truesee's Blog

ANDY BARR

8/17/10 8:40 AM EDT Updated: 8/17/10 8:51 AM EDT

President Barack Obama's approval rating has dipped to a new low in the latest Gallup poll.

Obama's 44 percent average approval in Gallup's daily tracking polls last week marks the weakest level of support he has registered since taking office.

His weekly average had been holding steady at 45 percent approval in recent weeks. 

Additionally, the share of Americans who disapprove of the president's job performance reached 50 percent for the first time over the three-day stretch of Aug. 13-15. 

The drop can likely be attributed to the loss of independents. Obama's approval rating among independents now stands at 39 percent, down 4 points from June. Obama began his presidency with the support 74 percent of independents. 

Eighty percent of Democrats still approve of the president's job performance, down only 2 percent from June. 

Obama?s numbers among Republicans have also remained relatively constant as only 12 percent approve of his performance, the same level from this April. 

The tracking surveys conducted August 9-15 were based on telephone surveys with 3,672 adults nationwide. The margin of error is plus or minus 2 percentage points.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0810/41151.html#ixzz0wsAMiXD2

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Male-Drivers-In-New-York-Are-More-Dangerous-To-Pedestrians-Than-Women-Or-Taxis-Research-Says/Article/201008315691024?f=rss

The memo was brief. 

The NYPD is warning cops to be on the lookout for criminals wearing underwear with hidden pockets for their stash.

Police said Monday they learned about the invention during the bust of a Brooklyn marijuana suspect last month. 

"It was found that many companies carry this type of underwear with a secret pocket for males and females," police said in an officer safety alert. "The arrested perpetrator gave information that drugs and weapons are being concealed in underwear that contains secret pockets." 

Several companies make such undergarments, but the memo cites the $12 Pocket Boxer Briefs made by Sta<snip>wear. The company's website shows a 2-liter bottle of Coca-Cola tucked into the 15-inch deep pocket. 

There's also a demonstration of a wearer shoving money, two cigarettes, a cell phone, a wallet, a condom and a lighter, among other items, into the undies. 

"I'm just trying to show you how big the pocket is," the demonstrator says, patting himself. "Can't even tell they're there. A thief would never know." 

Company owner Phillip Scott did not respond to a request for comment, but he has said his targets are travelers looking to avoid getting ripped off - not drug dealers who want to hide their wares. 

He said he got the idea after losing his wallet on a trip a few years ago. 

The NYPD alert noted other companies are marketing similar garments, including the mind-boggling thongs with pockets. 

Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne, the NYPD's top spokesman, said police have not found any criminals hiding contraband in their drawers since the alert went out. 

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/08/17/2010-08-17_underwhere_drug_suspect_warns_cops_of_pocket_briefs.html#ixzz0wrkboIzv

August 13, 2010

Salem police: Suspect faked death to beat court case

Julie Manganis

Gloucester Times 

Staff writer

SALEM — Salem police are looking for a man they believe tried to fake his own death to beat a pending court case. 

Michael Rosen, 42, of 181 North St., Salem, is now wanted on forgery and counterfeiting charges. And that case he tried to beat — which was initially dismissed — is back on the court's docket, as well. 

Rosen, who was already on probation for other offenses, was arrested in June after a fender bender on North Street revealed that he had no license. 

On Tuesday, a man claiming to be Rosen's brother walked into the Salem District Court clerk's office with what he said was Rosen's death certificate, showing that Rosen had died the week before. 

A clerk put the document in Rosen's file, and the next day, a judge dismissed the case, which is what routinely happens when a person dies while a case is pending. 

When Rosen's probation officer, Sean Whalen, learned of the dismissal, he was surprised, because he had spoken with Rosen a week earlier and Rosen appeared to be in good health. 

Then, he and other probation officers grew suspicious. Whalen called another probation officer who is supervising Rosen in Concord District Court and learned that Rosen had checked in with that court Monday — four days after he had purportedly died. 

Another probation officer, whose mother is a nurse, noticed that the death certificate listed the cause of Rosen's demise as "cardio-respiratory" arrest and knew the term that is normally used is "cardiac-respiratory." 

The probation officers took the information to Salem police Lt. Conrad Prosniewski, the department's police prosecutor. 

He brought the death certificate to the Salem city clerk's office, and a clerk there confirmed that it was a fake. Not only was it lacking a raised seal, but it was printed on the wrong kind of paper, the margins were not in line, and there is no original copy at City Hall. 

In addition, the place of birth, Saugus, was misspelled, as was the cemetery — it was spelled "Temple Isreal" on the certificate (the correct spelling is Israel). 

Prosniewski then handed over the case to Salem police Detective James Page, who did some more investigating. 

