Spartans To Play BC In Champs Sports Bowl

Spartans To Play BC In Champs Sports Bowl

Whenever the subject of bowl games came up, players on Michigan State’s Spartans football team insisted that they did not care what bowl game they played in, so long as they got a chance to play. Regardless of those previous statements, players could not contain their excitement Sunday night when they received the official word that they will be facing off against Boston College in the Champs Sports Bowl later this month.

As the news spread through the Michigan State campus, Spartans were overjoyed at knowing they would be facing off against #14 Boston College in the bowl game. The Spartans closed out the regular season of college football with a 7-5 record, while Boston College faired slightly better with a record of 10-3.

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Clinton Sets New Fundraising Records

Clinton Staff Reports Highest First Quarter Fundraising

By Jerry Garner

Although results from the first quarter of campaign fundraising are not due yet, some campaigns are already reporting their results, and the Clinton campaign appears to be breaking new ground. The Clinton campaign is reporting record shattering fundraising activities for the first quarter. If the results are indicative of the Presidential race to come, this will prove to be a very exciting and expensive campaign.

Fundraising results for the first quarter, which ended March 31, must be reported to the Federal Election Committee no later than April 15th. However, some campaign headquarters are reporting their results early as a show of strength. With the amount of money being raised, the Democratic primary elections looks to be a highly competitive race that will likely consist of record spending.

Clinton’s campaign is leading the pack in terms of fundraising receipts. The Senator’s bid for the Democratic nomination has reported a record breaking $26 Million in donations to her campaign during the first quarter. Clinton has also transferred over $10 Million left over from her Senate Campaign, giving her a total of $36 Million for the first quarter fundraising efforts.

Ex-Senator John Edwards comes in a close second with $14 Million raised for his campaign. This is double the amount raised for the same period during his 2004 bid for the Presidency. By comparison, John Kerry had boasted fundraising receipts of just over $10 Million during his run in the primaries.

The world now has their eye on Senator Barack Obama, who is the only Democratic candidate to not report their fundraising results early. It seems the world will have to wait until after the April 15th deadline to know just how much money the Obama campaign has raised, but the Presidential hopeful remained confident during recent press conferences.

"I think we'll do well," Obama said. "I think that we should meet people's expectations. More importantly, I think we will have raised enough money to make sure we can compete for the next quarter and beyond. I think we'll do pretty well."

Early reports hint that the Obama campaign has taken donations from 83,000 people. The Clinton campaign reported that over 50,000 people from all 50 states contributed to Senator Clinton’s campaign, with 80 percent of donations being less than $100 each.

Senator Clinton has repeatedly expressed gratitude at the grass roots efforts that have propelled her campaign forward. Clinton’s campaign boasted over $4.2 Million in campaign contributions that came through the internet, and another $1.8 million that were the results of volunteer telemarketing efforts.

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Taliban Hang 3 Accused of Being NATO Spies

Taliban Commanders Hang Three In Southern Afghanistan

By Jerry Garner

Taliban forces hanged three men in the Southern Afghan province of Helmand Sunday. A Taliban commander claiming responsibility for the executions said the men were found guilty in Taliban courts of spying for NATO and the Western-backed Government of Afghanistan.

The executions occurred in the town of Musa Qala, in the Southern province of Afghanistan called Helmand. The region filled headlines last September when a controversial truce was reached between the British-led NATO forces in the area and the Taliban rebels they were fighting. As the truce fell apart, the Taliban moved into the area and have been firmly in control of the Helmand region since February.

A Taliban Commander who identified himself as Mullah Nizamuddin spoke to reporters from Reuters and the Associated Press by telephone. During these conversations, Nizamuddin claimed responsibility for the three killings, saying that the men were found guilty of spying in a Taliban court and that they admitted to the charges against them.

"They were spying for the British troops and had tipped them off about the location of one of our commanders who was killed by an air strike," Nizamuddin, told Reuters, "They confessed they were spying for the government and foreign forces. We hanged them to set an example for others not to spy on us."

Nizamuddin claimed that the three men were guilty of spying on the late Taliban Commander, Mullah Abdul Manan. Manan’s forces had taken over the Helmand province in early February, but an anonymous tip from locals led to a precision air strike that killed the Taliban leader on February 11th. Remaining Taliban insurgence have continued to thrive in the opium rich region of Afghanistan, turning Musa Qala, in particular, into a Taliban stronghold.

Two of the men were hanged outside of Musa Qala along roads that lead into the town. The third was hanged in the center of town. Namatullah Khan, a villager from Musa Qala, told the Associated Press that the body remained hanging in the town square for hours before the townspeople were courageous enough to take it down for burial.

"The Taliban told the other people of Musa Qala that whoever gives information to the government and our enemies will be punished in the same way as this informer," Khan said.

NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) has remained out of Musa Qala, leaving the fighting to be done outside of the town. This was done at the request of local tribal elders who said they were keeping the Taliban in check. The executions of these three men have left many to wonder exactly who is in charge in Musal Qala, and what should be done about it.

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ICANN Rejects .XXX Porn Domain Extension

Porn Sites Don’t Get .XXX Web Addresses

By Jerry Garner

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has ruled against opening “.xxx” (dot xxx) domain names for use by pornographic web site. This is the third time ICANN has rejected the idea of using “.xxx” domain names, which are widely criticized by both religious groups and those who work in the adult entertainment industry.

For almost seven years, Stewart Lawley and his Florida based company, ICM Registry LLC, has petitioned ICANN to develop a “.xxx” domain extension. Lawley envisioned his company has overseeing all web sites that used the pornographic extension, creating a virtual red light district on the internet. Lawley’s proposal, however, met stiff criticism by religious groups and the adult industry alike.

Adult entertainment web sites, while split on the issue, managed to muster strong opposition to the idea of a “.xxx” domain extension. While the proposal was purely a voluntary alternative, web site operators feared that it could open the door for some countries to force adult web sites to use the extension. Preferring to use a traditional “.com” web address, these companies expressed concerns about being cast into a wasteland if they were forced to use “.xxx” instead.

In contrast, religious groups were extremely vocal in their opposition to offering “.xxx” domains. However, the opposition from this community was based on fears that using “.xxx” domains could bring a degree of legitimacy to the adult entertainment industry.

ICANN voted 9-5 on Friday to deny the application that Lawley and his company had presented. Lawley’s petition had been twice revised since it’s original filing in 2000. His company boasts more than 76,000 pre-registrations for the domains, which Lawley sites as evidence that the internet supports the concepts, but opponents state is evidence of Lawley’s financial motivation.

"We are extremely disappointed by the board's action today," said Lawley, ICM's president and chief executive. "It is not supportable for any of the reasons articulated by the board, ignores the rules ICANN itself adopted for (new domains) and makes a mockery of ICANN bylaws' prohibition of unjustifiable discriminatory treatment."

After the vote was complete, ICANN members who voted against the “.xxx” domains said that one of the chief reasons why the application was declined was because it could have led to ICANN being put in a position of regulating content on the internet, which is a role ICANN does not wish to assume.

"I believe we have to guard very carefully against ICANN ever becoming a regulator in that sense," said board member Steve Goldstein.

Is this the end for the “.xxx” domain extension? Perhaps, but only time will tell. Having been denied three times now, Lawley has at least shown that he is persistent in his belief of creating a voluntary red light district on the internet.

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Pacman Jones Could Face NFL Suspension

Titans Cornerback Pacman Jones May Be Disciplined

By Jerry Garner

Adam ‘Pacman’ Jones, the Cornerback of the Tennessee Titans NFL team, could face disciplinary action. This action could include fines, suspension or even loss of their NFL draft pick. Pacman Jones has faced a series of legal troubles that tarnish the image of both the Titans and the NFL as a whole, and now NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is poised to clean up that image.

Pacman Jones has had to speak to police in reference to 10 separate incidents since he was drafted by the NFL in April 2005. Of those incidents, five resulted in the professional football player’s arrest. The charges against Pacman Jones, which span three states, involve excessive drinking and disorderly conduct. However, the football player is alleged to have been involved in more serious criminal acts, including a shooting at a Las Vegas topless club.

