expected to zoom by Earth late Monday, missing our home by about that distance.

It’ll travel at some 27,000 miles per hour and make its closest approach starting at 9 p.m. ET.

Folks can watch the flyby on Slooh.com, which tracks potentially hazardous objects.

The asteroid comes just about a year after a relatively small asteroid blew up over Russia. The roughly 60-foot space rock plunged into Earth’s atmosphere and exploded over the city of Chelyabinsk with the force of about 30 early nuclear bombs.

The blast left more than 1,500 injured, mostly by glass from shattered windows, and raised concerns about humanity’s vulnerability to stray asteroids.

“On a practical level, a previously unknown, undiscovered asteroid seems to hit our planet and cause damage or injury once a century or so, as we witnessed on June 20, 1908, and February 15, 2013,” said Bob Berman, Slooh host and astronomer.

He added: “Every few centuries, an even more massive asteroid strikes us — fortunately usually impacting in an ocean or wasteland such as Antarctica.

“But the ongoing threat, and the fact that biosphere-altering events remain a real if small annual possibility, suggests that discovering and tracking all NEOs (near-Earth objects), as well as setting up contingency plans for deflecting them on short notice should the need arise, would be a wise use of resources

Categories
pat robertson Politics transsexual

Pat Robertson Advised Caller Not to Tell Wife about Past Transsexual Relationship

A caller had a problem and needed to talk to someone. He chose Pat Robertson and explained his problem when he was forwarded through to the man with all the answers.

“Before I met my wife, I fell in love with a beautiful woman and had a relationship for six months. We broke up after she told me she was transsexual.”

“What should I do?”

What should I do. A question from a caller to the Pat Robertson program on the 700 Club. The caller was apparently so bothered by his past deed and needed to know if he should tell his wife.  What would be the advice from the great Pat Robertson?

“What you should do is keep your mouth shut! That’s real simple. You know, all of us did stuff before we were married, but you don’t parade out all your girlfriends or your boyfriends or your sexual encounters or whatever you did. You just don’t do it.”

“You come to Jesus, he had forgiven you. That’s the old life, now you’ve turned the page.”

Categories
Featured

Snake Handling Pastor Killed By… Snake

A “snake-handling preacher” who believed that he was following a Biblical command by picking up snakes has died after being bitten.

Jamie Coots, star of an American reality television show Snake Salvation, which profiled Pentecostal snake-handling pastors, died at his home in Kentucky after refusing to go to hospital.

Coots had been bitten nine times before, losing part of his finger in the process.

“It’s a victory to God’s people that the Lord seen fit to bring me through it,” he said the day after a previous bite, in 1998.

Coots was killed by a rattlesnake, dying less than an hour after he ordered doctors away from his home. Followers of his sect frequently refuse mainstream medical care.

And his church was the site of a previous fatal snake bite in August 1995.

Melinda Brown, 28, from Tennessee, died after she was bitten on the arm by a large rattlesnake.

After her death, police considered charging Coots with violating Kentucky’s law against handling snakes in church, but a judge said Coots should not be prosecuted for practicing his faith. Kentucky banned handing poisonous snakes in religious services in 1940, but serious attempts to enforce the law ended decades ago because of reluctance by authorities to prosecute people for their religious beliefs.

Brown’s husband, John Wayne “Punkin” Brown, 34, later died after being bitten by another rattlesnake in church in Alabama.

Followers of the Pentecostal sect – the majority of whom live in the Appalachian states of Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama and Georgia.

In a practice begun around 1910, they say they are compelled by Scripture, particularly Mark 16:17-18 in the King James Version, to pick up serpents.

In this Gospel account, it reads: “In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.”

Followers of the strict interpretation will adhere to rigid dress codes – ankle-length dresses and uncut hair for women, short hair and long-sleeved shirts for the men – and occasionally drink poisons.

Last year Coots explained how snakes were the cornerstone of his faith.

“We use them in religious ceremonies and I believe as for me, if I don’t have them there to use I’m not obeying the word of God,” Coots said.

He described himself as a third-generation snake handler, and said he hoped to pass the church on to his son, Cody.

Categories
Politics

Jennifer Rubin Claims George Bush is Saving The Economy – Video

So, according to this right winged talking head, Bush and his disastrous policies didn’t contribute to the massive economic crisis we’re now getting out of, Rubin in this Fox News interview actually think and was brave enough to say that Bush saved us from the second great depression.

