http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Strange-News/Workmen-Flee-After-Digging-Up-Wrong-Property-In-Brisbane-Australia/Article/201005115626270?f=rss

Police: Man makes up robbery to get ride home

May 9, 2010 11:13 AM 

Police: Man makes up robbery to get ride home

But as officers searched the area and noticed inconsistencies in his account, the man admitted fabricating the robbery story because he wanted a ride home.

He said his cell phone was out of minutes and 911 was the only number he could still call.

Officials say charges against the man are pending.

inconsistencies in his account, the man admitted fabricating the robbery story because he wanted a ride home.

He said his cell phone was out of minutes and 911 was the only number he could still call.

Officials say charges against the man are pending.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/08/bob-bennett-utah-gop-senate_n_568988.html

White flight? Suburbs lose young whites to cities

HOPE YEN

Associated Press Writer

Saturday, May 8, 2010

(05-08) 21:52 PDT WASHINGTON (AP) --

White flight? In a reversal, America's suburbs are now more likely to be home to minorities, the poor and a rapidly growing older population as many younger, educated whites move to cities for jobs and shorter commutes.

An analysis of 2000-2008 census data by the Brookings Institution highlights the demographic "tipping points" seen in the past decade and the looming problems in the 100 largest metropolitan areas, which represent two-thirds of the U.S. population.

The findings could offer an important road map as political parties, including the tea party movement, seek to win support in suburban battlegrounds in the fall elections and beyond. In 2008, Barack Obama carried a substantial share of the suburbs, partly with the help of minorities and immigrants.

The analysis being released Sunday provides the freshest detail on the nation's growing race and age divide, which is now feeding tensions in Arizona over its new immigration law.

Ten states, led by Arizona, surpass the nation in a "cultural generation gap" in which the senior populations are disproportionately white and children are mostly minority.

This gap is pronounced in suburbs of fast-growing areas in the Southwest, including those in Florida, California, Nevada, and Texas.

"A new metro map is emerging in the U.S. that challenges conventional thinking about where we live and work," said Alan Berube, research director with the Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings, a nonpartisan think-tank based in Washington. "The old concepts of suburbia, Sun Belt and Rust Belt are outdated and at odds with effective governance."

Suburbs still tilt white. But, for the first time, a majority of all racial and ethnic groups in large metro areas live outside the city. Suburban Asians and Hispanics already had topped 50 percent in 2000, and blacks joined them by 2008, rising from 43 percent in those eight years.

The suburbs now have the largest poor population in the country. They are home to the vast majority of baby boomers age 55 to 64, a fast-growing group that will strain social services after the first wave of boomers turns 65 next year.

Analysts attribute the racial shift to suburbs in many cases to substantial shares of minorities leaving cities, such as blacks from New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Whites, too, are driving the trend by returning or staying put in larger cities.

Washington, D.C., and Atlanta posted the largest increases in white share since 2000, each up 5 percentage points to 44 percent and 36 percent, respectively. Other white gains were seen in New York, San Francisco, Boston and cities in another seven of the nation's 100 largest metro areas.

"A new image of urban America is in the making," said William H. Frey, a demographer at Brookings who co-wrote the report. "What used to be white flight to the suburbs is turning into 'bright flight' to cities that have become magnets for aspiring young adults who see access to knowledge-based jobs, public transportation and a new city ambiance as an attraction."

"This will not be the future for all cities, but this pattern in front runners like Atlanta, Portland, Ore., Raleigh, N.C., and Austin, Texas, shows that the old urban stereotypes no longer apply," he said. 

The findings are part of Brookings' broad demographic portrait of America since 2000, when the country experienced the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, a historic boom in housing prices and the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.

Calling 2010 the "decade of reckoning," the report urges policymakers to shed outdated notions of America's cities and suburbs and work quickly to address the coming problems caused by the dramatic shifts in population.

Among its recommendations: affordable housing and social services for older people in the suburbs; better transit systems to link cities and suburbs; and a new federal Office of New Americans to serve the education and citizenship needs of the rapidly growing immigrant community.