On February 19th, Pacman Jones was involved in a drunken fight at the Crazy Horse Too strip club in Las Vegas. The disturbance later resulted in two bouncers at the strip club being shot in the parking lot of the topless dance clubs. Pacman Jones originally reported himself as being a witness to the shooting, but later reports showed that the gunman was part of the football player’s entourage that night.

Although Pacman was not the gunman in that incident, Las Vegas Police issued a recommendation to prosecutors on Monday that the NFL player be officially charged with a felony count of Coercion. Police also recommended that Pacman Jones be charged with misdemeanor charges of battery and threat as a result of the strip club altercation.

If prosecutors in Nevada do file charges against Pacman Jones, the Titan’s Cornerback could also face charges in Tennessee from an earlier event in January. At that time Jones was arrested on charges of being drunk and disorderly. The football player made a deal with Tennessee prosecutors that charges would be dropped as long as he could stay out of trouble until July 5th.

The NFL player also faces unrelated charges in the State of Georgia. With so many repeated incidents in the players private life, the off-field activities have actually drawn the light away from the Titan’s turnaround season and have given both the team and the NFL a black eye in the public view. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell seeks to remedy that situation.

It has been reported by the Associated Press that Goodell has called for hearings with Pacman Jones for April 3rd to discuss the football player’s conduct off the field. Goodell is not expected to make an official ruling on the case for at least 10 days after the hearing, but the NFL Commissioner could impose stiff fines, lengthy suspensions or entirely revoke the player’s NFL draft.

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Oral Vaccine For Alzheimer’s Works In Mice

Alzheimer’s Vaccine Will Move To Clinical Trials

By Jerry Garner

Scientists in Japan have developed a vaccine that targets Alzheimer’s disease. The vaccination, which is taken orally, has proven to be safe and effective in studies with mice. Scientists and drug manufacturers are hoping to move the vaccine into early stage clinical trials for human Alzheimer’s patients.

Alzheimer’s is a progressive brain disease that is most widely known for destroying one’s ability to remember. Lesser-known effects of Alzheimer’s disease include reductions in a person’s ability to learn, reason, make judgements or communicate. Alzheimer’s also impedes the ability to carry out daily life functions. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, more than five million are afflicted with the disease in the United States alone.

Alzheimer’s is a disease has proven to be incurable thus far. The new vaccine provides hope that the disease can be effectively reversed if caught in the early stages. When the Alzheimer’s vaccine was administered to mice suffering from the disease, the Alzheimer’s vaccine was proven to reduce the amount of amyloid plaques in the brain while increasing mental functions.

Scientists believe the amyloid plaques are the basic cause of Alzheimer’s disease. The Alzheimer’s vaccine works by bonding amyloid plaques with a non-harmful virus. When the virus is ingested orally, the body’s immune system is stimulated and begins to attack the amyloid plaques. This attack carries over to the amyloid’s in the brain that cause Alzheimer’s disease.

The initial tests cleared up Alzheimer’s disease in mice, without causing any inflammation or bleeding in the brain. The scientists conducting the tests did note, however, that it is easier for animals to recover brain functions after being afflicted with the disease, so the vaccine may only work on humans who are in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease.

“Animals are able to recover their functions after developing symptoms, but humans are less able to do so. It may be that this only works in the early stages of the disease, when symptoms are light” said Takeshi Tabira, director of the National Institute for Longevity Sciences in Aichi in central Japan.

Tabira and the drug makers that sponsored the tests are hoping to move the Alzheimer’s vaccine, referred to as ACC-001, to early stage human trials. The initial research was conducted in conjunction with scientists at Nagoya University. The research is set to be published by the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology. The published version is expected to be released in July.

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Cassini Shows Bizarre Hexagon On Saturn

Geometric Wonder Appears To Be Permanent

By Jerry Garner

The Cassini space probe has beamed back some unusual images from the planet Saturn. The planet’s North Pole is covered by an enormous hexagon four times the size of Earth. Saturn’s South Pole contains a giant hurricane in the shape of a human eye.

The odd hexagon shape was first photographed on Saturn 26 years ago by the Voyager One space probe, and again later by the Voyager Two. Because the hexagon shaped storm has been seen so many years apart, it is a long lasting storm at the very least, but some scientist have began speculating that the hexagon may actually be a permanent feature on Saturn.

Kevin Baines, an atmospheric expert and member of Cassini's visual and infrared mapping spectrometer team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California marveled at the hexagon shape. Baines pointed out that strange planetary feature was laid out in a precise geometric fashion, with six sides that were straight and nearly equal in length.

"We've never seen anything like this on any other planet. Indeed, Saturn's thick atmosphere, where circularly-shaped waves and convective cells dominate, is perhaps the last place you'd expect to see such a six-sided geometric figure, yet there it is." Baines said in a public press conference.

The size of Saturn’s hexagon is enormous. The hexagon is nearly 15,000 miles (25,000 kilometers) across at it’s widest point. It is so large, in fact, that the planet Earth could fit inside it almost four times. A thermal imaging study of the hexagon estimates that it extends some 60 miles (100 kilometers) down into Saturn’s cloud cover.

The Cassini space probe also showcased another geometric oddity on Saturn’s South Pole. While the North is dominated by an enormous hexagon, Saturn’s South Pole is covered by a giant hurricane. What makes this storm system so unique is that rather than being circular like hurricanes on Earth, this one is oblong and shaped like a human eye.

"It's amazing to see such striking differences on opposite ends of Saturn's poles," said Bob Brown, team leader of the Cassini visual and infrared mapping spectrometer at the University of Arizona.

When comparing images of Saturn’s hexagon that were taken by the voyager space probes to those taken by Cassini, scientists have speculated that the hexagon seems to be fixed and in sync with the planet’s rotation. Scientists have never known how long a day on Saturn is because it is difficult to measure Saturn’s rotation. Analyzing the spinning motion of the hexagon could finally crack the code and reveal how long a day on Saturn is in comparison to an Earth day.

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British Sailors Taken Prisoner By Iran

British Troops In Iraqi Waters Captured By Iranian Navy

By Jerry Garner

The Iranian Navy has captured at least 15 British sailors and marines. The men were abducted while conducting inspections of ships passing through Iraqi waters. The unlawful attack comes as tensions mount over Iran’s uranium enrichment program, creating a very complicated situation for the two nations.

According to the British Defense Ministry in London, the attack occurred at 10:30am Iraqi time. The sailors, who are all stationed on the Royal Navy’s HMS Cornwall, were conducting routine inspections of merchant vessels passing through Iraqi waters. The men had just completed their inspection, according to the Defense Ministry, when they were surrounded and captured by ships from the Iranian Navy.

Margaret Beckett, Britain’s Foreign Secretary, has summoned the Iranian Ambassador to the Foreign Affairs Office in an effort to gain clarification on the situation and the well being of the British troops.

"We are urgently pursuing this matter with the Iranian authorities at the highest level and on the instructions of the Foreign Secretary, the Iranian ambassador has been summoned to the Foreign Office. The British government is demanding the immediate and safe return of our people and equipment," Beckett said in a written statement to the press.

There have been reports of an independent witness to the attacks. The witness is an Iraqi fisherman who was traveling with a group of Iraqis near the Northern area of the Gulf. The fisherman wished to remain anonymous for security reasons, but recounted what he witnessed to reporters from the Associated Press.

"Two boats, each with a crew of six to eight multinational forces, were searching Iraqi and Iranian boats Friday morning in Ras al-Beesha area in the northern entrance of the Arab Gulf, but big Iranian boats came and took the two boats with their crews to the Iranian waters," said the fisherman.

Early reports hinted that US Troops may have also been seized during the brazen move by the Iranian military. A spokesman for the US Naval Central Command stated that it has been confirmed that no US military personnel were involved in the incident.

The attack by the Iranian Navy reminds many of a similar incident that occurred in 2004. At that time, six British marines and two sailors were seized in an area between Iraq and Iran. The troops were broadcast on Iranian television, bound and blindfolded, and forced to state that they had entered Iranian waters illegally.

In the 2004 incident, the captured troops were released after three days of intense discussions. The stakes are much higher in the present situation, due to increased pressure by the West for Iran to halt it’s uranium enrichment program.

