truesee's Blog

North Carolina man robs store for a dollar so he can get health care in prison for medical problems

Nina Mandell
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Tuesday, June 21st 2011, 4:00 AM

 

A North Carolina man robbed a local store for a dollar just so he could get health care in prison, he said.
 
James Verone, 59, handed the teller a note demanding $1 and claimed he had a gun, ABC News reported.
 
He then walked away and sat down, waiting for police.
 
"I started to walk away from the teller, then I went back and said, I'll be sitting right over there in the chair waiting for the police," he said, according to local television station 9News. "I wanted to make it known that this wasn't for monetary reasons, but for medical reasons."
 
Verone, who committed the robbery on June 9, does not plan to pay his bail, which was recently reduced to $2,000.

 

 

The one-ounce silver medal's heads side features Lady Liberty with the inscription "always remember 2001-2011," while the reverse side portrays an eagle against the backdrop of cascading water.

"The medal we present to the American public today has been created by the United States Mint to commemorate September 11, 2001, a day that changed our Nation and world forever," United States Treasurer Rosie Rios said at the unveiling. "This medal's design is intended to exalt the memory of those that sacrificed their lives or were injured, and the families who continue to show dignity and strength in the face of terrible loss," she said.

The U.S. Mint will produce up to 2 million medals, according to a press release.

The medal, which went on sale Monday, is available at an introductory rate of $56.95 through August 18, after which the price will go up to $66.95. A $10 surcharge collected from the sale of each medal will to go to the National September 11 Memorial & Museum.

The 9/11 Memorial Preview Site, which held the unveiling, includes "models, renderings, films and real-time images of construction so that visitors can understand the plans and progress" of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, according to its website.

The 9/11 memorial will be dedicated on September 11, 2011, and open to the public on September 12, its website says.

Carolyn Jones

Chronicle Staff Writer

Link to photos: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/c/a/2011/06/19/BAIN1JVID8.DTL&object=%2Fc%2Fpictures%2F2011%2F06%2F18%2Fmn-dusty18_PH_0503644763.jpg

David and Jenelle York received a card and rose after they were victims of identity theft.     Maple Valley couple receives card and rose by alleged identity thief TJ MARTINELL Covington Reporter Reporter Jun 13 2011, 5:44 PM   A rose in a vase and a thank you card is usually an expression of gratitude and thoughtfulness. But when it is sent by an identity thief to his victims, it's "like sticking a finger in their eye," as Maple Valley resident David York puts it. This is what happened to David, 28, and his wife, Jenelle, 27. The couple realized something was wrong on May 31, when they were shopping at Walmart in Covington and their credit card was declined. "I was frustrated and really confused," David York said. According to the police report, "Jenelle immediately called her credit/debit card company, (VB) Bank of America. Jenelle was told by Bank of America that suspicious activity was found on their account." "Nothing really flashed through my mind, until they read the charges," David York said. At home, Jenelle York checked her account online, and found several charges which neither she or her husband had made. The purchases had been made overseas to a jewelry website, Netflix and FTD, an online florist company. David York stated the purchases ranged from the East Coast to England and Germany. Three days later, David York opened his front door to go for a ride and found a black box sitting on their front step. He opened the box and discovered a rose, a vase and a card attached that read "Thank You." "We were wondering where it was going to go," he said. "We didn't expect it to arrive here. I called up my wife and said, 'Honey, I know where the flowers went. Here.'" David York said a total of $400 was stolen. Bank of America has given them a full refund of their money. He added the whole ordeal has been a big hassle for his wife. King County Sheriff's Office spokesman Sgt. John Urquhart stated in an email the investigation is ongoing and no further information about the suspect is known. "It's pretty straightforward," Urquhart wrote. "Except they got the flower sent to them." "I'll send flowers to him when he's in jail," David York said.

 

June 19, 2011

According to police officials, Moza Surgana resident Ejaz Ahmed was set to marry Shazia and in-exchange their siblings Farzana, 14, and Amir Hussain, 9, were set to tie the knot on Friday afternoon. “There is nothing wrong with this match. All the parties had agreed and the children wanted the marriage,” said the bridegroom Amir’s mother Amira Bibi. “The police has no right to interfere in this instance. This is a private matter and no one was harmed. We don’t have to consult the police before settling on a match for our children,” said Farzana’s mother Mukhtar Bibi.

Mailsi Circle DSP Malik Daud and SHO Mitro Muhammad Aslam said they arrested the parents of the children after they received a tip off that two minors were being wed. “This has nothing to do with the parent’s wishes or the fact that the children agreed to the match.

