From Dermot Cole's blog at the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner;
"Record cold is not in the forecast, but the duration of the cold snap could create problems with mechanical equipment. Forty below is not just the number at which the temperature scales match. It also marks a dividing point, below which certain temperate zone objects refuse to function.
The longer this lasts, the greater the chance that poorly insulated pipes will freeze and that cars will decide to hibernate.
"It appears increasingly likely that an even colder airmass will progress west out of the Yukon and across the Interior Thursday and Friday," the weather service said Monday.
'This will likely send temperatures down to as cold as 60 to 70 below in a few of the normally cold spots in the eastern Interior valleys."
'In urban Fairbanks, temperatures may get as cold as 50 below in town by late in the week and 50 to 60 below in the rural valleys.' "
He says that maybe next year (that would be next week), the temperatures will start to rise. The good news is that next year will arrive as at least one new years celebration is off the cancelation list.
“It’s not going to be as comfortable for the spectators,” said Mike Thomas, sponsor of the annual Sparktacular on the UAF’s West Ridge. “But you know, most of us have been here for awhile and we just deal with it.”
Lynn Dowler, secretary of the Goldstream Valley Lions Club, agreed.
The club has sponsored a fireworks display at the Kunkel Center on Goldstream Road for the last five years. The show starts between 9:30 p.m. and 10 p.m.
“I guess we’re going to do it no matter how cold it is,” Dowler said. “Everyone dresses pretty warm, and we’ll have a bonfire right there.”
Stick by that bonfire, and whatever you do, don't go to Circle (Hot?) Springs, which is one of the locations expected to get a lot colder.
"In response to [Officer] Hurliman’s request to see what was in his pocket, defendant 'reached in his pocket and removed a silver circular rustic metallic tin.' When Hurliman asked if he could look in, defendant became 'very agitated and said "no," ' said the tin belonged to his brother, and then put it back in his pocket. Hurliman told defendant that he believed the tin contained drugs. Defendant told him to 'prove it.'
…
Defendant’s demeanor raised no reasonable suspicion of criminal activity except in one respect — defendant’s objection to and apprehension of Hurliman’s requested patdown and search of the tin."
"A person’s reaction to a request for consent to search is not sufficient as a matter of law to support an objectively reasonable belief of criminal activity. As here, where a person has the right to refuse consent, the refusal to give consent to a search undoubtedly caused the officer to have a healthy suspicion that defendant was probably in illegal possession of something; but such a suspicion, however well founded, having been aroused merely on the basis of an assertion of one’s constitutional rights, can play no part in creating probable cause for a search. We view defendant’s reaction to the inquiries concerning the patdown and the contents of the tin as merely an unsophisticated attempt to assert his right of privacy. Defendant’s reaction to a request for consent that he is constitutionally entitled to refuse cannot form the basis of reasonable suspicion."
"There is another negative outcome besides 'being caught' — and that’s 'being searched in the first place.'Like I said, this case is neither high-profile nor particularly precedential. But it helps remind us that there is in fact a slippery slope regarding searches, subsequent to traffic stops, with less than probable cause."
Kip, found it at Fourth Amendment. This is at the center of the FLDS controversy. Yes, it was a good bet that if Law Enforcement kept looking they would find something, as evidenced by the eventual indictments, but the FLDS had the right NOT TO BE SEARCHED IN THE FIRST PLACE. The only remedy for such violations on the part of Law Enforcement, is to not reward them for overstepping their proper constitutional limits.
Can it still be called "Circle Hot Springs?" I mean seriously, 53 BELOW and you call some place on the map "Hot Springs?"The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner - " 'By Friday, 50 below is going to be passe,' said Rick Thoman, the lead forecaster for the National Weather Service’s local office. 'We’re going to start looking for 60 below.'
Thoman said the growing cold will begin spreading into higher-elevation areas in the borough later this week. Ironically, a dense blanket of ice fog that’s expected to build in Fairbanks is probably the only thing that will spare the city from minus-50-degree temperatures that will hit other communities.