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Official Report Says Cricket Coach Was Murdered

Pakistan’s Cricket Coach Was Strangled To Death

By Jerry Garner

The world of cricket was shaken when the 58 year old coach of the Pakistan cricket team, Bob Woolmer, was found dead in his hotel room following a St Patrick’s Day loss to the Irish cricket team. Authorities initially refused to speculate as to the cause of death, but official reports now state that the cricket coach was murdered. This has opened the door for speculation about everything from angry fans to organized crime and match fixing.

Cricket is generally thought of as being a slow paced, gentlemanly sport. The game, which takes breaks for tea and socializing, makes other sports seem fast paced by comparison. But the gentle nature of the game can be deceptively misleading as tensions flare during the Cricket World Cup championship games. This was evidenced in India earlier in the week, as protestors burned effigies of their players, and even burned one player’s home to the ground, after the team suffered a loss to Bangladesh.

Despite high tensions during the world cup championships, Woolmer’s death caught many by surprise, and shocked the nation of Pakistan, who’s team Woolmer coached. Early reports of Woolmer’s death indicated that he was discovered in his hotel room, which was splattered with blood and vomit. Rumors have also circulated that strange marks were found on Woolmer’s body, but those reports have not been confirmed.

Although no cause of death was officially announced, authorities have now released details from a pathologists report that stated the official cause of death was “asphyxia as a result of manual strangulation.” Because of Woolmer’s large size, authorities suspect that multiple people were involved in his homicide.

There have been fingerprints found in Woolmer’s hotel room that have been proven to not belong to Woolmer or hotel staff. Police have fingerprinted associates and team members as part of the process of eliminating suspects. At this time the team has no restrictions of movement. The team is expected to return to Pakistan soon.

While the investigation into the cricket coach’s death is still early, a number of rumors have cropped up among those who have followed the case. In addition to being murdered by angry fans, other speculation includes the possibility that Woolmer could have been murdered by organized crime figures who were angry over failed attempts to fix the cricket match.

This rumor is largely the result of Woolmer’s coaching activities in South Africa during the 1990s. During that time, Woolmer’s Team Captain was admitted that he had been paid to fix matches. Although Woolmer was never implicated in the case, it has left many to wonder if organized crime connections could have led to his ultimate demise.

With speculation and conjecture aside, the reality is that many are in a state of shock and mourning over the untimely passing of Bob Woolmer. Woolmer was an Indian-born Brit who started his career as a player and grew to be the coach of multiple cricket teams. Pakistan’s President General Pervez Musharraf will be presenting Woolmer’s wife with the Star of Excellence in honor of her husband’s contribution to the sport.

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Alaska Pays Bounty To Kill Wolves

Gunmen Paid To Shoot Wolves From The Air

By Jerry Garner

The Alaskan wolf cull has always been a controversial topic. Opponents describe it as savage and brutal, while proponents say it is necessary for the protection of other species. Alaska has upped the ante once more by offering to pay $150 for every wolf killed in the Alaska interior.

Mankind has always had a fear of the wolf, which often times resulted in hatred. This sparked the species of being hunted to near extinction in Europe, and aroused outspoken protests from ranchers when wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone. Alaska is one of the few places on Earth where wolves have flourished, but that livelihood is in jeopardy as the Government pays hunters to kill the animals from the air.

Shooting wolves from the air has always sparked heated debates in Alaska. It was first put to a public vote in 2000, when the citizens of Alaska gathered around a public referendum to ban the aerial hunting of wolves. Discouraged by the public view, then-Governor Frank Murkowski bypassed the aerial hunting ban by still allowing pilots to participate in land-and-shoot practices.

While the practice outraged many of the State’s residents, who often have a love of Alaska’s wildlife, the land-and-shoot wolf hunts continued for years. In 2003, Governor Murkowski opened the door for aerial wolf hunting, which he called the Predator Control Program. This program has been continued, and now expanded, by Murkowski’s successor, Governor Sarah Palin, despite numerous ballots and petitions to stop the killing of wolves.

Under the revised Predator Control Program, the 180 pilots and gunners who have received permits to shoot wolves from the air will now be paid a bounty of $150 for each wolf they kill. The bounty will be collected when the hunter turns in the left front leg of the wolf, which will be used for scientific study by State biologists.

According to Denby Lloyd, commissioner for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, the left foreleg of the wolf can be used to determine the age of the wolf that was killed. This information will help the State adjust the program in future years.

The State estimates that there are 7,000 to 11,000 wolves living in the Alaska interior. The cull on wolves has been implemented to protect Moose and Caribou, by reducing the number of their natural predators. The plan has outraged many Alaskans.

"What the state is involved in here has more to do with animal husbandry than science, the elimination of one species to artificially inflate another." said John Toppenberg, director of the Alaska Wildlife Alliance.

The state was hoping to kill 382 to 664 wolves this Winter, but only 114 have been reported dead so far. With the end of the wolf killing season drawing near, authorities have offered the reward as an incentive for pilots, who have reported difficult times in wolf hunts due to escalating fuel prices and bad weather.

The Department of Fish and Game seems to have taken a “whatever it takes” approach to reaching their annual goal in the wolf cull. The Department stated that it will increase the number of aerial wolf hunter permits if necessary, and even fly in biologists to help pilots track the wolves. The Department even went on to say that, as a last resort effort, State employees may be used to track and kill wolves by helicopter.

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Woody Harrelson’s Father Dies In Prison

Charles Harrelson was Convicted of Two Murders

By Jerry Garner

Charles Harrelson, father of famous actor Woody Harrelson, has passed away in his cell in the SuperMax prison. Harrelson is believed to have died in his sleep as the result of Coronary Artery Disease. He was 69 years old.

Charles Harrelson has been in prison for murder for most of his famous son’s life. Woody Harrelson was just 7 years old when his father was first convicted for murdering a Texas businessman. The elder Harrelson was later convicted of an unrelated murder of a federal judge.

Harrelson, 69, was found “unresponsive” in his prison cell last Thursday. Authorities did not make news of the death public until the medical examiner completed a formal investigation into the cause of death. Freemont County Coroner Dorothy Twellman issued a formal announcement, stating that an autopsy revealed the official cause of death to be advanced coronary artery disease.

Harrelson was serving a sentence in federal prison for his 1979 conviction of murdering U.S. District Court Judge John Wood Jr. outside his home in San Antonio, Texas. Wood was known as “Maximum John” for the sentences he imposed against drug offenders. In one instance, he sentenced an elderly man to 20 years in prison for possession of 30 grams of marijuana. When the man said he did not think he would live that long, Wood reportedly told him to do his best.

Prosecutors contend that Harrelson was hired to kill the federal judge by a drug dealer who did not want the judge to preside over an upcoming trial. Harrelson has maintained to the end that he was innocent of the charges, stating that he was 270 miles away in Dallas, Texas at the time of the assassination. Wood’s case marked the first time in the 20th century that a federal judge was murdered.

Harrelson was originally serving his sentence at the federal prison in Atlanta, Georgia. After an attempted escape in 1995, he was transferred to the SuperMax outside of Denver, Colorado. The SuperMax is the highest security federal prison in the country.

Harrelson shared his home with such infamous criminals as the “unibomber”, Ted Kaczynski, the “Olympic Park Bomber”, Eric Rudolph, and Terry Nichols, a conspirator of the Oklahoma City bombing.

In stark contrast to his father’s life, Woody Harrelson first gained fame in the public spotlight in 1985 when he played a lovable bartender on the television series “Cheers”. He went on to greater success as he landed leading roles in movies such as “Natural Born Killers”, “White Men Can’t Jump” and “The People vs Larry Flynt”.

Harrelson has not yet issued a statement regarding his father’s passing.

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Lost Chopin Piano Discovered in Britain

Chopin's Piano Located After 150 Years

By Jerry Garner

The piano used by the composer Frederic Chopin during his final concert tour was lost after the tour and faded into obscurity. After more than 150 years the famed piano has resurfaced, being found by a musical scholar in a countryside home in Surrey, UK.

The Polish-born pianist and composer, Frederic Chopin had lived in Paris since 1831. In 1848 he moved to London to avoid the French Revolution, taking with him his prize piano. The piano was manufactured by Chopin's close friend, Camille Pleyel.

With the exception of a Broadwood piano Chopin used on a couple of occasions in the United Kingdom, Chopin would use Pleyel pianos exclusively. It was stated that the composer and the piano maker had a verbal agreement. Under the agreement, the French piano maker would supply Chopin with pianos free of charge. In exchange, the composer would endorse the product to his students and fans.