Other findings:

_About 83 percent of the U.S. population growth since 2000 was minority, part of a trend that will see minorities become the majority by midcentury. Across all large metro areas, the majority of the child population is now nonwhite.

_The suburban poor grew by 25 percent between 1999 and 2008 — five times the growth rate of the poor in cities. City residents are more likely to live in "deep" poverty, while a higher share of suburban residents have incomes just below the poverty line.

_For the first time in several decades, the population is growing at a faster rate than households, due to delays in marriage, divorce and births as well as longer life spans. People living alone and nonmarried couple families are among the fastest-growing in suburbs.

The Congression of United Presbyterian Church located at 62-554 60th Place in Ridgewood.

Farriella for NewsGym Director Mark Ortiz and Pastor Henry Fury in the gym in the basement at the Congression of United Presbyterian Church.

It's not easy in this age of dwindling membership and growing costs for a church to tend to its flock and pay the bills.

But one Ridgewood congregation is taking some bold steps to keep services going in its stately 103-year-old church while reaching out to its changing community.

The United Presbyterian Church at 60th Place shares its building with the Rock Fitness Center, which draws fitness buffs and weightlifters from all over.

And it has hired a real estate broker to see if anyone is interested in developing the property.

Ideally, members would like to build senior citizen housing on the land surrounding the church as a way to serve the community and increase income.

But members said they can't rule out the sad possibility that the stunning sanctuary, with its impressive stained-glass windows, may one day be put up for sale and demolished.

"The church is beautiful but it's a beast to heat," said Mike Baldomir, 40, one of the church elders. "Electric and gas has gone up. We can barely make the bills."

Baldomir and the Rev. Henry Fury said the church would rather use its meager funds to run a soup kitchen, food pantry, support groups and other outreach projects.

"This is a magnificent church and no one wants to tear it down," said Fury, the church's pastor. "But are you a church to maintain buildings or to do the mission of the church?"

The church was started in the early 1900s by German immigrants and other Presbyterians who settled in Ridgewood and the surrounding neighborhoods.

But demographic shifts in the area have been tough on the church. German-Americans moved out as Eastern Europeans and Latinos - who tend to be Orthodox Christian and Catholic - moved in.

About 70 families are currently members of the church.

"The congregation is not disbanding," Fury said. "We are exploring our options."

The addition of the Rock Fitness Center has allowed the church to make some money for its programs while providing both an affordable gym for local residents and an outlet for teens.

Church member Mark Ortiz, who used to run a nearby gym, donated the equipment and runs the facility, which is open most days from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m.

"I'm always here," said Ortiz, 43, who is well-known in fitness circles. "The whole place is run by volunteers." 

Fury is a developer who is currently crafting a potential design for senior housing that would leave the church intact.

"This would also be another way for us to serve the community," he said.

Some preservationists, however, are dismayed that the congregation would even consider selling its historic sanctuary. 

"It is a wonderful piece of architecture and adds variety and beauty to the streetscape," said Christina Wilkinson of the Newtown Historical Society. "Even those who don't attend this church will miss it if it is lost."

Bob Singleton, a Queens historian whose family has deep roots in the Presbyterian church, said he is worried that too many cash-strapped congregations are quick to sell off their property.

"Religious bodies are built by time and treasure donated by their members for religious purposes," said Singleton, who is not affiliated with the church in Ridgewood.

"If they feel they can no longer fulfill that function, they should pass the property on to another religious body who could." 

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/queens/2010/05/09/2010-05-09_united_presbyterian_church_pays_bills_with_rock_fitness_center_for_body_and_soul.html#ixzz0nQlSHfQ9

New Obama book by Newsweek senior editor Jonathan Alter airs private flares of temper

David Saltonstall
DAILY NEWS SENIOR CORRESPONDENT

 

Originally Published:Saturday, May 8th 2010, 1:32 AM
Updated: Saturday, May 8th 2010, 1:32 AM

 

Souza/Getty

President Obama talks with Gen. Stanley McChrystal in Oct. 2009, the same month he got a historic 'presidential dressing down' according to 'The Promise: President Obama, Year One.'