Fairbanks officially joined the 40-below club on Monday, when Fairbanks International Airport registered that milestone for the first time this winter. Most other areas in the Interior were even colder, including a low of 53 below in Circle Hot Springs. Eagle and Tok were both at minus 47, while Fort Yukon and Northway both officially registered 44 below. Nenana and Delta Junction also were at the 40-below mark.
Thoman said National Weather Service projections still haven’t marked a point where warmer weather is supposed to replace the current pattern of frigid temperatures."
"Organizers of a New Year’s Eve fireworks display at Friends Community Church in Fairbanks said they will decide on Tuesday whether to commence with the fireworks as scheduled. A public announcement will follow.
'We’re going to be kind of looking at things tonight and tomorrow,' said Dave Whitmer, head of the men’s group that sponsors the display, on Monday. 'If it looks like it’s going to be below 40 below, we’ll probably postpone.' "
"Notably, the report says seven of the 12 girls were 14 or 15 when they married, which means they would have been old enough under the law as it stood prior to 2005, when the state legislature raised the minimum marriage age to 16 with the avowed aim of making life in Texas difficult for the FLDS. Until then the minimum age for marriage with parental permission was 14. (The marriages in question took places between 2004 and 2006.) Still, assuming the allegations are true, FLDS members broke even the old law in a handful of cases."
"The complaint names the Ohio Department of Agriculture, the Lorain County General Health District and the state's attorney general. A spokeswoman at the Department of Agriculture said its officers were at the scene in an advisory role. A spokeswoman at the county health agency refused to comment except to explain it was a 'licensing' issue regarding the family's Manna Storehouse. A prosecutor assigned to the case declined to respond to WND's request for a comment.
(Pete) Kennedy said his organization works in support of allowing farmers and consumers to have 'direct commerce with each other free from government interference and harassment.'
'This is an example where, once again, the government is trying to deny people their inalienable, fundamental right to produce and consume the foods of their choice,' said Gary Cox, general counsel for the FTCLDF. 'The purpose of our complaint is to correct that wrong.'
The organizations have reported the raid came at Manna Storehouse, a private food cooperative run by John and Jacqueline Stowers. In a video posted both on YouTube and on the Buckeye Institute's website, the couple explained how they just wanted to provide a resource for both farmers and consumers."
This is one of the reasons I frequently point out to people that it's "Better to shoot 'them' over there, than to be strip searched over here," or that the choices are "shooting them over there, or being strip searched over here." We've created armed near military and paramilitary organizations within our own country and are becoming increasingly used to overregulation. Something as simple as eating your own food and dealing directly with farmers becomes the busybody province of ag agents who now show up armed to the party and act like they're on "24." Jack Bauer for a day? I'd rather go to war and grind my enemies to dust so that I can live free in my own home. Yes, I'd rather offer you more attractive choices, but those are the real ones. Live free, or die. It turns out that's really the equation.
On page three - "Over the next three days, investigators continued to interview children at the ranch. They saw wedding photos involving young girls. They found records indicating a pattern of underage marriages and births."
On page seven - "At the 14-day hearing, DFPS presented evidence gathered in the investigation that at least 20 young girls and women at the ranch, including five who were still minors at the time of removal, had become pregnant from the ages of 13 to 17."
UPDATED: It is my belief, based on discussion with Patrick Crimmins, that this report was essentially ready, over a month ago. It's release was delayed to have the most minimal negative impact (to CPS) possible. No questions are possible, dump the report and run. (Further updates below)
Employing a tactic we are oh so familiar with, Texas goes back to inflating the numbers and releasing their smears before a long weekend. This hits the news today, designed to dominate the news cycle about the FLDS over the Christmas weekend. It's a drive by.
SAN ANTONIO (AP/KSL News) - "Texas child welfare authorities conclude in a new report that nearly two-thirds of the families living at a polygamist group's ranch had children who were abused or neglected."
Of course we need to define how, about which apparently Texas is more specific than it used to be.