The marriage of minors is illegal,” said Daud. “We need to raise awareness about the fact that underage marriages are wrong, regardless of tradition or culture. The children may have agreed to the marriage but a nine-year-old boy is not capable of making such a decision,” said an NGO worker Shabnam Batool.

Mitro police officials said that they raided a home on Friday afternoon.

“The entire place was packed with wedding guests and we saw the couples sitting on stage. “Ejaz and Shazia are of the legal age to get married but the watta satta of their younger siblings is wrong,” said Aslam.

Amir Hussain’s father Fida Hussain said “The police has no business to interfere in these matters. This is a custom of our land and we are not going to begin to adopt western customs. My son agreed to marry Farzana and she obeyed her parents,” he said. “There is nothing criminal in it,” he added.

Mitro police interrogated both couples under the Marriage Act and registered separate cases against the parents of both minor’s in the case. “They have ruined our wedding in the process and we cannot tolerate such injustice,” said Ejaz.

Muhammad Nawaz and Fida Hussain told reporters that the police had insulted them and arrested them over a wrong tip. “They thought this marriage was illegal because we were forcing the children but after they asked them both said they had agreed to the match. There is no case here,” Fida said.

“Ejaz and Shazia were going to get married and under the watta satta tradition Amir and Farzana’s nikah was also decided,” Muhammad Nawaz said.

“This has been happening in our family for decades. We will not stop it because the police and forces are trying to force us to adopt western norms,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 19th, 2011.

10 Reasons Obama is a One-Term President

Daniel Flynn

Human Events

June 20, 2011

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Less than two months ago, buzzing from the president’s gutsy call to eliminate Osama bin Laden, liberal pontificators had practically sworn in Barack Obama for his second term.

“For the GOP the sands are rushing through the hourglass,” Roger Simon wrote in a column whose title had wondered whether the president was “invincible.”

He claimed that with Geronimo KIA, “the Republican field has been fried like an egg.”

In reality, the president’s short-term popularity boost had fried the long-term judgment of his supporters.

 

 

The reasons to believe Obama a one-term president are many and well-grounded.

10. The Declaration of Independents

Candidate Obama attracted independents. President Obama repulses them. The president entered office with the approval of 62 percent of independents. The latest Gallup poll shows support of just 42 percent of independents. Similarly, the political moderates key to his election have deserted the president as immoderate policies have emerged. There simply aren’t enough liberals for Democrats to lose moderates and win elections. No Democratic candidate over the last half century has won the presidency without winning moderates. 

9. A Redder America

Barack Obama faces a redder electoral map than he did in 2008. The 2012 presidential election is more than a year away, but the Electoral College has already shifted twelve votes away from blue states and toward red states. Most of the states gaining electoral votes in the census reapportionment voted for McCain. Almost all of the states losing electoral votes voted for Obama. Even the states that Obama carried that added electoral votes—Nevada and Florida, to name two—don’t seem locks to go for the president in 2012. The loss of electoral votes isn’t fatal to Obama. It is a handicap.

8. The Issues Have Changed

Gallup’s “Monthly Most Important Problem” survey is a problem for the president. What is troubling the American people? Over the first five months of 2011, Americans point to the economy (29%), unemployment (26%), the deficit (13%), and government (11%). The issues most salient to voters uniformly work to the incumbent’s disadvantage. When Iraq, health care, and Republican mishandling of the economy mattered to voters, Obama could go on the offensive. It’s difficult to see how he scores points in 2012 on the issues that resonate with voters. He will be on his heels.

7. The Blank Canvass Isn’t Anymore

Other than William Jennings Bryan and Wendell Willkie, who is the major party nominee with a skimpier record than 2008’s Barack Obama? He could vote “present” in the Illinois legislature and run away from U.S. Senate votes while running for higher office. But presidents can’t remain blank slates for long. Unpopular ObamaCare, a sedative stimulus, ineptness in the face of the BP oil spill, and defiance of Congress in starting a third Middle Eastern war have all painted a presidential picture that has calcified conservative opposition, alienated moderates, and disillusioned liberal supporters.

6. Demoralized Liberals

Left-wing activist Ralph Nader encourages a primary challenge. Ohio Democrat Dennis Kucinich sues the administration over Libya. Netroots conference goers boo White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer. Rather than rejoice at a universal health-care bill that eluded predecessors or the introduction of open homosexuality in the military, liberals decry Obama for retaining Bush-era tax rates, playing warden over Guantanamo Bay, and launching a new war in Libya. Never can Democrats satiate their cannibalistic base. If you think this is an overstatement, feel free to examine the teeth marks on the political carcasses of Al Gore, Jimmy Carter, and Lyndon Johnson. Leftists may not primary this president or siphon votes through a suicidal third-party bid. But neither will they work or give at the levels they did in 2008.

