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April 3, 2013
15:08 • 2 months ago

Coordinated suicide bombings leave more than 40 dead in Afghan courtroom

Tags: Afghanistan Terrorism Taliban Suicide Bombings Farah numbers sc

  • 44 people were killed after nine Taliban suicide bombers stormed a courtroom, in Afghanistan’s Farah province, where 10 other militants were facing trial. According to the Taliban, all 10 of those facing trial managed to escape during the attack, which claimed the lives of both civilians and Afghan security force members. source

April 2, 2013
19:36 • 2 months ago

Educators indicted for allegedly altering test scores

Tags: atlanta educators atlanta cheating scandal test scores changed educators indicted atlanta indictments ct numbers

  • 35Atlanta, Georgia educators indicted by a grand jury last week for an alleged conspiracy to alter students’ standardized test scores, so to obtain bonuses and maintain job security. So far, 10 of those indicted have turned themselves in to Fulton County jail, with some receiving bonds of up to $1 million — decried as excessive by some of their respective attorneys. source

April 1, 2013
15:39 • 2 months ago

Sequestration forces White House to tighten its belt, too

Tags: Politics Sequestration Federal Budget White House Jay Carney numbers sc

  • 480 White House staffers will be required to take unpaid days off as a result of the sequestration which took effect on March 1, according to White House press secretary Jay Carney. White House officials have also apparently scaled back staff travel expenses, delayed filling open positions, and stopped using mobile Internet cards. source

March 31, 2013
23:36 • 2 months ago

Massive multi-car pileups in Virginia, North Carolina

Tags: es virginia north carolina nc car crashes pileups numbers

  • 95 separate vehicles were involved in 17 different crashes near the Virginia/North Carolina line on I-77 on Sunday. Heavy fog was to blame, along with the mountainous locale. “This mountain is notorious for fog banks. They have advance signs warning people. But the problem is, people are seeing well and suddenly they’re in a fog bank,” noted one official, Glen Sage of the American Red Cross. Three people were killed in the incident. source

March 30, 2013
21:06 • 2 months ago

Zumba instructor turned brothel operator pleads guilty

Tags: zumba zumba prostitution prostitution sex solicitation maine zumba brothel alexis wright ct numbers

  • 20 misdemeanor charges pleaded guilty to by Alexis Wright, a Maine fitness instructor, for operating a prostitution ring from her Kennebunk dance studio, where she taught Zumba classes. She faces up to ten months in jail. source

10:47 • 2 months ago

North Carolina town devastated by ponzi scheme

Tags: zeekrewards es north carolina lexington lexington nc ponzi schemes ponzi scheme zeekler scams numbers

  • 50k the number of people taken in by a $600 million ponzi scheme called ZeekRewards … in North Carolina alone. The multi-level marketing scheme, which started as a penny auction site called Zeekler, was launched by Lexington, NC resident and former nursing-home magician Paul Burks, and many members of the Lexington community were taken in by the scheme. Burks, who has not been otherwise charged, was ordered to pay a $4 million fine and help recover some of the $600 million lost. In an interview with the Associated Press, Burks was defensive. “I never told anyone to invest more money than they could afford,” he said. “I didn’t tell them to do that. Never.” source

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March 29, 2013
18:29 • 2 months ago

Former Atlanta Schools superintendent charged with racketeering over cheating scandal

Tags: atlanta atlanta cheating scandal Beverly L. Hall beverly hall es education racketeering numbers

  • 65 the number of charges the former Atlanta Schools superintendent, Beverly L. Hall, faces as part of a wide-reaching cheating scandal, where cheating was allowed or encouraged as a way to get higher scores on Georgia’s Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests, and bonuses were offered for higher scores. She could face as many as 45 years in jail, and with a bond of $7.5 million, it’s clear they’re throwing the book at her.
  • 35 the number of other employees of the district that have also been charged in the case, including six principals and 14 teachers. As many as 178 employees were named as taking part in the cheating over 44 schools, according to a 2011 investigation. The case was first uncovered by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 2009. source

March 28, 2013
16:33 • 2 months ago

Syrian conflict leads to deaths on college campus in Damascus

Tags: Syria Syrian Conflict Mortar Attacks Damascus University Syrian Opposition Syrian Rebels SANA numbers sc