"The Department of Family and Protective Services released the report to The Associated Press on Tuesday, saying 12 girls, ages 12 to 15, are believed to have been abused. Another 274 children were listed as neglected because the agency says the parents knew there was abuse in the household but did not move their children away."
This is the oh so familiar tactic employed earlier this year where there were "41 of the 463 children" with broken bones. This later turned out to be a below normal bone breakage rate. Darrell Azar told Fox News;
"53 girls between the ages of 14 and 17 were living on the ranch in Eldorado. Of that group, 31 already have children or are pregnant."
UPDATED:
The Dallas Morning News - "Mr. Crimmins acknowledged Tuesday, 'We were not able to link any of the broken bones to physical abuse.' "
Now there are 12 girls "believed to have been abused" yet only one man has been charged with impregnating an underage girl seen at YFZ that day. There are only 12 men indicted, and not all for polygyny or bigamy or child abuse. Furthermore, Texas could not even keep an accurate count of the children, lost track of two at one point and nearly killed another through neglect and dehydration. We're to rely on the numbers from these liars and incompetents?
Furthermore, what qualifies as abuse? They say "two thirds of the families" had abused kids most of whom were abused by contact with abusive examples. Contrast that with their own belief that 62% of girls are abused in the population as a whole by age of 18. 31% of the boys, they believe have been abused (Hat Tip Joseph Farah WND). They find only 12 girls? This represents less than 10% of the girls if in fact they can be believed on that number. This is an abuse rate fantastically lower than the population at large. With what we know now, that there were about 430 kids at YFZ, figuring half to be girls that's actually about a 5% rate of "girl abuse." So what do they do? They conflate the number with bystanders to create a 2/3rds abuse rate, to show that the abuse rate was large. Statistically, if you overlap the abuse rate randomly of 215 girls, with about 107 or so boys, there would be a much larger rate of abuse. About a third of the "abused boys" would statistically be distributed among families with no sexually abused girls, so it would be about an abuse rate of 72-73% overall. That means even a 2/3rd's abuse rate is lower than the population at large, even accepting their bystander theory of abuse by osmosis. Apparently, CPS sees abuse everywhere and maybe it is. When they pawed through every sock drawer though of the FLDS, they could only find 12 girls. This is not an indictment of the FLDS and it's practices and gives rise to asking a question. Reporting on the same news release;
The Houston Chronicle - "The Yearning for Zion case is about sexual abuse of girls and children who were taught that underage marriages are a way of life," officials state in the final investigative report on the April raid. "It is about parents who condoned illegal underage marriages and adults who failed to protect young girls — it has never been about religion."
Texas Department of Family and Protective Services "Officials" claim it was not about religion. After Harvey Hilderbran introduced and got passed a law specifically to "get" the FLDS and crowed about it, and after raiding a private group that has a much lower incidence of child abuse than the population at large, that wasn't contributing to welfare roles, what else is there?
December 5, 2008
Ms. Zindia Thomas
Assistant Attorney General
Public Information Coordinator
Office of the Attorney General
P.O. Box 12548
Austin, Texas 78711-2548
0R2008-16582
Dear Ms. Thomas:
You ask whether certain information is subject to required public disclosure under chapter 552 of the Government Code. Your request was assigned ID# 330913.
The Office of the Attorney General (the "OAG") received a request for information concerning Rozita Swinton; Flora Jessop; Sarah Barlow; Dale Evans Barlow; Newbridge Family Shelter telephone calls by Sarah Barlow or Rozita Swinton; Snohomish County Shelter for Battered Women; the HOPE Organization; the domestic violence crisis line in Colorado Springs, Colorado; and the abused counseling center in Ft. Meyers, Florida. The OAG claims Exhibit D is excepted from disclosure under sections 552.108 and 552.137 of the Government Code. We have considered the OAG's claimed exceptions to disclosure and have reviewed the submitted information.