Chopin once remarked that, "Pleyel pianos are the last word in perfection."

After touring Britain and Scotland, Chopin returned to London in November 1848. At that time, the composer played a charity recital at Guildhall to benefit Polish refugees. This was the last public performance of Chopin's life, making the missing piano even more special in terms of it's musical history.

Chopin sold the piano to Lady Trotter, who's daughter Margaret was a pupil of the composer, for £80 before returning to France at the end of the month. The piano used for Chopin's final performance lay forgotten in the Trotter home for years. Margaret Trotter, who never married and had no children of her own, is believed to have left the piano to her grand-niece.

Eventually the piano was auctioned off to a music dealer, who sold the Chopin piano to Alec Cobbe for £2000 in 1988. Neither party realized that the Pleyel piano was the one used by Chopin. Mr. Cobbe purchased the piano to include with his collection of antique musical instruments.

Cobbe's collection of antique instruments is considered to be one of the finest in the world. It includes instruments that were owned or played by famous composers, including Purcell, Bach, Mozart and Mahler. As it turns out, the collection also boasted a Chopin piano without even realizing it.

The piano was eventually tracked down by one of the world's leading Chopin scholars, Professor Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger. Eigeldinger tracked the Chopin piano by tracing the ledgers of Camille Pleyel. Professor Eigeldinger was able to identify the piano owned by Mr Cobbe, no 13819, as the one Chopin had brought to England in 1848.

Cobbe, who was astonished by the discovery that he owned the famous Chopin piano that had been missing for over 150 years, was thrilled that perhaps the world can once again hear Chopin's music the way the composer played it. The sound could never be duplicated due to the signature sound of the Pleyel piano.

"The pianos of today produce lone, sustaining, liquid notes, whereas with the Pleyel the notes die away much more quickly and this gives a completely different texture to the music," Cobbe said in an interview with The Times of London.

Cobbe also said that, "There are only three other pianos known to have been possessed by Chopin. One is in Paris and one is in Majorca and neither of those work. The last is in Warsaw."

Cobbe stated that his Chopin piano plays beautifully.

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Masked Men Steal 221 Pounds of Gold

Museum Heist of a Solid Gold Block

By Jerry Garner

Three masked men entered a small museum in central Japan on Sunday and stole a solid gold block weighing 221 pounds. The gold, valued at up to $2 Million US Dollars, had very little protection or security because the museum wanted the treasure to be open to the public.

Located in central Japan is the quiet town of Takyama, which is home to the Ohashi Collection Kan Museum. The museum prides itself on providing education and cultural awareness to residents of Takyama and surrounding areas.

Among the many crafts and artifacts on display at the museum is a treasure that the Ohashi Collection Kan Museum acquired in 1994. This unique treasure is a solid block of gold weighing 221 pounds. Experts estimate the value at between $1.7 Million and $2 Million US Dollars. Suffice it to say, this is an enormous block of gold that is both heavy and highly valuable.

That value makes it surprising that the museum provided relaxed security for the gold, and that this decision was intentional. Museum curators wanted visitors to have the unique opportunity to actually touch the enormous block of gold. As such, there was virtually no security to protect the gold.

Motion sensors were out of the question, since people were constantly walking up to the display, and pressure sensors could not be used since the heavy block was constantly touched and rubbed. The display even lacked a basic glass display case, which would have prevented museum patrons from having direct access to the precious metal.

There were security cameras, but not on the floor the gold was located on, and the only security offered was the weight of the gold block. It seems that museum curators felt that the gold block was too heavy to be carried away from the museum, but that is exactly what happened when a group of masked men visited the property on Sunday.

Three men ran up to the museum, with one standing guard outside as the other two headed for the gold. A female museum employee noticed the masked me when she heard running footsteps. She attempted to intervene, but was easily pushed aside as the two men gathered up the gold and departed the museum. Police suspect that a fourth bandit may have been driving a get away car.

"We were very shocked ... but of course this was a big block of gold, and there was no security," the female employee, named Kurake said. "I suppose they could have been a little more careful."

The museum was closed on Monday citing an “emergency holiday” as authorities and museum staff try to make sense of what has happened. No arrests have been made in the case.

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Corpse Flies First Class on British Airways

Elderly Woman Passed Away After Take Off

By Jerry Garner

First Class passengers on a British Airways flight between New Delhi and London were in for a surprise on Monday, as the body of an expired passenger was moved from the Economy Class to an available seat in First Class. According to statistics provided by the airline, this happens more often than you would expect.

British Airways is the third largest air carrier in Europe, and the leading airline in the United Kingdom. The company was officially formed in 1935 as several smaller carriers merged into one company. The precursor airlines dated back to as early as 1919. The airline flies more than 35 million passengers per year to destinations around the world.

The flight was all but routine for an elderly passenger who was flying from the Indian capitol of New Delhi to London’s Heathrow airport. The flight began late Sunday night and arrived in the United Kingdom Monday morning. Three hours into the flight, the 70 year old woman passed away on the aircraft.

The company’s official “Corpse Policy” is to cover the deceased with a blanket and, if an empty seat is available, to relocate the body to a First Class seat where there are fewer people to be disturbed by the passenger’s untimely demise. The airline acted in a consistent manner last November when an American man passed away during the six hour flight from London to Boston.

What complicated Monday morning’s flight was that the body of the deceased was seated next to a sleeping passenger who closed his eyes to an empty seat and awoke to a corpse being buckled into the seat next to him.

Paul Trinder, a 54 year old British Airways Gold Card holder, awoke at 30,000 feet to see the flight crew moving the woman to the seat next to him.

"I woke to see cabin crew maneuvering what looked like a sack of potatoes into the seat. Slowly, through the darkness, I realized it was a body. At first, I thought I was dreaming.” Trinder said in an interview with the UK Daily Mirror.

"The corpse was strapped into the seat but because of turbulence it kept slipping down on to the floor. It was horrific. The body had to be wedged in place with lots of pillows,” Trinder continued.

Trinder, who had paid £4,000 for the Delhi-Heathrow flight, was seated next to the corpse for the remaining five hours of the trip, along with mourning family members who were “moaning and wailing” hysterically.

Trinder reported that he did not realize that the elderly woman was deceased at first. When he told the flight crew that she did not look so good, the flight attendants replied that they had called for a doctor, but that it was too late and the passenger had expired. Trinder then asked if they knew why she had passed away, noting that she could have some form of infectious disease.

"You could see they'd never thought of it. They looked at each other open-mouthed. It was surreal.” Trinder said.

When Trinder complained that he was seated next to a corpse, he was told to “get over it”. He was informed that the airline’s “Corpse Policy” would be followed.

Trinder and others were shocked that the event happens frequently enough for the airline to actually write a policy for how to handle corpses. Statistics released by the airline report that, on average, one person dies on a British Airways flight each month.

In a public press announcement, the company apologized for the incident, saying, " "We apologize, but our crew were working in difficult circumstances and chose the option they thought would cause least disruption."

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Thousands Of Protestors March On The Pentagon

Protestors Clash With Counter-Demonstrators Twice

By Jerry Garner

For most of the world, Saturday was St. Patrick’s Day, a day for wearing green, embracing Irish tradition, and perhaps sipping a few suds. For others, it was a day of protest against the war in Iraq and against President Bush in general. While demonstrations were staged around the world, the most notable was a group of 20,000 demonstrators that targeted the Pentagon in Washington, DC.

March 17 was not simply a day where the luck of the Irish touches us all. Saturday was also a day of anniversaries. It was the 4th year anniversary of the war in Iraq, a war that becomes increasingly unpopular as time wears on. Saturday also marked the 40th anniversary of an epic demonstration that protested the Vietnam war in 1967. The Vietnam protest is most memorable from images of hippies putting flowers into the barrels of soldiers’ rifles.

The two anniversaries, combined with escalating tensions about the war in Iraq, culminated in the large scale demonstration, which began at the National Cathedral and ended with a march to the Pentagon, headquarters of the US Military. The protest was noticeably smaller than January’s demonstration of 100,000 people, which included speeches by Congressmen and celebrities. Saturday’s war protest did muster 20,000 participants, however, making them a force that could have been difficult to control if tensions became too high.