President Obama may cultivate an image as the unflappable Mr. Cool, but he can get hot under the collar too, according to a new book.

In "The Promise: President Obama, Year One," by Newsweek senior editor Jonathan Alter, the author recounts a series of private blow-ups - including a particularly fiery one involving the nation's top military brass.

"A presidential dressing down unlike any in the United States in more than half a century," is how Alter describes the October 2009 eruption.

The background: Gen. Stanley McChrystal had just given a speech in London in which he publicly rejected proposals to turn the tide in Afghanistan with more drone missiles and special forces, a strategy backed mainly by Vice President Biden.

The President viewed McChrystal's comments as a bald attempt to back him into a Pentagon-backed plan more reliant on troop buildups - and he soon ripped into top commanders for what he considered insubordination.

In an Oval Office showdown, Obama told Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Gen. David Petraeus that he was "exceedingly unhappy" with the Pentagon's conduct, Alter reported, adding that its leaks to the press were "disrespectful of the process."

"This was a cold and bracing meeting," an attendee said of the encounter, where Obama demanded to know "here and now" if the Pentagon would be onboard with any presidential strategy. 

It apparently worked: Petraeus later described himself as "chagrined," and both he and Gates "swore loyalty" to the President. Obama eventually supported a troop buildup.

"The Promise," due out from Simon & Schuster on May 18, has other, steamier moments - including one starring French First Lady Carla Bruni a one-time supermodel.

Alter recounts how Bruni once bragged to First Lady Michelle Obama how she and French President Nicholas Sarkozy kept a head of state waiting while they had sex.

 Bruni wanted to know if, like the Sarkozys, Michelle and the President had ever kept anyone waiting that way," Alter writes, offering no source. "Michelle laughed nervously and said no."

But it's often the flashes of anger, not amour, that shine through Alter's tome, including:

• Asked during the 2008 campaign what accounted for a drop-off in his Jewish support, Obama snipped to a radio reporter off-air, "It's the f------ Clintons." Later, as Obama mulled appointing Hillary Clinton his Secretary of State, he cracked, "Hillary still has some anger issues with me."

• When he found that his Justice Department lawyers were relying on Bush-era logic he disagreed with, Obama once exclaimed angrily, "What the f---? This is not the way I like to make decisions."

•  When the President learned that Massachusetts Democratic Senate candidate Martha Coakley was mocking Republican opponent - and eventual victor - Scott Brown for shaking voters' hands in the cold outside Fenway Park, he knew his presidency would soon be in trouble.

"No! No! You're making that up!" he shouted at aide David Axel, grabbing him by the shirt. "That can't be right."

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2010/05/08/2010-05-08_new_obama_book_by_newsweek_senior_editor_jonathan_alter_airs_private_flares_of_t.html#ixzz0nP9Q43P7

http://www.bvblackspin.com/2010/05/05/obama-family-shown-as-sanford-and-son-in-newspaper-picture/

Climate scientists decry 'political assaults'

David Perlman

Chronicle Science Editor

Saturday, May 8, 2010

(05-07) 19:53 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- In an unusually strong attack on politically powerful deniers of global warming, 255 members of the National Academy of Sciences, including 32 from Northern California, have charged that opponents are using "McCarthy-like tactics" against legitimate climate scientists.

The letter condemning "political assaults" on climate researchers was published Friday in the journal Science, and was sent earlier to the White House Office of Science and Technology, where John Holdren, its director, is President Obama's science adviser.

Members of the Academy of Sciences, who are frequently called upon to advise the federal government and its agencies on scientific questions, normally debate controversial issues sedately. But with the global warming debate becoming increasingly politically charged, the scientists struck back.

"We are deeply disturbed by the recent escalation of political assaults on scientists in general and on climate scientists in particular," they said in their letter. "We call for an end to McCarthy-like threats of criminal prosecution against our colleagues based on innuendo and guilt by association, the harassment of scientists by politicians seeking distractions to avoid taking action and the outright lies being spread about them."

The reference was directed at Sen. James M. Inhofe, R-Okla., who scoffs at most climate change data as a "hoax" and has threatened a criminal investigation of an international climate science team whose e-mail exchanges were hacked by opponents. Critics accused the team of manipulating and hiding data regarding climate change. The scientists were later cleared.