Section 552.1 08(a) excepts from disclosure "(i)nformation held by a law enforcement agency or prosecutor that deals with the detection, investigation, or prosecution of crime ... if: (1) release of the information would interfere with the detection, investigation, or prosecution of crime." Generally, a governmental body claiming section 552.108 must reasonably explain how and why the release of the requested information would interfere with law enforcement. See Gov't Code §§ 552.108(a)(1), (b)(1), .301(e)(1)(a); see also Ex parte Pruitt, 551 S.W.2d 706 (Tex. 1977).
The OAG argues section 552.108(a)(l) is applicable because Exhibit D relates to a pending criminal investigation conducted by its Criminal Investigations and Criminal Prosecutions Divisions. Based upon this representation, we conclude release of Exhibit D would interfere with the detection, investigation, or prosecution of crime. See Houston Chronicle Publ 'g Co. v. City of Houston, 531 S.W.2d 177 (Tex. Civ. App.-Houston [14th Dist.] 1975), writ ref'd n.r.e. per curiam, 536 S.W.2d 559 (Tex. 1976) (court delineates law enforcement interests that are present in active cases). Thus, the OAG may withhold the requested information from disclosure based on section 552.1 08(a)(l ). Because section 552.108 is dispositive, we do not address the OAG's other assertions.
This letter ruling is limited to the particular records at issue in this request and limited to the facts as presented to us; therefore, this ruling must not be relied upon as a previous determination regarding any other records or any other circumstances.
This ruling triggers important deadlines regarding the rights and responsibilities of the governmental body and of the requestor. For example, governmental bodies are prohibited from asking the attorney general to reconsider this ruling. Gov't Code § 552.301(f). If the governmental body wants to challenge this ruling, the governmental body must file suit in Travis County within 30 calendar days. Id. § 552.324(b). In order to get the full benefit of such a challenge, the governmental body must file suit within 10 calendar days. Id. § 552.353(b)(3). If the governmental body does not file suit over this ruling and the governmental body does not comply with it, then both the requestor and the attorney general have the right to file suit against the governmental body to enforce this ruling. Id. §552.321(a).
If this ruling requires the governmental body to release all or part of the requested information, the governmental body is responsible for taking the next step. Based on the statute, the attorney general expects that, upon receiving this ruling, the governmental body will either release the public records promptly pursuant to section 552.221(a) of the Government Code or file a lawsuit challenging this ruling pursuant to section 552.324 of the Government Code. If the governmental body fails to do one of these things, then the requestor should report that failure to the attorney general's Open Government Hotline, toll free, at (877) 673-6839. The requestor may also file a complaint with the district or county attorney. Id. § 552.3215(e).
If this ruling requires or permits the governmental body to withhold all or some of the requested information, the requestor can challenge that decision by suing the governmental body. Id. § 552.321(a); Texas Dep't of Pub. Safety v. Gilbreath, 842 S.W.2d 408, 411 (Tex. App.-Austin 1992, no writ).
Please remember that under the Act the release of information triggers certain procedures for costs and charges to the requestor. If records are released in compliance with this ruling, be sure that all charges for the information are at or below the legal amounts. Questions or complaints about over-charging must be directed to Hadassah Schloss at the Office of the Attorney General at (512) 475-2497.
If the governmental body, the requestor, or any other person has questions or comments about this ruling, they may contact our office. Although there is no statutory deadline for contacting us, the attorney general prefers to receive any comments within 10 calendar days of the date of this ruling.
Sincerely,
Yen-Ha Le
Assistant Attorney General
Open Records Division
YHL/eeg
Ref: ID# 330913
Enc: Submitted documents
cc: Requestor
(w/o enclosures)
"If this ruling requires the governmental body to release all or part of the requested information, the governmental body is responsible for taking the next step. Based on the statute, the attorney general expects that, upon receiving this ruling, the governmental body will either release the public records promptly pursuant to section 552.221(a) of the Government Code or file a lawsuit challenging this ruling pursuant to section 552.324 of the Government Code."More →
"Don't take it personally. The more I think about things, the more I see no rhyme or reason in life no one knows why some things work out, and some things don't."
