Weird News June 22 2010
Enjoy some of the latest bizarre but interesting stories in LibertyClick’s Weird News for June 22 2010:
Five NOPD officers indicted in shooting, burning of Henry Glover after Katrina – Brendan McCarthy – June 11 2010
A federal grand jury Friday indicted three current and two former New Orleans police officers in the death of Henry Glover, who was shot to death in the chaotic days after Hurricane Katrina, U.S. Attorney Jim Letten announced.
Nearly four years after Hurricane Katrina, questions persist about the manner of death of a man whose burnt body was found in a car parked along the Algiers Point levee shortly after the storm.
Glover was shot and his body was left in a car behind the Algiers levee, which was torched by the officers, according to the 11-count indictment.
Raft guide arrested after helping stranded rafter on Clear Creek – Jason Blevins – June 11 2010
Clear Creek sheriff’s deputies on Thursday arrested a rafting guide for swimming to a stranded young rafter who had tumbled from his boat on Clear Creek.
Ryan Daniel Snodgrass, a 28-year-old guide with Arkansas Valley Adventures rafting company, was charged with “obstructing government operations,” said Clear Creek Sheriff Don Krueger.
“He was told not to go in the water, and he jumped in and swam over to the victim and jeopardized the rescue operation,” said Krueger, noting that his office was deciding whether to file similar charges against another guide who was at the scene just downstream of Kermitts Roadhouse on U.S. 6.
Duke Bradford, owner of Arkansas Valley Adventures, said Snodgrass did the right thing by contacting the 13-year-old Texas girl immediately and not waiting for the county’s search and rescue team to assemble ropes, rafts and rescuers.
“When you have someone in sight who has taken a long swim, you need to make contact immediately,” said Bradford, a 15-year rafting guide and ski patroller from Summit County. “This is just silly. Ryan Snodgrass acted entirely appropriately. These guys came to the scene late and there was a rescue in progress. They came in and took over an existing rescue. To leave a patient on the side of a river while you get your gear out of the car and set up a rescue system you read about in a book is simply not good policy.”
President Bush’s Daughter Barbara “Glad” Health Care Reform Passed – Glynnis MacNicol – June 13 2010
Even when he was in office one frequently got the sense that the best thing about former President George W. Bush was his wife and daughters. Recently former First Lady Laura Bush made some headlines after declaring her support for Elena Kagan, President Obama’s choice for SCOTUS. And now their daughter Barbara — normally the quieter of the twins — has gone on record supporting health care reform. -video at link-
Matt Hawes of CFL on New concerns arise over body scanners – Ken Dilanian – June 12 2010
The piece contains a good deal of information on the shortcomings of this invasive new technology. And the cost of the scanners won’t be limited to privacy violations:
“Two of the $170,000 body imaging machines are in place at Los Angeles International Airport, 19 at Chicago’s O’Hare, and four at Baltimore Washington International Airport, the TSA says. The extra staff needed to operate them eventually will cost several billion dollars, the GAO says….”
Another family dairy farm and their private store for their food ministry has been raided in Wisconsin by state/county health and agriculture agencies.
The State and its agents may have bitten the wrong farmer, Vernon Hershberger at Grazin’ Acres Farm in Loganville WI. He is defying the orders to cease his dairy operations; he understands he does not need permission from the government to farm and share his produce with friends and family. The Hershbergers have nine children. He understands what the right to private property is and he has the right to contract with an individual without needing a permit to do so.
The DATCP brought in the armed deputies for 6 hours to lock it up and take evidence. That does not stop Vernon.
“This is how I make a living,” Vernon Hershberger, a Loganville dairy farmer, said Thursday morning. “We are going to go right ahead and do business.”
Hershberger said roughly 100 families, including some Madison customers, purchase raw milk, yogurt, cheese, butter and ice cream from a store on his farm that is open for business Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.
Federal Spending by the Numbers 2010 – Brian Riedl – June 1 2010
- The Conservation Reserve program pays farmers $2 billion annually not to farm their land.
- Audits showed $34 billion worth of Department of Homeland Security contracts contained significant waste, fraud, and abuse.
- Congress recently spent $2.4 billion on 10 new jets that the Pentagon insists it does not need and will not use.
- The state of Washington sent $1 food stamp checks to 250,000 households in order to raise state caseload figures and trigger $43 million in additional federal funds.
- Washington spends $60,000 per hour shooting Air Force One photo-ops in front of national landmarks.
- More than $13 billion in Iraq aid has been classified as wasted or stolen. Another $7.8 billion cannot be accounted for.
- The federal government owns more than 50,000 vacant homes.
- The Securities and Exchange Commission spent $3.9 million rearranging desks and offices at its Washington, D.C., headquarters.
- The Congressional Research Service has confirmed that the new health care law may subsidize Viagra and other sexual performance drugs for convicted rapists and sex offenders.
- The Census Bureau spent $2.5 million on Super Bowl ads, and on-air mentions by sportscasters.
- New documents reveal that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) lost 1,000 computers in 2008. Not to be outdone, Homeland Security officers lost nearly 200 guns in places like restaurant restrooms, convenience stores, and bowling alleys. Several of the guns ended up in the hands of criminals.
- The stimulus set aside $350 million for a national broadband coverage map—even though one private firm stated it could create one for $3.5 million.
- Improper or fraudulent Medicare spending now totals $47 billion annually—12.4 percent of its budget.
- Washington will spend $2.6 million training Chinese prostitutes to drink more responsibly on the job.
- Because of overstaffing, the U.S. Postal Service selects 1,125 employees per day to sit in empty rooms. They are not allowed to work, read, play cards, watch television, or do anything. This costs $50 million annually.
- The federal government made at least $98 billion in improper payments in 2009.
Goldman Sachs crawling with bedbugs? – Elizabeth Strott – June 17 2010
Employees at the company’s new 42-story office tower in Jersey City, N.J., were ordered out of the building last month as bedbug-sniffing dogs and exterminators came in to spray for the critters, ABC News reported, citing sources at the company.
“We’re always focused on our facilities and there are no issues,” a Goldman Sachs spokeswoman told ABCNews.com in a statement. She did not comment as to whether the building had been treated for a bedbug infestation.
A source connected with the Goldman office building told ABC News that spraying did, in fact, take place, but that it was a precautionary move related to a report from some employees who had dealt with bedbugs outside the office. But exterminators told ABC News that companies rarely bring in dogs and pesticides as a precautionary measure.
Penn Jillette on Bush-Obama: “They both want to kill people…” – Matt Welch – June 21 2010
When I disagree with Obama, people always say, “Well, you’re a big Bush guy then.” And I’m like no, I didn’t like Bush either. I disagree with Bush and Obama on all the stuff they agree on, which is pretty much everything. They both want to kill people, they both want the government to be bigger, and they both want less freedom for individuals.” – Penn Jilette
Utah Execution by Firing Squad
Ronnie Lee Gardner, a convicted murderer in the United States has been executed by firing squad in Utah after the US Supreme Court rejected his final appeal.
It is the first time the method has been used to execute a prisoner in the US for 14 years.
In: In The News · Tagged with: News, Weird News