The Heartland Institute, a conservative public policy think tank, brands climate scientists as "global warming alarmists," and a former director of the National Hurricane Center, who is a strong skeptic, has declared "it is high time to question the true agenda of the (climate) scientists" - clearly suggesting that their "agenda" is political, not scientific, and far to the left.

The letter in Science insisted climate change is real.

"There is compelling, comprehensive and consistent objective evidence that humans are changing the climate in ways that threaten our societies and the ecosystem on which we depend," the scientists' letter declared.

The lead signer of the letter was Peter Gleick, director of the Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment, and Security in Oakland. Others from Northern California are at Stanford, UCSF, UC Berkeley and UC Davis.

An editorial in the same issue of the journal also warned that the debate over global warming has become dangerously polarized and noted that several politically inspired lawsuits against federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions have claimed that "climate change is a conspiracy."

"The debate has become polarized," warned the editorial, and as a result "the scientific enterprise and the whole of society are in danger of losing their crucial rational relationship."

Sen. James M. Inhofe, R-Okla., scoffs at most climate change data as a "hoax" and has threatened a criminal investigation of an international climate science team whose e-mail exchanges were hacked by opponents.

More moms cheat the day after Mother's Day

Over at Momlogic.com a story reports that a dating Web site for married people has its second-busiest day for female member sign-ups on the day after Mother's Day. (The day after Valentine's Day is the busiest.)

On a typical Monday, 2,500 to 3,000 women join AshleyMadison.com, according to MomLogic.  But on the day after Mother's Day last year, the site saw close to 24,000 new sign-ups. This year they expect 30,000 sign-ups.

Why the surge?

Noel Biderman, president and founder of AshleyMadison.com, says moms have high hopes that they'll be recognized on Mother's Day and often the breakfast in bed, flowers, and massage never happens. Their disappointment drives them to consider other options.

It seems unlikely that anyone would consider an affair simply because their husband didn't make homemade pancakes or bring home a box of chocolates on Mother's Day. These moms who visit the site have probably been unhappy for years, as Siera points out over at Babble.

Siera also smartly points out: "It's fascinating that something about Mother's Day pushes nearly 30,000 women over the edge. Are we really so beholden to the Hallmark calendar? I expect my husband to treat me about like he does every day, this coming Sunday. Which is pretty <snip> good. If I didn't like my everyday relationship with him, I'd leave. I don't need one or two days a year to be extraordinary." 

Woman runs down Lord Jesus Christ

Driver cited for failure to yield to pedestrian

Updated: Friday, 07 May 2010, 8:50 AM EDT
Published : Thursday, 06 May 2010, 9:36 PM EDT

Barry Kriger

NORTHAMPTON, Mass. (WWLP) - Police say they checked the victim's ID. Northampton police issued a traffic citation this week to a driver whose car hit Lord Jesus Christ.

It happened Tuesday on Main Street in front of Fitzwilly's restaurant.

Northampton Police Lt. Michael Patenaude told 22News 50-year old Lord Jesus Christ of Belchertown was struck as he crossed Main Street around 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

Twenty-year old Brittany Cantarella of Pittsfield was cited for failure to yield to a pedestrian in a crosswalk.

Lord Jesus Christ was treated for facial injuries at Cooley Dickinson Hospital.

Lt. Patenaude said Lord Jesus Christ had a Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles identification card.

Long-Term Unemployment: The Bad News In The Jobs Report

First Posted: 05- 7-10 12:19 PM   

Updated: 05- 7-10 12:56 PM

Even though the unemployment rate rose to 9.9 percent, the government's jobs report for the month of April is the most positive one since the start of the recession: The economy added 290,000 jobs as the labor force swelled by 805,000, causing the rate to rise.

Here's the bad news: More and more people are out of work for longer and longer. The number of jobless folks out of work for more than six months rose by 169,000 to 6.7 million, constituting 45.9 percent of all the unemployed.