The likelyhood that anything about these interviews hits the newsstands is relatively low. I don't think it will be advantageous for either side to leak anything, but John Connor, David Doran and Brooks Long were deposed. Something dogmatic supporters of Texas said would never happen.
The Deseret News - "The interviews were scheduled to begin in Thursday morning and potentially last through the day, though no one involved in the process returned phone calls for comment to provide details on the schedule.
The interviews, done by the attorney for Jeffs in an Arizona case, initially were scheduled for the San Angelo law offices of Hennington Butler and Jones, the firm representing ranch leader Merril Jessop, but were moved after the officials balked at using those offices, said attorney Amy Hennington."
Some of the "dogmatic supporters" of Texas have really taken me, and other bloggers to task saying these interviews would never take place so I'm just going to take this opportunity to point out that I never had any doubt that they would take place. Now they have. It's nice to have a better track record than the lawyers, when I'm not one. I will take this opportunity to point out this is not the first time I've taken on lawyers, as an ordinary citizen. I've won before, it's not a rare event.
Yes, I'm grinding this in.
I was right.
You lawyers were wrong.
Yeah, me, RIGHT. You, WRONG. Got that?
Now back to our regularly scheduled blogging.
But not before I say "I told you so."
"Rozita Swinton was scheduled to go on trial Jan. 6 on unrelated charges stemming from a hoax call in Colorado Springs, Colo. El Paso County district attorney's spokeswoman Lin Billings said in an e-mail Friday the trial was vacated after a 'request for an extension of time to complete Ms. Swinton's mental health evaluation.'Swinton, 34, is accused of pretending to be a 13-year-old girl who was drugged, chained in a basement and being sexually abused. Colorado Springs police searched door-to-door, only to be told by a counselor that Swinton suffers from a multiple personality disorder.
The Deseret News first reported in October that Swinton was entering inpatient mental health treatment just as she was facing a probation violation stemming from a false reporting conviction in 2007. She struck a plea deal with prosecutors in Castle Rock, Colo., getting a deferred judgment that required her to undergo an evaluation, get treatment and take all medications as prescribed. Swinton's arrest in Colorado Springs earlier this year placed her probation in jeopardy."
Oh really? I did not know that. Instead of delaying her trial, it seems that they're deferring prosecution as well to void any conviction so as to then not violate her probation that was conditional on her getting help and not getting in trouble again, all over a misdemeanor beef. All this trouble to deal with something that won't go on her criminal record? All of this legal help that costs money, all of this mental evaluation, that costs money, all while she's not working. She was a renter with a low level job for goodness sake. She's been out of work you have to figure, the better part of 7 months. Who's paying for all of this?
Beyond it's FLDS implications this is a commentary on our justice system. The defendant keeps getting deferred prosecutions or deferred sentencing so as to never come to a reckoning with the court for the first mercy she received. Rozita wasn't supposed to get in trouble again but does, so we then make another deal, like the first one that she not get in trouble, so we can then say she never got in trouble, so that we can say she never got in trouble so her deferred sentencing deal (which depends on her never getting into trouble) doesn't get broken.
Arizona dropped a case involving Rozita making a prank call. That would have broken Rozita's deal. Utah dropped a case involving Rozita making a prank call, that would have broken Rozita's deal. Both were calls very similar to the one that sparked the YFZ raid but of course Arizona never took the call seriously in the first place, and neither did Utah. But Texas did. In the end it seems to be the intention of Texas not to take that call seriously either, or they would be prosecuting and investigation Rozita, which would bust her deferred sentencing deal.
How can you then prosecute the FLDS for things discovered in connection with a call you obviously didn't take seriously? Texas can only prove it was regarded that way by prosecuting Rozita, and they're not going to.
Your Modern Pharisee has asked precisely this information from Patrick Crimmins, personally on November the 3rd.
The Houston Chronicle - "On Wednesday, agency spokesman Patrick Crimmins confirmed that the abuse investigation is finished but said the findings would not be released because CPS officials want to release them later in an upcoming report. The agency hasn't set a date for that release, Crimmins said.