  • 15 students were killed after mortar rounds fired by Syrian rebels struck a Damascus University canteen, according to Syria’s state-run SANA news agency. Additional misfires also landed near a hotel being used by the United Nations, leading the organization to withdraw roughly half of its staff from the city. source

March 26, 2013
19:31 • 2 months ago

CBS News poll measures emerging majorities on gay rights

Tags: gay rights LGBT same-sex marriage marriage equality marriage civil rights numbers ct

  • 53% of Americans believe it should be federally (edit: erroneously labeled it federal, our apologies) legal for same-sex couples to marry, according to a CBS News poll — though there is a +/- 3 margin of error.
  • 57% of Americans believe there is nothing objectionable about same-sex relationships, a big shift — back in 1978, Gallup polled a 60% majority which believed homosexuality was “wrong.”
  • 53% of Americans believe that homosexuality is neither changeable, nor a chosen trait. source

18:20 • 2 months ago

Poll: Stephen Colbert’s sister has good chance at winning House seat

Tags: Politics United States South Carolina U.S. House of Representatives 1st Congressional District Mark Sanford Elizabeth Colbert Busch numbers sc

  • 53% of likely GOP voters are expected to vote for former South Carolina governor Mark Sanford in a runoff election against attorney Curtis Bostic to determine the Republican Party’s nominee for the House seat.
  • 47% of the registered voters in South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District are projected to choose Democratic candidate Elizabeth Colbert Busch in a potential match-up against Sanford, whose own 45-point estimate falls within the poll’s margin of error. No word on whether Colbert Busch has ever been to Argentina. source

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March 25, 2013
15:16 • 2 months ago

Collection of Beatles color photos nets more than £25,000 at auction

Tags: Music Photography Auctions The Beatles numbers sc

  • £27,140 was the winning bid for a collection of color photos from The Beatles’ first U.S. tour auctioned last Friday in Stockport, Chesire, UK. While there are countless black-and-white photos from the group’s first trek across America, color photographs from the first tour are apparently rare, making the collection sold on Friday quite the noteworthy offering. Still, we imagine the seller was both shocked and excited to see the final winning bid, considering the photos were originally expected to net ten to fifteen thousand British pounds. source

March 24, 2013
14:57 • 2 months ago

How one modern labor union grew really big, really fast

Tags: labor unions unions freelancers union es freelance work independent contractors numbers

  • 205k the number of members of the Freelancers’ Union, a two-decade-old membership organization which has grown to be one of the largest unions in the country, in large part because it offers something that many freelance workers and independent contractors struggle to receive—affordable health insurance. Roughly 23,000 people in New York state alone rely on the organization’s health care programs — a level of success so significant that the group was able to receive extra loans from the Obama administration to expand the program. Premiums through the program cost $225 to $603 per month—significantly less than individual programs. source

March 23, 2013
22:49 • 2 months ago

And the award for lamest celebrity appearance ever goes to …

Tags: rihanna es Barrington High School chicago chicagoland suburbs numbers

  • 16 the number of minutes pop star Rihanna stayed at a Chicagoland high school today after claiming traffic issues forced her to be more than four hours late to a scheduled appearance. (She ran out of time before her show at the United Center, offering free tickets to some of her patient fans.) “It’s one thing to be fashionably late. This is just rude. Our lives don’t revolve around a pop star,” one student claimed. Barrington High School won a contest sponsored by the singer, which led to the appearance. source

13:18 • 2 months ago

Why Kansas City moved away from zero-tolerance against violent crime

Tags: numbers es kansas city missouri violent crime focused deterrence carrots and sticks

  • nine the number of times in the past 44 years that the murder count in Kansas City, Mo. has fallen below 100 in a single year. Zero tolerance hasn’t worked for the city, so they’re now switching to a new carrot-stick model known as “focused deterrence” to help cut down the city’s violence rate, with the goal of catching people on the edges of violent crime before they fall deeper into crime. “For those on the bubble, a lot of them want to do what’s right,” said the city’s police chief, Darryl Forte. source

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