As the anti-war protestors began their march from the cathedral to the Pentagon, they were initially confronted by a group of approximately 200 counter-demonstrators, who have been described as wearing “biker jackets” and shouting obscenities. The counter-protestors were Vietnam veterans who were merely protecting the Vietnam War Memorial, following rumors that protestors planned to vandalize the memorial with spray paint and water balloons filled with urine.

After passing the first group of counter-demonstrators with nothing other than harsh words exchanged, the anti-war protestors continued on to cross the Memorial Bridge, which would take the group past Arlington National Cemetery on the way to the Pentagon. At the cemetery a smaller group of around 50 counter-demonstrators greeted the protestors with a banner that read, “Go to hell, traitors. You dishonor our dead on hallowed ground."

The second group, although smaller in size, was certainly more aggressive than the group protecting the Vietnam War Memorial. Mounted police managed to keep the two groups separated, except for one girl who found herself in the midst of the counter-demonstrators and emerged in tears with her peace sign placard ripped to pieces.

Upon reaching the Pentagon, protestors were met by police wearing full riot gear and gas masks. It appeared that the protestors came prepared for action, as many gripped homemade plastic shields and some wearing gas masks of their own. As the two squared off, the police formed a shoulder to shoulder blockade across the street blocking the protestors from moving closer, and ordered the protestors to keep back.

Five of the protestors were arrested by the Pentagon Force Protection Agency for failure to obey a lawful order, after attempting to break through the police line. Across the city, an additional 200 protestors were arrested during a prayer vigil at the White House. No further arrests or injuries have been reported.

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Authorities Raid Drug Cartel In Mexico

More Than $206 Million In Drug Money Seized

By Jerry Garner

Authorities in Mexico raided a home in one of the wealthiest areas of Mexico City. The raid, carried out against a known drug cartel, resulted in the arrests of seven individuals on the property, and seized more than $206 Million in US bank notes.

After taking office last December, President Felipe Calderón proclaimed a nation-wide crack down on the Mexican drug trade, and so far the President has lived up to that promise. In addition to the current raid on a drug cartel residence in Mexico City, the President has also dispatched thousands of federal troops to some of the highest crime areas of the country in an effort to stamp out illegal drug trafficking in Mexico. The President has also extradited Osiel Cardenas, boss of the Gulf Cartel, to the United States to face drug trafficking charges.

The most recent raid began late Thursday night and carried well into Friday morning, as federal authorities raided the private mansion of one of the largest drug lords in Mexico. The raid was conducted in the Lomas de Chapultepec district of Mexico City. This affluent, upscale area consists of secure compounds that are home to Ambassadors and multi-national business owners.

During the course of the raid, authorities arrested seven people found at the residence, and seized a large amount of property that was purchased with profits from the illegal drug trade. Among the items seized in the drug raid were eight luxury cars, a number of automatic weapons and specialized machinery for turning powder into pill form.

The largest prize of the drug raid was an unprecedented amount of cash. More that $206 Million of US bank notes was seized in the raid, found stuffed into suitcases, filling closets all the way up to the ceiling, and even hidden inside walls. Also found was more than 200,000 Euros and more than 157,000 Pesos. The funds, which represented the largest seizure of drug money in Mexico’s history, was transported to a secure location in a van that was guarded by two dozen police cars.

"This is the biggest seizure, not just in Mexico but perhaps in the world," said President Calderón.

In a public press conference, the President continued on to say, “"I don't want to think about how many young people this gang was poisoning with its drugs, but I can promise them they won't do it any more."

The drug gang that the President spoke of was one of the largest distributors of methamphetamines in the Western Hemisphere. The gang operated behind the front of a pharmaceutical company titled Unimed Pharm Chem de Mexico SA.

In December, authorities seized a large shipment including 19.5 tons pseudoephedrine in the Pacific port of Lazaro Cardenas, which was ordered by the drug cartel’s pharmaceutical company. Because pseudoephedrine is one of the base ingredients for manufacturing methamphetamine, often referred to as crystal meth, authorities launched a large scale investigation that ultimately led them to the drug cartel in Mexico City.

It is believed that the drug was being manufactured, possibly pressed into pill form, and smuggled into the United States for distribution. A recent report by the US Justice Department's National Drug Intelligence Center stated that methamphetamine producers in Mexico are attempting to muscle into the US market, after police in the United States began cracking down on illegal drug labs.

Mexico’s Federal Attorney General, Medina Mora, said that Mexican drug cartels smuggle tons of methamphetamine into the United States, but that investigators were unsure of what drug gangs the cartel sold to.

In an interview with the Associated Press, Mora stated that the cartel that was raided in Mexico City was operated by a native of China who had gained Mexican nationality. Authorities are presently searching for this individual, who has gone into hiding and suspected of leaving the country entirely.

"This organization had been introducing the illegally imported product to our country and maybe to the United States," Medina Mora said during the interview. "There is certainly connections between this group and methamphetamine producers."

There are currently three drug cartels that dominate the illegal drug trade in Mexico. The Tijuana Cartel, the Sinaloa Cartel and the Gulf Cartel that stretches along the border between Mexico and Texas. Because of the activities of these three drug cartels, Mexico has become one of the world’s largest producers of methamphetamine.

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Wikipedia Hoax Falsely Reports Sinbad’s Death

Famous Comic Sinbad Returns From The Dead

By Jerry Garner

The online encyclopedia Wikipedia comes under fire once more after an entry falsely reported the death of Actor-Comedian Sinbad. The report falsely stated that the comic passed away on the morning of March 14 due to heart failure, but the comic was found laughing about the instance the following day.

Wikipedia is the world’s leading online encyclopedia. The web site is edited by it’s users, not only allowing any user to contribute information on a topic, but relying on other users to correct errors found on the site. This process, which many say is flawed by design, has opened the door for a number of mistakes, misreported news and deliberate hoaxes, which Wikipedia refers to as vandalism.

Along with factual errors and deliberate hoaxes, Wikipedia recently became the subject of scrutiny as it was found that Wiki-insiders obtained their position with false credentials. This led to further speculation about just how credible Wikipedia is as a source of information, and the web site quickly went into damage control mode to assert itself as a legitimate online encyclopedia.

"The accuracy varies from article to article," said Mark Pelligrini of the Wikipedia press committee. "Some articles are highly accurate because people keep it up. For the computer science field, there is a high level of accuracy."

That damage control may have very well been for nothing, as Wikipedia is once again used as a platform to propel a hoax across the internet. This time the subject of the hoax was actor and comedian David Adkins, who is best known simply by the name Sinbad.

Sinbad, who has appeared on many television sit-coms, as well as in movies like “Houseguest” and “Jingle All The Way”, was falsely reported as being deceased. The Wikipedia page about the comedian reported that Sinbad had passed away Wednesday morning. According to Wikipedia, the 50 year old entertainer had suffered from a massive heart attack.

The news was picked up by an internet user who is a fan of Sinbad, who then forwarded the announcement to other fans of the comedian. A cascade of emails followed, which were accompanied by web site entries and links back to the Wikipedia article about the death. The internet was soon in a state of wide-spread mourning for the comedian, who was not only alive and well, but actually on a comedy tour in the United States.

Sinbad first learned about the Wikipedia rumor from his daughter, who encountered the false posting through an internet web site. Soon after, the comedian was bombarded with phone calls, emails and text messages by the hundreds. Sinbad, ever the comic, seems to be taking the incident in stride, and just laughed when he was asked if he was upset.

"It's gonna be more commonplace as the Internet opens up more and more. It's not that strange," the Los Angeles-based entertainer told the Associated Press in a phone interview.

Wikipedia is taking the issue more seriously. Shortly after news of the false report broke, the comedian’s page on Wikipedia was locked down to prevent further editing, and carried a message that editing was not possible to prevent further vandalism.

"We are currently looking into who made this edit, and have protected the page. We regret any confusion or distress this may have caused Sinbad and his fans everywhere,” said Sandra Ordonez, a spokeswoman for Wikipedia, in an interview with Reuters.

While Wikipedia prepares to deal with more negative publicity from the hoax, fans of the comedian Sinbad can at least breath a sigh of relief in knowing that the comic is ok. More than ok, Sinbad is actually laughing over the matter, giving him the last laugh over the unknown prankster’s Wikipedia hoax.