'The findings are going to be included in an overall report on the Eldorado operation,' said Crimmins. 'And that's the point when the findings will be released.'
The Texas Public Information Act does not provide for an agency to withhold readily available public information unless it meets certain exemptions.
But CPS officials are not claiming the abuse investigation findings meet any exemption.
The Chronicle's request does not seek the names of the children, only the sex and the age of each child and whether the agency found a 'reason to believe' abuse occurred or that investigators were 'unable to determine' any abuse or neglect happened."
I began asking this precise question over a month ago and began to contact Patrick by phone, myself. Patrick referred me to the state's Attorney General and Larry Strickland. The Attorney General's office at best, did nothing more than take messages. I wanted nothing more than the demographic information on the remaing 37 children. Now there are only 19. My contention at that point was the case was no longer 436 or more children, but down to an "inbox" sized stack of files or a page size summary. It should be therefore "fingertip" type information. A sheet probably exists, and could have been accessed by Mr. Crimmins, and it is public record.
I would say that I am shocked to find now that it is against the law to withhold that information but that would not be the case. Unexpected might be a better term since I asked for something clearly within the scope of public knowledge and something that was clearly a manageable number. Now we're down to 19 and the Houston Chronicle is being refused the information. This is a lawless agency.
I remark from time to time that the Former Soviet Union had a wonderful bill of rights in their constitution. Bullying autocratic refusal on the part of the despots in power made that bill of rights nothing more than window dressing trotted out to prove that the USSR had a concern for human rights. In this country we are now sliding quickly to the point where our own rights are mere window dressing, and we aer doing nothing about it. Texas arrogantly ignores it's own law. We can't even get Barack Obama to produce his "President's License" to show he can be President of this country. When these things do not outrage us, and we don't used our voices to demand what is ours, very soon we won't even be able to raise our voices to do that.
Legally, CPS owes an immediate accounting to the Chronicle, and to all of us. I suggest you call Governor Perry's office and demand that CPS be forthcoming or show good reason why not. The Citizen's opinion hotline in Texas is Toll Free: (800) 252-9600. Out of state the number is (512) 463-2000, the Office of the Governor Main Switchboard, I called the non toll free number, and was put on hold for 15 minutes because I wanted to talk to a person. There is an option to leave a message. I never got through.
The Financial Times - "The dollar and sterling plunged and government bond yields in the US and Europe fell to multi-decade lows on Wednesday as investors tried to digest the implications of the Federal Reserve’s new near-zero interest rate policy."
"Jorge Baro was hired by WND to investigate issues related to Obama's birth amid allegations the Democrat does not meet the Constitution's requirement that a president be a 'natural born citizen.'
Baro's affidavit documents an interview his staff conducted with Beatrice Arakaki, who has lived at 6075 Kalanianaole Highway in Honolulu since before Obama was born. "
According to the Salt Lake Tribune, those indicted so far and their charges they face:
» Warren S. Jeffs, 53, aggravated sexual assault; sexual assault of a minor; bigamy.
» Lloyd H. Barlow, 38, failure to report child abuse.
» Keith William Dutson, 23, sexual assault of a minor.
» Michael George Emack, 57, bigamy.
» Allan Eugene Keate, 56, sexual assault of a minor.
» Lehi Barlow Jeffs, 29, bigamy; sexual assault of a minor.
» Fredrick Merril Jessop, 72, conducting an unlawful marriage.
» Merril Leroy Jessop, 33, sexual assault of a minor; bigamy.
» Raymond Merril Jessop, 36, sexual assault of a minor; bigamy.
» Wendell Loy Nielsen, 68, bigamy.
» Leroy Johnson Steed, 42, sexual assault of a minor; two counts of bigamy; tampering with evidence.
The Salt Lake Tribune - "On Thursday and Friday, Arizona attorney Michael Piccarreta will travel to Eldorado, Texas, to question three law officers -- Schleicher County Sheriff David Doran, deputy sheriff John Connor and Texas Ranger Brooks Long -- about calls for help and evidence seized in April from the YFZ Ranch, home to members of a polygamous sect. Piccarreta represents sect leader Warren S. Jeffs, who faces charges in Arizona related to underage marriages he conducted."