"We've never quite experienced this in America -- a recession that's gone on so long that even when job creation is strong, people have been out of work so long that it's difficult for them to climb out," said Andrew Stettner, deputy director of the National Employment Law Project. "It stretches beyond the kinds of supports that we are used to providing."

Even though Congress has extended unemployment benefits to the point where in many states the jobless can get 99 weeks of benefits, it's still not enough -- hundreds of thousands of people are exhausting their benefits every month.

The picture is especially ugly for older folks who've lost their jobs. Though the unemployment rate for workers older than 55 is lower than for the rest of the labor force, older workers are more likely to suffer long-term unemployment.

According to an analysis by the AARP Public Policy Institute, 56.8 percent of jobless Americans older than 55 are out of work for longer than six months as of April, up from 50.6 percent in March. The average duration of unemployment for older workers rose from 38.4 weeks in March to 42.9 weeks, compared with 33 weeks for the total unemployed population.

Dean Baker, an economist with the Center for Economic and Policy Research, said there are two reasons older workers are unemployed for longer periods of time. "First, they are far more likely to have enough of a work history to be able to qualify for benefits," Baker wrote in an email. "Remember, less than half of the unemployed are getting benefits. The over 55 group are far more likely to be in that half."

The second reason, Baker said, is a mix of experienced workers passing over low-paying jobs for which they are overly qualified and employers refusing to hire experienced workers who won't stick around if better jobs become available when the economy improves.

Stettner said he worried that people will lose their focus on the unemployed now that the economy is adding jobs. He said Congress should be proactive in creating jobs and helping the long-term unemployed get back to work. He pointed to California Democrat Rep. George Miller's proposed Local Jobs for America Act in particular.

A Rutgers University survey released Tuesday found that 80 percent of people unemployed last August remained jobless in March, and most of the people who found jobs were working for less money.

"We don't have enough tools to keep people out of homelessness, out of hunger," Stettner said. "It's just really tragic what's happening."

Makeshift beauty salon in hospital's ward for high-risk newborns is probed

L.A. County also is investigating broader allegations that doctors, nurses and staff in the unit at Olive View-UCLA Medical Center put babies at risk through substandard care.

Molly Hennessy-Fiske

Los Angeles Times

May 6, 2010

Los Angeles Times Liz O. Baylen Olive View-UCLA Medical Center is in Sylmar.

Republican Party and black advancement

Over the past several weeks we have received an unusual volume of mail requesting that research and writings be done regarding the Republican Party and its significance in advancing the plight of American blacks in this nation.

While pollsters and high priest of blackness continue to remind us that black support for the Republican Party has significantly dropped since the election of President Barack Obama, we don't hear much about the many serious black conservative candidates running for Congress today with an excellent shot at winning.

In reality, no political group has done more to help minorities than Republicans.

Originally formed out of the abolitionist movement, the Republican Party announced the total elimination of slavery as part of its official platform during the first Republican National Convention in 1856. For this, the Democrats derisively dubbed them “Black Republicans.”

During Lincoln’s third term, this Republican platform was finally realized. Theodore Roosevelt and Dwight D. Eisenhower were Republicans as well. It was Roosevelt who invited Booker T. Washington to the White House, and it was Eisenhower who sent federal troops to Little Rock, Ark., to enforce school integration.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Republicans helped push civil rights legislation into the mainstream. Eisenhower used federal troops to enforce the Supreme Court’s desegregation ruling. And despite the myth to the contrary, a far greater percentage of Republicans than Democrats supported the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (a sublime piece of legislation that had its roots in the Republican-backed Civil Rights Acts of 1866 and 1875). In fact, the high level of Republican support prevented the 1964 Civil Rights Act from being filibustered by Southern Democrats who relied upon race-baiting to stay in office.

When the GOP once again embraces its founding principles, storied history and uncompromising stance on the critical issues, Americans of all stripes will realize that she is the party of choice.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-f-kennedy-jr/sex-lies-and-oil-spills_b_564163.html

Niece sends notice of eviction to 100-year-old aunt

Monee woman, public officials have been battling foreclosure of her farm

Colleen Mastony

Tribune reporter

8:58 p.m. CDT

May 5, 2010