truesee's Blog

http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/06/26/florida.tsa.incident/

A veteran Brooklyn criminal defense lawyer has found himself on the wrong side of the law - and he says it's because he defended a client too well.

Kenneth Perry, who has been representing felons of all stripes for more than two decades, was arrested June 16 in a Family Court waiting room after trying to advise a client who was being arrested of his constitutional rights.

Perry, 61, claims an NYPD detective from the 84th Precinct flipped out because he was trying to stop police from questioning the client.

According to the criminal complaint, Perry was standing between his client - who was being arrested for violating a girlfriend's order of protection - and the detectives when he was ordered to move aside. He refused and pushed the detective, the complaint states.

Perry said he never pushed the detective and insists that the courthouse surveillance tape is going to prove him right.

"I'm looking forward to vindicating myself before a jury as I didn't do anything criminal," Perry told the Daily News.

Lawyer Sanford Rubenstein, retained to sue the city, said Perry was submitting to being handcuffed when he informed the cops that he was going to put his cell phone in his pocket.

"His head was slammed against the wall," Rubenstein said. He added that Perry's head was banged a second time on the roof of a radio car outside the courthouse.

Perry, who has a heart condition, was charged with harassment, obstructing government administration and resisting arrest. He spent about 20 hours in jail, where he handed out all of his business cards to other inmates.

He has subpoenaed the courthouse camera tape and asked the Brooklyn district attorney to investigate the confrontation. The request is being reviewed, a spokesman for the DA said.

http://www.eagletribune.com/local/x1479021801/Toilet-paper-caper-unfolds-at-Lawrence-City-Hall

http://www.usatoday.com/video/index.htm?bctid=1023405639001#/Rochester+woman+arrested+while+videotaping+police/1023405639001

Pelosi demands seat at debt talks Alexander Bolton The Hill 06/25/11 12:55 PM ET   House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) will demand a seat in the table for the final talks on the national debt limit, putting a strong liberal voice in the room. Pelosi and House Democrats were left out of the negotiations between President Obama and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) last year that extended nearly all of the Bush tax rates though 2012. Pelosi didn’t participate in the final high-level talks over fiscal 2011 spending levels either.  But now she’s demanding her say at a time when many of her House Democratic colleagues are disappointed in Obama’s level of consultation with their caucus.

“If they don’t have the votes, House Democrats have to be at the table,” said a House Democratic leadership aide.

Pelosi stayed out of the talks on crafting a continuing resolution funding the rest of 2011 that included $38.5 billion in spending cuts because House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) expressed confidence they would pass it without Democratic help.

But, in the end of that debate, the Republican votes fell short, and GOP leaders needed help from House Democrats. Democrats went along with a deal they had almost no part in negotiating because they wanted to avert a government shutdown.

The experience left a bitter taste in their mouths, and Pelosi won’t let it happen again.

Although she is the minority leader in a chamber that gives the minority party few powers, Pelosi believes she has leverage in the debt-limit debate.

“We know that they do not have 218 votes for any package that increases the debt limit,” said the Democratic leadership aide of House Republican leaders.

Flexing her muscle, Pelosi asked for and got a meeting with Obama on Thursday morning to discuss the next phase in the negotiations.

A last-minute defection of conservative Tea Party-affiliated lawmakers forced Boehner to rely on Democratic help in April. Pelosi believes it will be only tougher for him to round up his conference to support a compromise on the debt limit.

Pelosi is the strongest liberal voice in the Democratic leadership. She kept her position as Democratic leader in November after Democrats lost the House in a landslide by promising her caucus’s large liberal wing that she would fight for their priorities. The debt-limit talks are her chance to make good on that pledge.

Congressional leaders kept Pelosi out of the talks on the 2011 spending cuts and justified it by keeping McConnell on the sidelines as well.

McConnell still had input because he talks to Boehner at least twice a week and their staffs kept in close contact during the negotiations to avert a government shutdown.

Pelosi doesn’t have as tight a relationship with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).

The debt-limit talks that were led by Biden came to an end last week when Cantor pulled out and said it was time for Obama to get involved. Reps. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and James Clyburn (D-S.C.) represented House Democrats in those meetings.

Now the talks have moved to the very highest leadership levels with Obama planning to meet Reid and McConnell on Monday.

The president held a secret meeting with Boehner on Wednesday night.

Pelosi has made it clear that this time she intends be a part of that elite group as well.

Cheerios turn 70; iconic cereal endures, sells

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Here's a little quiz for the breakfast table:

What is the most popular cereal brand in American grocery stores?

Hint: It's been General Mills' top name since 1951.

Another hint: If you're a parent, you've vacuumed it from the minivan and under the high-chair cushion by the cupful.

The answer, of course, is Cheerios.

The iconic cereal, known by its distinctive yellow box, is 70 years old this year and still a force on the breakfast cereal market. One out of every eight boxes of cereal to leave the shelf in America carries the Cheerios name.

"They've been around since the beginning of man, right?" said Kathy Scott in Cape Coral, Fla. For her, the cereal's linked to memories of childhood Saturday morning cartoons.