The Deseret News - "Only 19 children remain under court jurisdiction in the custody case, Texas Child Protective Services confirmed to the Deseret News on Tuesday. Seventeen children were 'nonsuited' by a judge in San Angelo last week. It brings the total number of children dropped from court oversight to 420, excluding 26 'disputed minors,' whom CPS initially believed were underage but were later proven to be adults."
"The remaining cases include three cases in which the Department has temporary managing conservatorship of one or more children in the family," agency spokesman Patrick Crimmins said Tuesday. "We are continuing to provide services to these families and to work with the families to address safety concerns. Once services are completed and it is it determined by CPS that the children's safety can be assured, we will move to nonsuit."
"How likely is a (meteor strike)? It is unlikely that one would have occurred in the past century without being observed, given the seismographic effect, which registered as far off as Washington D.C. How much farther back one can push that argument I don’t know, so I will assume that such events happen at a rate of one a century. If so, the average mortality from such events is about 200 deaths/year. Every death matters, but there are a lot of problems in the world that do a great deal more damage than that."
"So far I have considered only things on the scale of the Tunguska event, but we know that there have been, at very long intervals, much larger meteor strikes. One famous one about sixty million years back is sometimes referred to as the Dinosaur Killer, on the theory that its effects killed off the dinosaurs. My geologist wife objects to that label on the grounds that lots of other things went extinct at the same time; the technical term is apparently the K-T event. The evidence for several earlier large strikes with less drastic consequences is preserved as astroblemes, geological structures believed to be the result of asteroids hitting the earth. So let’s guess that they occur at a rate of one every sixty million years. We don’t know how many people would be killed by a strike on that scale, but the upper limit is everyone, so use that for a very rough calculation. Dividing about six billion people by about sixty million years gives us a mortality rate of about a hundred people a year.
Pittsfield Township - "Manna Storehouse is under investigation to determine whether it is a retail food business without a license. The seizure of Manna's records and computers all but disabled the operation.
'The problem is these people on the Internet, from who knows where, were not there,' said sheriff's Capt. Richard Resendez. 'They make up all these innuendoes and create all these issues that are basically not true.' "
"Resendez said four deputies conducted the search over three or four hours - not the nine claimed on some sites. There was no SWAT team and no semiautomatic weapons.
'We don't even have semiautomatic weapons,' he said.
One officer carried a shotgun, Resendez said, and the family was kept in one place to control the area, as is standard for any search warrant."
"The Lorain County Health Department tried to inspect the Storehouse in November 2007 but the family told inspectors to leave the property. Jacqueline Stowers wrote the department the next month that Manna does not need a license and that the inspection was an attempt to 'cunningly coerce unlawful entry into our house and private property.'
In September, the county asked the Ohio Department of Agriculture for assistance, and an agent purchased eggs at the store. When agents learned of a possible delivery of meat, they obtained a warrant to search for evidence of the business's activities."
As the world economy stalls, the American dollar rises.
In July, a euro was worth $1.57.
In December, $1.27.
In July, a Britsh pound was worth $1.99.
In December, $1.48.
In July, a Canadian dollar was worth 98 cents.
In December, 79 cents.
In July, a Swedish krona was worth 16 cents.
In December, 12 cents.
Any questions?
The Salt Lake Tribune (AP) (Michelle Roberts) -"Jerry Strickland, a spokesman for the state attorney general's office, confirmed Monday that investigators had a search warrant and gathered a DNA swab.
Child welfare authorities have said in court filings that investigators believe the girl, now 17, was married to a man in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints when she was 14. In Texas, someone younger than 17 generally cannot consent to sex with an adult.
Authorities previously tried to examine and collect a sample from the baby, born June 14, but the mother refused to disclose the child's whereabouts. A standoff in court in November led to an undisclosed agreement between the two sides, but the search warrant forced the issue.