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How Chiquita Banana Funded Terrorism

By Jerry Garner

Chiquita Brands International has reached an agreement with the US Department of Justice to pay a fine of $25 Million, according to a press statement issued by the company on Wednesday. The company is receiving the fine after paying millions of dollars to two terror groups based in the South American country of Columbia.

The company has also agreed to assist the Justice Department with any “continuing investigation into the matter”, according to a statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). As a company that is traded publicly under the symbol CQB, Chiquita is required to disclose all legal actions to the SEC.

According to one Justice Department spokesman, the agreement to cooperate with ongoing investigations is significant. Particularly since the Department is still investigating whether or not Chiquita’s corporate officers, both present and past, knowingly engaged in the act to fund terrorism.

From 1997 to 2004, the company made payments of $1.7 Million to the United Self Defense Forces of Columbia, known as AUC for the initials of the group’s Spanish name. The AUC is a right-wing paramilitary group that has been responsible for some of the most horrific massacres in Columbia’s history. The group also has a sizable stake in the Columbian drug trade.

According to federal prosecutors, senior officials of Chiquita made similar payments to Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia. Known as FARC, this is a leftist guerilla group has been in a war with AUC for years, battling over turf in Columbia.

The United States Government officially designated both AUC and FARC as terrorist groups in September 2001. Authorities have stated that the Chiquita case is the most prominent, perhaps even the only, case since 2001, in which a US company has been linked to financial support for foreign terrorists. On several occasions, President Bush has stated that anyone providing financial support to a terrorist group will be prosecuted just as severely as the terror operatives themselves.

The plea agreement to pay a fine in the amount of $25 Million has been described as "a reasoned solution to the dilemma the company faced several years ago” by Chiquita’s Chairman and CEO, Fernando Aguirre.

The official position of the company is that the payments, which were made by Chiquita’s Columbian subsidiary, were a necessary part of doing business in a volatile region. The payments, according to the company, were made as protection, so that the militant groups would not target Chiquita facilities or employees.

"The payments made by the company were always motivated by our good-faith concern for the safety of our employees," Aguirre said.

While this may appear innocent enough at first glance, it should also be considered that the company has an extensive history of controversial activities in Latin America. In 1954, Chiquita’s predecessor, the United Fruit Company, allegedly worked with the CIA to overthrow the government in Guatemala. It is said that the company feared that the anti-capitalist regime was a threat to their banana growing enterprise.

In 1975 the company became involved in a scandal that the press dubbed Bananagate, after a Department of Justice investigation revealed that the company had bribed the President of Honduras. Later, in 1998, the Cincinnati Enquirer ran an 18-page featured story that accused the company of a number of questionable business practices. Chiquita won a $10 Million legal judgement from the newspaper following the expose’.

In April 2002, Chiquita appointed a new Board of Directors as the company emerged from bankruptcy. According to court documents, the new Board learned that the company had been paying an undisclosed amount of money to FARC since the early 1990s, and also began payments to AUC in 1997, after Chiquita officials met with the militant group’s leader, Carlos Casta-o.

In 2003, outside attorneys for Chiquita notified that company that the payments were in violation of US law and should not continue. The news provoked mixed reactions from the Board. One member wanted to pull out of Columbia entirely, while others wanted to continue business as usual. It should be noted that the company did eventually sell the Columbian subsidiary in 2004, but payments to the terror groups continued up until that time.

In April 2003, just one year after the appointment of the new Board of Directors, members of the Board met with Justice Department lawyers to disclose information about the payments. The Department of Justice acknowledged that it was a complicated issue, but the ultimate ruling was that the payments are illegal and must stop immediately.

That could have been the end of the matter. But in less than two weeks, the criminal filing states, the Board of Directors at Chiquita issued an order for the payments to the terrorists to continue. Because of such acts, the Justice Department briefly considered filing a more serious charge of providing Material Support for terror, but ultimately opted to charge the company with a lesser count.

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US Troops Returning With Psychosocial Behavior

One-Third of Vets Studied Have Mental Illness

By Jerry Garner

A new US study states that more than 1/3 of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan suffer from forms of mental illness, including psychosocial behavior. The study, commissioned by the Department of Veterans Affairs, examined returning veterans who visited a VA Hospital between September 2001 and September 2005.

Throughout history, veterans of wars have suffered from various forms of stress disorders and mental illness. From World War II to the present, the subject of mental illness becomes a topic for debate whenever our troops begin to return home from conflict.

These illnesses are often thought to exist only in extreme cases, but a new study suggests that a significant percentage of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are suffering from mental illness. The March 12 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine included a report titled “Bringing the War Back Home”, which studied more than 100,000 US troops who had participated in the nation’s war on terror.

The study was conducted as a collective endeavor that was carried out by the University of California at San Francisco and the VA Medical Center in San Francisco. Conducted by Dr. Karen Seal and 4 of her colleagues, the study looked at 103,788 veterans who visited VA facilities between September 30, 2001 and September 30, 2005.

The study consisted of veterans of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). Veterans of both operations had endured high combat stress and were eligible for free medical care provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs. Little was known about the clinical circumstances of mental health diagnosis given to these veterans, which is where the current study comes into the picture.

Of those included in the study, a total of 25,658 vets (25%) were diagnosed as having at least one form of mental illness. An astonishing 56% of those were diagnosed with multiple mental illnesses. When the scope of the study was broadened to also include psychosocial behavioral issues, the number of afflicted troops jumped 32,010 veterans (31%).

"The youngest group of active duty veterans (age, 18 to 24 years) had a significantly higher risk of receiving one or more mental health diagnoses and posttraumatic stress disorder compared with active duty veterans 40 years or older," the study notes.

The most common affliction was Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), which occurred in 52% of troops that were diagnosed with a mental illness (13% of all veterans studied). PTSD occurs when someone experiences or witnesses life-threatening traumatic events for prolonged periods of time.

PTSD is often characterized by extreme symptoms, which may include flashbacks, insomnia, nightmares, hypervigilance and a lack of feeling or emotion. Some veterans will also suffer from delayed-PTSD, which may not appear until years after the traumatic event. If not properly treated, the disorder can also lead to other forms of mental illness.

Although Post Traumatic Stress Disorder was the most common illness diagnosed, a number of others were revealed in the study. Many troops were diagnosed with Anxiety Disorder, Depression, Substance Use Disorder, and a number of other behavioral or psychological afflictions.

It should be noted, however, that the study only consists of those who visited a VA Medical Center during the prescribed period, so the figures presented in the study may not be reflective of all soldiers who served in Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom.

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Hundreds Evacuated Because Of California Wildfire

Stolen Vehicle Suspected As The Cause of the Blaze

By Jerry Garner

What started with an abandoned car in a Southern California canyon quickly turned into a blazing wild fire that threatened the lives of many. Orange County fire fighters have been battling the blaze for two days. The fire scorched more than 2,000 acres of land and forced the evacuation of hundreds of homes.

The fire began Sunday morning when an abandoned car erupted into flames in the area of Windy Ridge. It is not yet known how or why the car burst into flames, but many authorities have began to speculate that it could have been a stolen vehicle that was intentionally set on fire to destroy evidence.

The location of the abandoned car resulted in flames from the vehicle being dispersed wildly around the area, due in part to the high winds of the Windy Ridge area. Windy Ridge is located at the base of Fremont Canyon, which features geographic formations that turn the canyon into a natural wind tunnel. The unseasonable Santa Ana winds gusted to as much as 48mph in the Canyon, considerably higher than the 35mph winds felt by surrounding areas.

"Fremont Canyon is the king of gusts; the Santa Anas usually blow faster there than anywhere," said Steve Vanderburg, a weather service forecaster, in an interview with the Orange County Register. "So Windy Ridge is a bad place to have an open fire."

The high winds, combined with dry fuel from drought, made the area a tender box that was primed for disaster. So far in this ‘rain year’, which started last July, the area has received only 2.5 inches of rain, compared to the normal annual rainfall of 11.5 inches. The Orange County Area has dried out significantly, placing the entire area on a constant ‘red flag’ watch for wild fires.