5. Energized Conservatives

After eight years of big-government Bush, an underwhelming primary field, and a sclerotic general election campaign, conservatives could be given a mulligan for sleepwalking through the last presidential election. Conservatives, just 34 percent of the electorate in 2008’s election, comprised 42 percent of voters in 2010. From tea-parties to raucous town halls, the political dynamic of the country has been altered. It showed in 2010, when Republicans added 63 House seats, seven Senate seats, and six governors. Nothing invigorates a party’s base like an aggressive ideologue of the opposing party occupying the White House. The GOP clearly has the momentum heading into 2012.

4. The Political Ground Has Shifted Beneath the President’s Feet

A political lifetime has elapsed since Barack Obama’s election. Bailouts and big-government have yielded to tea parties and deficit angst. Gallup’s ideological identification survey registered the highest percentage of liberals in its history the year of Barack Obama’s election. Gallup’s most recent ideological identification survey registered its highest percentage of conservatives since the inaugural 1992 poll. Between the 2008 survey and last year’s, conservatives have gained seven points vis-à-vis liberals. To know liberalism isn’t to love it.

3. Historic Turnouts Aren’t Every-Four-Year Occurrences

Obama surfed to victory in 2008 on the crest of two historic waves. African Americans constituted a larger percentage of the electorate than ever recorded. And young people voted for the Democratic candidate by the greatest margin ever. Two-thirds of 18-to-29 year olds cast ballots for Obama. A staggering 19 out of every 20 African American voters pulled the lever for Obama. The precarious foundation of the Democrat’s election rested on the remarkable turnout, and the amazing one-sidedness, of two constituencies—African Americans and young people—who traditionally stay home on Election Day. That both groups have been hit especially hard by the economic slump makes it hard to envision a repeat of the amazing African American turnout and one-sided youth vote.   

2. A Low Ceiling

Roger Simon wondered if the president was “invincible” in the wake of killing bin Laden. More perceptive observers saw vulnerability. Counterintuitively, the assassination of America’s most reviled enemy revealed Barack Obama’s political weaknesses, not his strengths. The president’s weekly Gallup approval average topped out at 51 percent following the bin Laden operation. The best possible week of Obama’s presidency yielded barely half of the electorate’s support. His enemies should acknowledge the man has a floor of support. His supporters should acknowledge he has a ceiling, too.

1. It’s Still the Economy, Stupid

The Misery Index, popularized by Governor Carter to hound President Ford only to be President Carter’s undoing, haunts Democrats again. The combined unemployment and inflation rates are at their worst level in twenty-eight years. The stock market has just spent six weeks in the red. The GDP grows at an anemic rate of 1.8 percent. The housing market has been in shambles for five years, and seems to be double dipping. Debt approaches GDP. Flat-lining and nose-diving trend lines make the president’s reelection precarious. Even a browbeaten Bill Daley, the president’s chief of staff, conceded to an incensed National Association of Manufacturers convention, “Sometimes you can’t defend the indefensible.” He said it. 

Barack Obama is a formidable campaigner. His presidency is not without accomplishment (see, Osama bin Laden). And occupants of the White House have lost general elections just five times in the last hundred years. But he has governed ineffectively and stubbornly against the wishes of the American people. He could win reelection. But the preponderance of indicators suggests his defeat. This should make conservatives hopeful for change. 

June 20th, 2011

 

 

 

‘Oprah’s Next Chapter’ Show Wants O.J. Simpson to Confess

Unfortunately, you heard right. Yes, Oprah Winfrey is starting a brand new talk show. It won’t be on prime time television though, but will be aired in January 2012 on her OWN Network.

The new show, “Oprah’s Next Chapter” seems to be a way to bring those low ratings up from her new Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN).

On this show, she plans to get O.J. Simpson on her show and wants him to confess. In an interview Thursday,

“I have a dream of OJ Simpson confessing to me,” she said. “And I am going to make that happen, people. I don’t just want the interview. I want the interview on the condition that you are ready, Mr. Simpson,” reports say at Newser.com.

She also wants to get Susan Smith from South Carolina, who is currently doing time for murdering her two children.

We are not sure how great that show will do. We’d like to suggest that maybe if she takes her name off of everything she does the vanity may not shine so brightly.