The attorney general's office is handling the prosecution of some FLDS members accused of charges including bigamy and sexual assault of a child. The Associated Press generally does not name possible victims of a sex crime.
FLDS spokesman Willie Jessop said authorities went to an FLDS home in the San Antonio area, where some of the families have moved since the April raid on their West Texas ranch, and collected DNA from the baby girl."
Steve and Paula Runyon's Blogspot - “On Monday, December 1, a SWAT team with semi-automatic rifles entered the private home of the Stowers family in LaGrange, Ohio, herded the family onto the couches in the living room, and kept guns trained on parents, children, infants and toddlers, from approximately 11 AM to 8 PM. The team was aggressive and belligerent. The children were quite traumatized. At some point, the 'bad cop' SWAT team was relieved by another team, a 'good cop' team that tried to befriend the family.
The Stowers family has run a very large, well-known food cooperative called Manna Storehouse on the western side of the greater Cleveland area for many years.There were agents from the Department of Agriculture present, one of them identified as Bill Lesho. The search warrant is reportedly supicious-looking (sic). Agents began rifling through all of the family’s possessions, a task that lasted hours and resulted in a complete upheaval of every private area in the home. Many items were taken that were not listed on the search warrant. The family was not permitted a phone call, and they were not told what crime they were being charged with. They were not read their rights. Over ten thousand dollars worth of food was taken, including the family’s personal stock of food for the coming year. All of their computers, and all of their cell phones were taken, as well as phone and contact records. The food cooperative was virtually shut down. There was no rational explanation, nor justification, for this extreme violation of Constitutional rights.
Presumably Manna Storehouse might eventually be charged with running a retail establishment without a license. Why then the Gestapo-type interrogation for a 3rd degree misdemeanor charge? This incident has raised the ominous specter of a restrictive new era in State regulation and enforcement over the nation’s private food supply."
"Beside the Chicago Tribune, Tribune Co. owns the Los Angeles Times and other newspapers as well as several TV stations.
According to the filing, Tribune Co. has $7.6 billion in assets and $12.79 billion in liabilities. The company said it has moved to supplement its cash availability in case operating results take an even steeper decline through an agreement negotiated with Barclays to maintain post-filing its existing securitization facility."
UPDATE: "The Supreme Court has turned down an emergency appeal from a New Jersey man who says President-elect Barack Obama is ineligible to be president because he was a British subject at birth.
The court did not comment on its order Monday rejecting the call by Leo Donofrio of East Brunswick, N.J., to intervene in the presidential election. Donofrio says that since Obama had dual nationality at birth -- his mother was American and his Kenyan father at the time was a British subject -- he cannot possibly be a "natural born citizen," one of the requirements the Constitution lists for eligibility to be president.
Donofrio also contends that two other candidates, Republican John McCain and Socialist Workers candidate Roger Calero, also are not natural-born citizens and thus ineligible to be president.
At least one other appeal over Obama's citizenship remains at the court. Philip J. Berg of Lafayette Hill, Pa., argues that Obama was born in Kenya, not Hawaii as Obama says and the Hawaii secretary of state has confirmed. Berg says Obama also may be a citizen of Indonesia, where he lived as a boy. Federal courts in Pennsylvania have dismissed Berg's lawsuit."
The Chicago Tribune - "It's only being mentioned by a relative few, by the real die-hard, anti-Obama crowd," said Michael Harrison, editor and publisher of Talkers magazine, the trade bible of the talk-radio industry. "On mainstream talk radio, it's not a big deal right now. I think it's run its course."
"But," Harrison added, "we live in a time that, because of the Internet, all points of view can live forever."
"Leo Donofrio is a New Jersey lawyer who tried to get Obama and McCain stricken from the New Jersey ballot in November. Donofrio's case was presented Friday to justices of the Supreme Court. Another case challenging Obama's eligibility, this one from Pennsylvania, has not yet been presented to the full court for its consideration.
'My question is on a pure constitutional ground,' said Donofrio. "[Obama] is a citizen of the United States. I just don't believe he's a natural-born citizen.' "
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