The blaze, which began Sunday morning, quickly spread through the area, burning three homes along the way. The path of the blaze put many multi-million dollar homes at risk in the Anaheim area, prompting police and fire officials to instate a mandatory evacuation of more than 500 homes. Police went door to door in neighborhoods where the fires raged just half a mile away.

By late Sunday evening, winds had subsided and fire fighters had contained as much as 30 percent of the blaze. The outlook was optimistic that the fire would be under control by the same time Monday, prompting officials to change the evacuation from mandatory to voluntary. Emergency shelters have been set up in area schools and community centers for those who prefer to wait until the fire is extinguished.

More than 1,000 fire fighters have been involved with fighting the fire, which has consumed more than 2,000 acres so far. In addition to fire fighters on the ground, the Orange County Fire Department has also utilized helicopters and airplanes to bombard the blaze with water and flame retardant.

The high winds carried ash from the blaze as far as 80 miles out to sea, with sizable amounts of ash raining onto the city of Anaheim along the way. The ash was thick enough to break apart the rays of the sun, creating a vibrant red sunset in the backdrop of the flames. Other areas were consumed with plumes of black smoke that could be seen from miles away.

California’s wild fire season typically peaks from June to October, but the unseasonable conditions have led to earlier outbreaks. A smaller fire consumed 25 acres in neighboring Riverside County. The early eruptions of these blazes have left many to wonder what the area will be facing when the really dry summer months approach.

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Could We Be On The Brink Of Extinction?

Climate Change Study Suggests Things Are Worse Than We Thought

By Jerry Garner

The results of a new climate change study will be presented in Belgium next month. These results are expected to shock and horrify even those who had envisioned the worst scenario for global warming. Humans, along with other plant and animal species, are expected to be pushed to the brink of extinction, and it’s expected to happen much sooner than anyone thought.

We are all familiar with a multitude of doomsday scenarios. Epic events that will, at best, disrupt human civilization, or at worst, bring about the extinction of our species or maybe even the destruction of the entire planet. With causes ranging from volcanoes to meteors to extraterrestrials, these scenarios have plagued the imagination of mankind throughout history.

These end of the world scenarios have often been chalked up to delusions of paranoia, an assumption that is often times very fitting to the scenario that is in question. However, an international panel studying the effects of climate change now believe that such an epic event is not only possible, but that it is probably going to occur within the next few decades.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was formed in 1988. The group was commissioned by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) to assess the scientific and technical information required to study human induced climate change. The chief concern of this network of over 2000 scientists is to study the potential impacts of climate change, and to present options of adapting to the changes, or mitigating them entirely.

As much as 90% of the scientists involved with the IPCC agree that the harmful effects of global warming are already present in our daily lives. More shocking is the report to be issued in Belgium next month. Preliminary drafts of this report indicate that hundreds of millions, perhaps billions, of humans will die from climate change in coming decades, and that survivors are likely to suffer life-altering hardships.

One of the many contributors to the report is Patricia Lankao, who works for the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Lankao states that things are going to happen much faster than anyone has ever expected.

Initial changes will not appear to be negative. Within the next couple of years, growth of food will actually increase. Specifics noted in the report are that soybean and rice production will increase noticeably Latin America. Areas to the North of the tropics will also initially see larger food production, due to shorter winters and longer growing seasons.

These benefits are only short-term, however, and just a short time later hundreds of millions will suffer and die from the effects of starvation induced by massive drought. Hundreds of millions of Africans and tens of millions of Latin Americans are projected to suffer from extreme water shortages in less than 20 years.

It is predicted that as many as 1 Billion people will suffer in Asia as a result of water shortages. By 2080, these water shortages, due to drought, an increase in greenhouse gases, and increased amounts of water supplies becoming acidic, could cause as many as 3.2 Billion to suffer.

At the same time, tens of millions of people each year will fall victim to massive flooding as the world’s sea levels rise at an unprecedented rate. At the broad end of the predictions is the possibility that as many as 100 million people per year could suffer as a result of this flooding.

The report concludes that by 2030 there will be a significant increase in deaths from climate change related illnesses, including malnutrition and diarrhea. Tropical illnesses like Malaria are predicted to spread like wildfire by 2050, eliminating even more of the Earth’s population.

The warning of the report is clear, that the dangers of climate change are not only a reality, but that they are a reality that could very well push our species to the brink of extinction within the next few decades. The good news of the report is that most of the damage can still be prevented. The report concludes that if this generation substantially reduces the amount of CO2 emissions, and if the volume of greenhouse gases in the air stabilizes, then most of the major impacts can be avoided, but that some are still likely to occur.

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Infidelity of Newt Gingrich Forgiven By Falwell

Falwell Compares Gingrich To Ronald Reagan

By Jerry Garner

In a televised interview on Friday, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich admitted to having an extramarital affair. The affair had taken place during the time he was leading the charge against Clinton’s affair. Reverend Jerry Falwell has praised Gingrich for admitting his sin, and compared him to Ronald Reagan.

The former Speaker of the House appeared on the evangelical television program “Focus on the Family” on Friday. During the program, Gingrich admitted to the show’s founder, James Dobson, that he had an extensive affair during the 1990s with a congressional aide. Gingrich, now 63, is 20 years older than the former aide.

The controversy surrounding this revelation stems from the fact that, during the same period as his own affair, Gingrich was leading the charge against then-President Bill Clinton for his affair with Monica Lewinsky. Anticipating that he would be labeled a hypocrite, Gingrich attacked this point head-on and stated that he should not be considered a hypocrite because he was just doing his job in the Clinton impeachment case. He also pointed out that Clinton was facing charges for not telling the truth to a federal judge, not for the affair itself.

"The president of the United States got in trouble for committing a felony in front of a sitting federal judge," Gingrich said during the televised interview.

Opponents of Newt Gingrich, who could very well be a 2008 presidential candidate, are already stating that this is nothing more than a thinly veiled excuse. Critics of the former House Speaker point out that it was entirely hypocritical of Gingrich to appropriate more than $40 Million to Ken Starr’s investigation prior to Clinton’s appearance before a federal judge.

Gingrich, who is often presented as a champion of family values, ultimately divorced his wife at the time, and opted to enter into marriage with the aide he was having an affair with. His marriage to the aide, Callista Bisek, is Gingrich’s third marriage. His first wife states that Gingrich presented her with divorce while she was in recovery from cancer surgery. Gingrich has used the Oliver North defense on this topic, stating that he simply does not remember.

Despite the sharp criticism one would expect from a confession of this magnitude, Gingrich has gained the favor of at least one outspoken fan. The Reverend Jerry Falwell has come out to praise Gengrich for having the courage to go public with the truth of his past misdeeds. Falwell even went so far as to compare the infidelity of the former speaker with former President Ronald Reagan’s status as the first divorcee to run for the office.

"I well remember the challenge we evangelicals faced in 1980 when our candidate, Ronald Reagan , was the first presidential candidate who had gone through a divorce. We wisely made allowance for God‘s forgiveness and America was the beneficiary of this historic champion," Falwell stated.

The admission has left many to wonder if Gingrich is beginning to make serious plans for a 2008 presidential race, and is admitting his wrongdoing now as a form of damage control. Even though he has no firm campaign plans, Gingrich continues to rank high in conservative presidential polls. Gingrich served as Speaker of the House under the republican congress. He resigned his post in 1998 after being reprimanded by the House Ethics Committee.

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Lead Singer Of Boston Passes Away

Brad Delp Passed Away In His New Hampshire Home

By Jerry Garner

Rock fans from around the world find themselves in a state of mourning as news circulates that Brad Delp, lead singer of the band Boston, passed away Friday afternoon. A single black page that simply reads “We’ve just lost the nicest guy in rock and roll” has replaced the band’s official web site

For decades, the band Boston has inspired and captivated fans of rock and roll music, capturing an audience that spans multiple generations. Tom Scholz, an MIT graduate who had a passion for developing experimental recording equipment, formed the group in the 1970s.

The group started out as a simple experiment conducted in Scholz’s basement. He recorded guitarist Barry Goudreau and drummer Jim Masdea to test new recording equipment he had invented.

The result was a demo tape that was rejected by studio executives. Scholz tried once more, featuring his own guitar playing skills, as well as adding vocal tracks by Brad Delp. The second attempt was a success, capturing the attention of executives at Epic Records, although Mansea was replaced on drums at the request of the label.