Page checked and found no record of any deaths at Rosen's apartment, where the death purportedly took place. 

He also called the cemetery and learned that no one named Michael Robert Rosen had been buried there. 

Rosen, who has a lengthy record that includes prior forgery, identity fraud and similar charges, is also wanted by Lynn court officials in other pending cases.

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This undated photo released by the FBI shows Alan J. Garrett. (AP Photo/FBI)

Alan Garrett turned himself in Friday

Monday, 16 Aug 2010, 2:11 PM EDT

GALLOWAY, Ohio (AP) - The FBI says a man arrested in an Ohio bank robbery looked familiar to bank employees. 

Turns out, he had an account there and was one of their customers. 

Agent Harry Trombitas says 43-year-old Alan Garrett turned himself in Friday, two days after the bank holdup in suburban Galloway. Authorities say a man wearing sunglasses and a baseball cap handed the teller a note demanding money and he got away with some cash. 

The FBI says bank workers got the license plate number of the suspect's car, and the number was traced to Garrett. 

Garrett was jailed on one count of aggravated robbery and a $50,085 bond. Court records didn't list an attorney.

Grandpa, 85, accused of smuggling pot

Carrie Whitaker • Cincinnati Enquirer • August 16, 2010

TURTLECREEK TWP. – An 85-year-old West Chester man was arrested Friday for attempting to smuggle a bag of marijuana to his grandson, an inmate at the state prison.

According to the Ohio State Highway Patrol, Richard J. Heritz was confronted by investigators at the Warren Correctional Institution after they obtained information that Heritz would be attempting to convey the drugs during a scheduled visit with his grandson. 

He voluntarily surrendered a large package containing 22 grams of suspected marijuana worth about $500 in the prison, according to a news release issued by the OSP. 

Heritz was charged with conveying drugs and possessing criminal tools, felonies that carries a penalty up to seven years in prison and a $15,000 fine.

Indra Tamang, the Nepalese-born butler who inherited two apartments in The Dakota, poses outside the building.

This is rich. 

The lucky butler who suddenly became a millionaire when his boss left him her estate - two sumptuous apartments in The Dakota plus an art collection, all worth an estimated $8 million - pines for his old life. 

"Mud house dweller as I was I rather live in own cocoon," Indra Tamang wrote on his blog. "I rather be Indra of yore. I rather live my own life than try to be someone else." 

The Nepalese immigrant, who was rewarded for three decades of faithful service to actress Ruth Ford, wrote that the media blitz that followed revelations of his good fortune "hit me hard as hell." 

He admitted that suddenly being in the spotlight went straight to his head.

"The stars in my head lingered quite some time," he wrote. "It still comes back sometimes - the sporadic media interviews, invitation to host talk shows, chair a program hosted to recognize my own 'success.'"

Still posted on Tamang's blog Friday was a Happy Birthday from July to his late benefactress that ended with the words, "Miss you." 

Tamang, 57, who lives in a modest Woodside, Queens, two-family house with his wife and three kids, was not taking calls Friday. One of his Dakota apartments, a three-bedroom, is on the market for $5 million. 

The butler's tale is literally a rags-to-riches story. 

Born in a Nepalese farming village, Tamang was actually raised in a mud hut. His life took its first fortuitous turn when he met Ford's brother, poet Charles Henri Ford, who brought him to the U.S. in 1974. 

"I was always hearing about America," Tamang told the Wall Street Journal. "I took my chance and I came. I had no idea how the work was going to go and how long I would stay." 

They moved into the Dakota studio Ford also owned and Tamang wound up cooking and cleaning for both sister and brother. He even took up photography and travelled the world with his employer.

Thanks to the Fords, Tamang also got to meet some of the brightest cultural lights in the big city, everybody from Leonard Bernstein to Andy Warhol. And he continued to faithfully serve the Fords in their declining years. 

Before Ruth Ford died, she cut her daughter Shelley Scott and her two grandchildren out of the will. The disinherited daughter contested the will and eventually got a settlement. She also let it be known that she was "very happy" for Tamang. 

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/08/13/2010-08-13_former_butler_indra_tamang_who_inherited_8m_from_actress_ruth_ford_misses_his_ol.html#ixzz0wpduCEb3

Roessler/PoolNadja Benaissa, German pop singer with the girl band 'No Angels,' awaits the start of her trial in Germany.

Beier/GettyBenaissa poses in January in Munich, Germany.

Nadja Benaissa, of the best-selling girl group No Angels, told a German court on Monday that she knowingly exposed multiple men to the HIV virus without telling them she was a carrier.

Benaissa, 28, is on trial this week, accused of "grievous bodily harm and attempted aggravated assult," British newspaper The Guardian reports.