RUBIN: Well, I think we were, but I don’t think it was the stimulus that did it. The measures taken by President Bush and Chairman Bernanke and our then Treasury Secretary Paulson, which put together a series of banking measures to keep the economy liquid. There’s a very good argument that those measures saved us.

There’s virtually no argument that says that the stimulus worked and frankly the idea that the stimulus would have a lasting impact if counter to the usual Keynesian arguments, which is the impact is right then and there. That was why we were supposed to have a recovery, because you get “shovel ready” jobs. That didn’t work out and now they have a new explanation that they’ll pay off sometime in the future. That’s a new one.

Categories
Politics shooting

Stand Your Ground Responsible for Mistrial in Jordan Davis’ Murder Trial

In failing to acquit or convict Michael Dunn on the most significant charge — the premeditated murder of a teenager in a dispute over loud music — a jury on Saturday may have run headlong into the breadth and reach of Florida’s contentious self-defense law.

In their 30 hours of deliberation, the 12-member panel wrangled with a question that cuts to the heart of all self-defense claims: How does a juror know when using lethal force is justified, where nothing is straightforward, memories are hazy or contradictory and perception counts as much as fact?

Even as the jury agreed to convict Mr. Dunn of attempted murder, it found no consensus on murder.

In the courtroom, Mr. Dunn told the jury he shot Jordan Davis, 17, after the teenager pointed a shotgun at him from the window of a sport utility vehicle, threatened him and then got out of the truck. The two cars were parked side by side in front of a gas station convenience store

But the prosecution said there was no shotgun: No witness saw one, the three teenagers who were in the vehicle with Mr. Davis said they did not have a shotgun, and the police never found one. While Mr. Dunn fired 10 rounds at the teenagers on Nov. 23, 2012, no one ever shot back.

Rather, the prosecution argued, Mr. Dunn shot Mr. Davis because he became enraged after the teenager disregarded his request to turn down the loud rap music blasting from the vehicle and then “mouthed off,” hurling expletives at him. He fabricated a story about the shotgun to bolster his self-defense claim, they added.

But the state failed to persuade everyone on the jury — four white men, four white women, one Hispanic man, two black women and an Asian-American woman — of their version of events. As a result, the judge was forced to declare a mistrial Saturday on the charge of first-degree murder. A new trial on that count is expected to take place later this year.

 

Categories
Education New Jersey News Politics

The Tide’s Coming In But the Cerf’s Out

Christopher Cerf

Anyone who’s been paying attention to New Jersey politics and education should have seen this one coming from a mile away: the resignation of Education Commissioner Christopher Cerf. What makes it even more predictable is that he’s taking a job with his good buddy, and former Education Chancellor of New York City, Joel Klein. Those two might be the only people currently working in education today who are making big time money. There’s a reason for that, and it has nothing to do with improving schools.

Governor Christie is talking a good game about extending the school day and year and is making noise about having public workers contribute more to their pensions and benefits than they are now, but those proposals won’t become law as long as the focus is on Sandy funds and the George Washington Bridge. The same is true of a new Charter Schools bill, vouchers and weakening employee sick day policies. Done. Over. Not going to happen. The new teacher evaluation system is up and running and is working just as poorly as those who know about the teaching profession said it was going to work, so there’s not much more a Commissioner can do. Cerf is smart enough to see this, so it’s goodbye for him. And I can’t really blame him.

My interaction with Commissioner Cerf came last January, and I wrote about it at length here and here. In short, I was not impressed with either his answers to my questions or his attitude towards education. His main point throughout our discussion was that the state Board of Education supported him, and as long as that was the case there wasn’t anything he needed to change. He had little to say about the mechanics of teaching, because he never was a teacher, so the subject was foreign to him, and he seemed to be a completely political animal, which didn’t surprise me. So when the Christie Administration scandals began piling up, I figured he would be one of the first to leave because, really, there isn’t going to be much else to do on education.

Whoever becomes the new chief will essentially be a caretaker for the rest of Christie’s term. They’ll get to oversee the implementation of the Common Core Curriculum Standards and the PARCC tests and all of the mischief that those will bring. The test scores will ruin some teachers’ careers and of course there’s all that Facebook money to spend in Newark, but otherwise, I don’t see the Democrats caving the way they did in 2011. It will be up to the next administration, presumably, OK, hopefully, a Democratic one, to undo some of the damage. By that time, Cerf will be on to a new adventure.