The record label also placed conditions on the contract that all of the tracks should be re-recorded in a professional studio. The group complied with the song “Let Me Take You Home Tonight”, which was recorded in the California studio. However, the group tricked the record company with all other songs on the first album, which were re-recorded in Scholz’s basement using his home-engineered recording equipment.

The band’s initial album, self-titled “Boston”, enjoyed immense success. The unique sound engineered by the band created a revived interest in rock and roll music, at a time when disco music was rapidly taking control of the music industry. The distinctive style of the band propelled the band’s first album to becoming the largest selling debut album in the history of recorded music, boasting more than 17 million copies.

The group continued to enjoy successes spanning several albums. Although the largest part of their success was in the first decade of their music recordings, they survived on beyond this. The group played together most recently in November 2006, when they packed the Boston Symphony Hall. The band also enjoys a seasonal tour across the United States each Summer.

All of that has now been dwarfed by the tragic and untimely loss of singer Brad Delp, who passed away at the age of 55 Friday afternoon. Local police responded to a call for help at 1:20pm and discovered Delp alone in his home shortly after. Police Lt. William Baldwin said that there is no indication of foul play.

Delp sang lead vocals on the Boston hits “More Than A Feeling” and “Longtime”, and again in 2002 when he performed for the band’s latest album, “Corporate America”.

After seeing the Beatles perform on the Ed Sullivan Show, Delp purchased his first guitar in 1970. In addition to his performances with the band Boston, he also sang vocals for the band Return To Zero (RTZ), which was founded by former Boston guitarist Barry Goudreau.

Delp is survived by two children, which he fathered with former wife Micki Delp. He had announced plans to marry his present girlfriend, Pamela Sullivan, later this Summer. The two were to be wed during a two day break of the Boston 2007 Summer Tour.

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Report Says FBI Misused Patriot Act

Records were falsified to hide the problem

By Jerry Garner

The US Patriot Act, signed into law in October 2001, was meant to provide critical tools to both intercept and obstruct acts of domestic terrorism in the United States. New reports by the US Department of Justice show that the FBI not only overstepped their authority in this regard, but even went so far as to falsify records to hide their snooping against private citizens.

The Patriot Act was signed into law by President George W. Bush on October 26, 2001. This followed a landslide vote in the House of Representatives of 357 to 66, and a near unanimous vote of 98 to 1 in the US Senate. The law was passed in reference to the September 11 terror attacks on the United States, and was meant to give authorities broad-sweeping powers to identify and combat future acts of terror.

Unfortunately, it seems that the old saying of absolute power corrupting absolutely has proven true in this instance, at least according to the US Department of Justice audit released on Friday. The 126-page audit, conducted by Justice Department Inspector General Glen Fine, not only revealed an overuse of these new powers, but also proved that the FBI had under-reported their activities to Congress.

The audit charges that FBI agents sometimes demanded sensitive information without proper authorization, as well as improperly obtaining telephone records in non-emergency circumstances. Agent error and bad record keeping practices are blamed for the majority of these mistakes, and the audit claims to have found no indication of criminal activity. Opponents to the act may disagree.

"We believe the improper or illegal uses we found involve serious misuses of national security letter authorities," the audit concludes.

At the heart of the controversy are FBI “Security Letters”, which are one of the powers outlined in the Patriot Act. These letters, otherwise referred to as “Administrative Subpoenas”, are suppose to only be used in case of suspected terrorism or espionage. The subpoenas grant the FBI the authority to procure sensitive data from telephone companies, banks, credit bureaus, internet service providers and other businesses, without a warrant or without a judge even knowing that the act is carried out.

The audit reveals that the number of security letters issued by the FBI skyrocketed after the passage of the Patriot Act. An estimated 8,500 letters were issued by the Bureau in 2000. By 2003 the number had climbed to over 39,000 letters, and to more than 56,000 the following year.

The problem, and perhaps even criminal endeavor, is that the FBI vastly underestimated the number of letters issued in their reports to the US Congress. Official reports by the FBI told Congress that only 9,254 letters were issued in the years 2003 and 2004 combined. The reports deliberately underestimated the number of records seized by more than 85,000 instances, leaving many to question exactly why the authorities were not truthful with their reporting, as well as who should be held accountable for the deception.

FBI Director Robert Mueller stated that Fine’s audit was a fair and objective review, and continued on to describe the deficiencies outlined in the report as being unacceptable.

"We strive to exercise our authorities consistent with the privacy protections and civil liberties that we are sworn to uphold," Mueller said. "Anything less will not be tolerated. While we've already taken some steps to address these shortcomings, I am ordering additional corrective measures to be taken immediately."

The audit also cited instances of the FBI using “Exigent Letters” in an inappropriate manner. Exigent letters are signed by FBI officials who are not authorized to sign a Security Letter. In at least 700 instances, these exigent letters were used to obtain telephone information and email records. The letters were sent out with the false statement that the FBI had requested subpoenas for the requested information, when in fact, they had not.

Several US Senators have already expressed outrage over the findings of the audit, which is required to be carried out annually, and have vowed the strengthen oversight of the FBI in reference to these matters. A spokesperson for the office of US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales commended the office of the Inspector General for uncovering the very serious problems surrounding the FBI’s use of National Security Letters.

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Rare Coins Put Into Circulation

One-Dollar Coins Lack ‘In God We Trust’

By Jerry Garner

The United States Mint has announced that an unknown number of defective coins have been released into general circulation. The faulty coins have already appeared on the internet auction site ebay.com, selling for as much as $600 per coin.

An error made during the minting process caused a number of coins to be manufactured without the words “In God We Trust” to not be stamped onto the new George Washington One-Dollar coins. The new George Washington dollars, which are slightly larger and thicker than a Quarter, are the first in a series of Presidential coins.

The coins that were manufactured correctly bear the likeness of George Washington, along with the inscriptions “In God We Trust” and “E Pluribus Unum”. The year and mint mark are also inscribed along the edge of the coin. The defective coins fail to carry the “In God We Trust” slogan that appears on all US currency.

Having gone into circulation on February 15th, many of the 300 million coins manufactured have already found their way into the hands of coin collectors, who are attracted to the golden color of the new coin. While no official tally has been released, it appears that the coins were evenly minted in Philadelphia and Denver. Although each location produced roughly the same number of one dollar coins, the defective coins found so far have all been made at the Philadelphia mint.

While officials from the US Mint have stated that it is not known how many faulty coins were released into the market, other industry experts have released ballpark figures on the subject. Ron Guth, President of one of the world’s largest coin authentication companies, Professional Coin Grading Service, estimates that as many as 50,000 defective coins have been released.

"The first one sold for $600 before everyone knew how common they actually were," Guth said. "They're going for around $40 to $60 on eBay now, and they'll probably settle in the $50 range."

Of course, that value could increase as time goes by, as have other mistakes made by the US Mint in the past. One example pointed out by many collectors is the 1965 Roosevelt Dime. The US Mint officially stopped producing silver coins in 1964, but a number of dimes produced the following year were mistakenly minted of 90% silver. These 10-cent pieces are commonly sold for more than $20,000 today.

The “Double Die” is a more common minting error, and happens quite frequently as high speed machinery stamps a coin twice. Although this occurs more often than one would assume, the most famous double die is the 1972 Lincoln Penny. This 1-cent piece is commonly sold for as much as $600, depending on the quality of the coin.

While the value of the George Washington dollar is still uncertain, it is certain that it is worth more than the one dollar face value. Many Americans could have already won the coin lottery without even realizing it. Anyone in possession of the new dollars should analyze their pocket change carefully, because this mistake is not likely to be repeated any time soon.

According to a written statement issued by the Mint, production of the new Presidential coins required a “new, complex, high-volume manufacturing system”. There was apparently not just a failure in the new machinery, but also in the Mint’s quality control staff, who somehow allowed the coins to slip by undetected.

"We take this matter seriously. We also consider quality control a high priority. The agency is looking into the matter to determine a possible cause in the manufacturing process," the statement said.

Becky Bailey, a spokeswoman for the US Mint, said that production of the series will continue as scheduled. The next coin in the series, issued in honor of President John Adams, is scheduled to begin in May.

"We are adjusting the manufacturing process to try to eliminate the problems," Bailey said.

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