"My mother was very old-fashioned, a stay-at-home mom," Scott, 50, said, "She made breakfast every morning, but on Saturday morning we were allowed to have cereal. Throw some fruit in there, sit on the floor and watch cartoons."

The tradition repeated itself with her own two children.

"Saturday morning cartoons and Cheerios," she said.

To make Cheerios, balls of dough are heated and shot out of a "puffing gun" at hundreds of miles an hour, according to General Mills. The company's waterfront plant in Buffalo has been firing them off since 1941, often cloaking the city with a distinctive toasty-with-a-sweet-finish aroma and inspiring T-shirts announcing "My city smells like Cheerios." More than 10 shapes and sizes were considered before the makers settled on little Os.

Since then, the company's introduced several new flavors, starting with Honey Nut in 1979 and last year, chocolate.

In 2009, sales of Honey Nut Cheerios surpassed the original flavor for the first time and remain in the top spot today.

But Kathleen Dohl, 30, sticks to the originals, the ones she refers to as the "old-school, yellow box, plain Jane" variety. She buys it in bulk at Sam's Club to keep her 6- and 3 year olds happy.

"That's one of the first 'real people' foods that they ate," the Chester, Va., mother said.

"They know when we're having a morning where we're running late, they're like, 'can I get a snack bag of Cheerios?'" she said, "because it's something I can't say no to. I can say no to chips. I can say no to candy. I can say no to a dozen other things, but a snack bag of Cheerios? How can you say no to that?"

So yes, she's cleaned them out of the car seats.

"At least they're not sticky," she said, "so that's a plus. And they're not so colorful. Once you grind them in they just look like the rest of the dirt, they don't look neon-colored."

General Mills began advertising Cheerios (first called Cheerioats) as a first food for toddlers in 1974. Since 1999, the company has focused on promoting the cereal as healthy; it's made from whole-grain oats, with 3 grams of fiber and 1 gram of sugar per serving. But in 2009, federal regulators took issue with the cereal box's claim that it was "clinically proven to help lower cholesterol." In a warning letter, the Food and Drug Administration said only FDA-approved drugs can make such a claim.

General Mills, in its response, stood by the claims and said the FDA's complaints dealt with how the language appears on the box, not the cereal itself. The case is still open, an FDA spokeswoman said.

"I went through a phase in high school where I drank Coca-Cola and carried around a box of Cheerios in my back pack," said Dohl, whose course schedule and yearbook duties often kept her at the computer and in her car through meals.

"That's literally what I ate for breakfast, lunch and dinner," she said. "…At least I felt like it was healthy."

Since cereal is the major source of fiber for Americans, something most people shortchange themselves on, Cornell University nutrition expert David Levitsky said it's actually not a bad idea to eat cereal as a relatively low-calorie lunch or dinner once in a while, even the sugar-sweetened variety.

"They're seducing kids to eat it," he acknowledged. "It's a technique that breakfast food companies have learned and it works… but it's got a good aspect because that's where they're getting their fiber in the morning," he said. "And all these cereals are enriched."

Americans spent $6.4 billion on ready-to-eat cereal in the 52 weeks ending May 15, according to SymphonyIRI Group, a Chicago-based market research firm that tracked sales at supermarkets, drug stores and mass merchandise outlets, excluding Walmart.

In honor of Cheerios' 70th, Buffalo's Citybration Festival will be highlighting its assets including a June 26 Cheerios breakfast in sight (and smell) of the General Mills facility.

"Cheerios are actually a more iconic food to Buffalo than even the ubiquitous chicken wing," said festival organizer Marti Gorman. (The spicy Buffalo wing came along in 1964.)

"There just must be something so gently appealing about the product," said Dave Hassett, a school counselor whose Born in Buffalo site sells the Cheerios T-shirts online and at local festivals. Along with his 4-year-old daughter, he said he eats a bowl daily. "I hope they stick around for 70 more years and beyond."

http://theweek.com/article/index/216704/should-parents-allow-teen-sex-at-home

http://www.wxyz.com/dpp/news/region/wayne_county/police-dog-bites-63-year-old-as-police-arrest-her-son

http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/pets/galleries/the_worlds_ugliest_animals_/the_worlds_ugliest_animals_.html

 

Meet Yoda the worlds ugliest dog:

http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/2011/06/25/2011-06-25_worlds_ugliest_dog_title_goes_to_yoda_a_chinese_crested_and_chihuahua_mix_.html

http://dailycaller.com/2011/06/25/american-crossroads-announces-first-ad-buy-of-2012-cycle-video/

05:27 PM ET, 06/23/2011

Can liberals start their own tea party?

By Rachel Weiner  |  05:27 PM ET, 06/23/2011

http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/obit/2011-06-24-peter-falk-columbo-obit-alzheimers-disease_n.htm

http://www.wsbtv.com/news/28337694/detail.html?cxntlid=cmg_cntnt_rss

4:19 p.m. Thursday, June 23, 2011

Undercover cops exposed to drug dealers

 

Jacksonville, FL —