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10 Feb 2012 10:31

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U.S.: *ALARM* MASSIVE POWERBALL JACKPOT THIS WEEKEND

  • $310million Powerball jackpot in play this weekend source
  • » Trying to win it? Your odds are 1 in 175,223,510. (We like your odds, though.) This is the fifth-largest Powerball jackpot ever; the largest went for $365 million in 2006. 44 states take part in Powerball, and most of them chill with its brother from another mother, Mega Millions, too.
Posted by samimain • 0 Comments • Permalink


08 Feb 2012 19:57

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U.S.: Mother sues New York City for an amount larger than the city’s budget

  • $900 trillion lawsuit against the city of New York source
  • » The city’s 2012 budget? $65 billion: Despite the big number, there is a strong tinge of sadness to the case. Fausat Ogunbayo, a Staten Island mother of two, had her two children (ages 16 and 13) taken away back in 2008 amid concerns for her mental stability. However, an appellate court ruling last month provided her with some legal ammo, saying that despite Ogunbayo’s history of mental illness, that didn’t immediately equate neglect, as the city claimed. Now she’s suing the city, saying that it violated her civil rights, along with her children’s, and claiming that the separation caused “over three years of terror, horror, grievous harm, time lost, substantial economic hardship and injuries.” She may have a case; she may want to knock down that dollar total, though.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink


08 Feb 2012 15:43

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U.S.: Another teacher suspected of aiding LA school’s pedophilia scandal

  • She was a teacher who would escort little girls into Berndt’s classroom when he was all alone. Berndt would come over in the middle of day, whisper in her ear, and they would giggle, and then teacher would pick out two girls, escort them through a common door, so that they were stuck with a pedophile in this classroom.
  • Lawyer Bryan Claypool • Speaking on the rash of horrific charges to emerge from the pedophilia case at Miramonte Elementary, in the Los Angeles County School District. Claypool says he notified the Sheriff’s department after becoming aware of a female teacher, who he believes “patently aided and abetted” the alleged pedophilic abuse methods of fellow teacher Mark Berndt, one of two former teachers arrested on such charges. As a consequence of the scandal, and the public outrage directed at the school, the entire staff has been removed pending further decision. Be warned, the full details of this story are quite graphic and disgusting. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink


07 Feb 2012 16:32

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U.S.: Bashar al-Assad knows a thing or two about easy-to-remember passwords

  • 12345 Assad's password; go check his e-mail source
  • » The second-most-common password online: Anonymous had an easy time hacking the Syrian president’s e-mail Monday, finding that the password was as easy as QWERTY (except one line up on the keyboard). Many of the 78 accounts at the Syrian Ministry of Presidential Affairs had this porous password. Among the finds? An e-mail prepping Assad for his interview with Barbara Walters, where he infamously denied involvement in the killing of his own citizens. Read more about the incident over at Haaretz. (ht Mashable)
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink


07 Feb 2012 14:59

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U.S.: South Carolina AG sues Justice Department over voter ID law

  • then The U.S. Justice Department blocked enforcement of a new law in South Carolina, which would have required government issued photo identification in order to vote at one’s polling place; Justice says the law would have inordinately disenfranchised minority voters.
  • now The attorney general of South Carolina, Alan Wilson, has sued the Justice Department, hoping to get it overturned. The Republican Party has supported the law as anti-voter fraud, with many Democrats opposed, saying it amounts to voter suppression. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink


07 Feb 2012 14:55

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U.S.: CDC: majority of Americans’ salt comes from bread

  • Too much salted dough? A report by the Center for Disease Control claims the majority of salt in the American diet comes from bread consumption. You might find this surprising, especially considering evidently high-salt items like potato chips rank far lower on the list (tenth, in fact). The CDC attributes this to people’s willingness to overindulge in those sorts of foods, which despite a lower salt content in general can smuggle a high sodium total into the body. Salt intake for an otherwise healthy adult is advised at no more than 2,300 milligrams per day, but the average American consumes 1000 milligrams more than that. (Photo by Charles Haynes) source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink


07 Feb 2012 01:35

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U.S.: Earthquake drills: Millions remember New Madrid by hiding under desks

  • 2.2 million people in eight states to participate in a "ShakeOut" source
  • » Get ready Tuesday morning: In honor of Missouri’s earthquake awareness month and timed in honor of the New Madrid Earthquake, millions will take part in a giant earthquake drill that starts at 10:15 CST. Will you take part? You never know when another earthquake might hit.
Posted by samimain • 0 Comments • Permalink


 

07 Feb 2012 01:22

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U.S.: The day the Plains shook: The New Madrid Earthquake, 200 years later

  • Set your watches: At 3:45 a.m. CST, it will have been 200 years since the strongest earthquake Middle America has ever seen. One of four major earthquakes from the 1811–1812 era, the New Madrid Earthquake (which averaged about 7.8 in magnitude) was felt hundreds of miles away and was so powerful that it destroyed the Missouri town that gives it its name. But could it happen again? Experts say it’s likely, and the damage could be far worse. “If another quake of the magnitude of the New Madrid Quake of 1811 should hit the region, it would be the worst natural disaster in American history,” Arkansas state auditor Charlie Daniels wrote in the 1990s. “Almost all of downtown Memphis would fall.” Is that enough to fret over, though? (Photo: 1904 photo of an earthquake fissure filled with intruded sand in Mississippi County, Missouri, originally created during the New Madrid Earthquake. Photo via USGS; see more photos here.) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink


06 Feb 2012 23:46

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U.S.: Former White House intern’s book claims to expose Kennedy sex scandal

  • An 18-month affair: A former intern for the Kennedy administration plans to release a tell-all book titled “Once Upon a Secret: My Affair with President John F. Kennedy and its Aftermath.” Starting when she was 19, Mimi Alford worked at the White House and claims to have had an 18-month affair with President Kennedy. Alford, who says she lost her virginity to the president, claimed that the president overpowered her, but he did so using his charm, not physically, “because I really think I was willing to do it.” source
Posted by samimain • 0 Comments • Permalink


06 Feb 2012 20:03

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U.S.: Amid molestation scandals, parents keep Miramonte Elementary students home

  • 73% of Miramonte students showed up Monday source
  • » And parents were protesting outside: Roughly three dozen parents and supporters protested outside the L.A.-area school Monday, which has been rocked by two shocking but unrelated allegations of sexual molestation. The first case, involving a former teacher accused of doing unspeakable things to his students (note: trigger warning), was shocking enough; the second case, involving a teacher active until last week, only worsened things, as the allegations against him came out only as a result of the first case. The initial allegations did not lead to parents keeping their children home en masse (as the school had over 90 percent attendance throughout last week), but the second case, however, did. Low attendance hurts the school’s funding, so this hurt financially, but the school will also close Tuesday and Wednesday for emergency staff meetings, so the pain could go even deeper for the school. And things might go deeper: A third allegation at a different school in the region led to the arrest of a janitor.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink


 
 
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