Meanwhile, education professionals will be left to comply with rules that don’t make sense, that don’t contribute to the education of children, that saddle districts with unfunded costs associated with unproven and dangerous policies, and that reflect an attitude that doesn’t trust educators to, you know, educate. That’s hardly a legacy to be proud of.

For more please go to:
www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives and Twitter @rigrundfest  

Categories
Featured teenage

This Teenager Kills Himself After His Favorite Cartoon Character died

Leonid Hmelev, 14, jumped to his death from an apartment block after his favourite TV character died

A 14-year-old boy leapt more than 100ft to his death from the top of an apartment block in Chaikovsky, Russia, after seeing his favourite manga character killed in a cartoon.

Police say Leonid Hmelev died instantly.

The boy was reportedly devastated after seeing the death of the character Itachi Uchiha in the animated movie ‘Naruto – Hurricane Chronicle’.

He left home after posting a message on a social networking site saying he was also ‘planning an ending’.

His worried parents raised the alarm after he did not return home and a search was organised together with neighbours.

After being missing for two days his body was found yesterday and he was identified by his devastated father Ivan, 38.

He said: ‘I always told him he spent too much time watching the TV – he didn’t know what was reality and what was fiction anymore.’

Teenage suicide in Russia is endemic. It has the third-highest teenage suicide rate in the world, just behind its neighbours Belarus and Kazakhstan and more than three times that of the United States. 

On an average day, about five Russians younger than 20 kill themselves.

Popular Naruto character Itachi Uchiha. The teen was distraught when the character died. His father says his son struggled to separate reality from fiction

Psychiatrists and health experts in Russia blame alcohol abuse, domestic violence, rigid rules and high expectations from parents.

Itachi Uchiha is a character in the popular Naruto comics and animated TV series. He is treated as an antagonist for much of the series, but was much-loved by Japanese TV and comic enthusiasts.

Chaikovsky is a town in Perm Krai, Russia. It is named after the composer Tchaikovsky, who was born in nearby Votkinsk.

Read more: DailyMail

Categories
Politics

Another of Chris Christie’s Friends with Ties to Bridge-Gate Scandal

A Port Authority police officer with personal ties to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was at the George Washington Bridge when access lanes were closed last September and personally drove David Wildstein, the Christie appointee who supervised the closings, on a tour of the area as traffic brought it to a standstill.

Documents submitted to a New Jersey legislative committee by Wildstein also show that the officer,  Lieutenant Thomas “Chip” Michaels, appears to have sent periodic text messages to Wildstein updating him on the effects of the lane closures and their crippling impact on the town of Fort Lee. In one message, on the first day of the lane closures, Michaels told Wildstein he might have an idea to “make this better.” It is not clear what he meant

Michaels, who joined the Port Authority Police Department in 1998 according to payroll records, grew up in Christie and Wildstein’s hometown of Livingston, N.J. In recent years, he coached Christie’s son at little league hockey. Michael’s brother, Jeffrey Michaels is among the most powerful Republicans in New Jersey politics – a lobbyist whose practice has soared in value during the Christie years and who has donated heavily to pro-Christie organizations.

Michaels’ presence at the lane closures with Wildstein is an important new detail because it places another person with long-time ties to the governor, this time in the Port Authority Police Department, at the scene witnessing the traffic surge that has since come to engulf Chrstie’s administration in legal inquires.

The revelation is also important because Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich had earlier questioned the Port Authority Police Department’s actions during the closures. In a September 12 letter, Sokolich wrote to Port Authority deputy executive director Bill Baroni, a Christie appointee who has since resigned, that residents had told him that “Port Authority Police Officers are advising commuters in response to their complaints that this recent traffic debacle is the result of a decision that I, as the Mayor, recently made.” There is no evidence that Michaels was one of these officers.

Christie emphatically denies taking part in or having any knowledge of the decision to close the lanes leading onto one of the busiest bridge in the world. He has said he doesn’t know why members of his inner circle would have ordered the lanes closed.

Video at MSNBC

Categories
Health

How to save yourself if you’re choking

Hope you never need this but this video might save your life one day.

Also check out this clever approach to remove a ring from a swollen finger:http://bit.ly/1kLX0Do

h/t – sciencedump
Exit mobile version