The singer allegedly hid her illness from three men she had sex with between 2000 and 2004, one of whom later became infected with the HIV virus.

 The 34-year-old man says he and Benaissa had unprotected sex multiple times, and that her aunt ultimately told him the singer was HIV positive, causing him to get himself tested. 

"You have unleashed a lot of misery into the world," the man said to Benaissa in the courtroom Monday. 

During the five-day trial, the Daily Mail reports, AIDS expert Professor Josef Eberle of Ludwig-Maximillian University in Munich is expected to testify that the man was infected by someone else. 

Benaissa tested positive for the virus when she was 17, but kept it a secret from her sexual partners because she didn't think it was likely that she would infect them. 

"I'd been told the likelihood of infecting someone or that I would develop the illness [AIDS] was more or less zero," she said in a statement read aloud by her lawyer. 

"For that reason, I kept the news even from my close group of friends [as] I didn't want my daughter to be stigmatised," the statement continued. "I never made it public because I feared that it would mean the end of the band." 

In Germany, not telling your partner that you are HIV positive before you have sex is punishable by jail time. 

If convicted, Benaissa could face between six months and 10 years behind bars. She could even be sentenced to life imprisonment if the man who claims she infected him dies, the Guardian reports. 

In the face of the accusations, an emotional Benaissa expressed her regret on Monday. 

"I never wanted this to happen to any one of my partners," she said. "In those days I was careless...I'm sorry from the bottom of my heart." 

No Angels shot to fame in 2000 when they were discovered on an "American Idol"-type talent show. 

They are Germany's most successful female band to date, and have had four No. 1 singles and three No. 1 albums. 

A verdict is expected August 26.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2010/08/16/2010-08-16_german_pop_star_nadja_benaissa_admits_to_hiding_hiv_virus_from_sexual_partners_e.html#ixzz0wnKun1FT

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http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/08/16/a-sign-of-forgiveness.html?sid=101

A jobless couple living in a $1,200-a-month house paid for by taxpayers is expecting a 12th child, it has been reported.

Gary Bateman, 46, and his partner Joanne Sheppard, 36, moved this year to a new privately-rented five-bedroom home in Staple Hill, Bristol. 

Mother-of-11 Ms Sheppard became pregnant again shortly after moving into the new property and is due to give birth at the end of the year, The Sun reported. 

Referring to the pregnancy, Mr Bateman told the paper: "It was an accident. Something happened that wasn't supposed to. We've enough for a football team."

The couple complained last year that their previous three-bedroom council house in Yate, near Bristol, was too small for their large family. 

South Gloucestershire Council officials visited in October and agreed they were suffering from overcrowding and needed somewhere bigger to live. 

But the main local social housing association, Merlin Housing Society, had no five-bedroom properties, so they were told to find a new home on the private market to be paid for by housing benefit, a council spokesman said. 

Matthew Elliott, chief executive of campaign group the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: "It's disgraceful that this family is being given more than taxpayers earn. Our benefits system needs real reform." 

A South Gloucestershire Council spokesman said: "Our input was to do an assessment. They said they were overcrowded. We have a statutory obligation if there are children involved to have a look. 

"In this particular instance it was assessed that the children were suffering from overcrowding. Therefore we have a statutory duty under legislation laid down by central Government to help them get rehoused." 

Read more: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/uk/jobless-couple-expecting-12th-child-14912767.html#ixzz0wliIOdOy

Superheroes like Iron Man are sending out the wrong message to susceptible young boys, say researchers

 
A generation ago they stood up for the highest principles of fairness, courage and decency, but today's tough-guy superheroes are sending out the wrong message to susceptible young boys, say researchers.

The "macho" role models in comic books and movies may be damaging the social skills of teenagers and even affecting their performance at school, it is claimed.

US psychologist Professor Sharon Lamb, from the University of Massachusetts in Boston, said: "Today's superhero is too much like an action hero who participates in non-stop violence; he's aggressive, sarcastic, and rarely speaks to the virtue of doing good for humanity."

"When not in superhero costume, these men, like Iron Man, exploit women, flaunt bling and convey their manhood with high-powered guns."

"There is a big difference in the movie superhero of today and the comic book superhero of yesterday." 

Although the old-style heroes fought criminals, "these were heroes boys could look up to and learn from because outside of their costumes they were real people with real problems and many vulnerabilities," said Prof Lamb.

The superhero's flip side - the "slacker" - was equally dangerous, she maintained.

Slackers are individuals who revel in underachievement and "save face" by not even trying.

The archetype slacker is Jeff Bridges' character "The Dude" in the film The Big Lebowski.

Read more: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/breaking-news/offbeat/superheroes-send-wrong-message-14912054.html?r=RSS#ixzz0wlgA0Nc6

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