Thirty Days for Federal Stimulus Dollars To Hit State And Local Government Coffers

From TreeHugger:

Residential renewable energy system workers in North Carolina.

In coming days, there will be hundreds of state and local newspaper stories just like this one, in the North Carolina "News & Observer" - "From the $6.1 billion that is headed for the state, nearly $113 million will be designated for low-income families and senior citizens to weatherize their homes. The State Energy Office, meanwhile, is expecting at least 12 times its typical federal allocation of less than $1 million a year, and perhaps as much as $77 million, for efforts to boost energy efficiency and alternative energy."

Article continues: 30 Days For Federal Simulus Dollars To Hit State & Local Government Coffers

The answer is no

A swimmer wants to go swimming in Australia and asks a local man if their were in sharks in the water to which the local man says, "No."

When he is in the water, still unsure the swimmer says, "Are you certain there are no sharks here."

The local man says, "Sure, they're scared of the crocodiles."

And I Quote

Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go.

~ Oscar Wilde.

Burglary victim drives off in thieves' van

A man in Washington state made sure a pair of burglars didn't get away with his three flat-screen televisions - he moved their getaway car.

Patrick Rosario was in the basement of his Bellevue home on Tuesday when he heard the burglars upstairs.

The Seattle Times says the 32-year-old Rosario, who had been laid off from his job as a Washington Mutual manager, called 911 while he sneaked out of the house.

He saw a white van sitting in front of his house with the motor running and the keys in the ignition, and he got in and drove it to a friend's house.

Police say the burglars left the televisions, a laptop computer and a jewelry box by the door and took off on foot.

The sheriff's office said no arrests had been made.

Trade a gun for a rose in SC on Valentine's Day

Police in South Carolina gave away roses on Valentine's Day. All you had to do to get one for your sweetie was turn in a gun.

Hoping to get the weapons off the streets with the "Guns for Roses" program, authorities in two central South Carolina cities set up a program where anyone who turned in a gun received a free rose and a Best Buy gift card.

At a Columbia church, five cars lined up to give away guns before the exchange had even started. At the end of the day, Columbia area police had collected 191 weapons and police in Sumter collected 32.

"We've got a great turnout so far," Richland County sheriff's spokesman Lt. Chris Cowan said.

A handgun was worth a $100 gift card, while a rifle or shotgun netted a $50 gift certificate. Cowan said one man turned in six handguns, worth $600 in gift cards.

Cowan did not immediately have a total value for gift cards given out. Sumter Police Chief Patty Patterson said her program gave out $550 in gift cards for long guns and $2,100 for handguns.

There was no amnesty for those turning in the guns. The weapons were being checked to see if they were stolen, names and addresses were jotted down and ballistics tests would also be done to see if the firearm was used in a crime.

Both Cowan and Patterson said there were no incidents and no arrests made Saturday.

Cowan said the idea was spawned in part by Columbia Police Chief T.P. Carter and Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott, who has made headlines recently for investigating Michael Phelps after a photo surfaced showing the Olympic swimming champion smoking a marijuana pipe. The program was modeled after a California one; similar exchanges have been done in New York and San Francisco.

Cowan said gun donors were young and old, men and woman. Many had a big smile and some said it was a relief to get rid of the weapons.

And did they even care about the rose?

"Most of them have taken it," Cowan said.

Economic Meltdown Continues

Another sign the economy is in the toilet ...

Jail considers making inmates pay for toilet paper

Inmates at the Des Moines County jail in Burlington may have to begin paying for toilet paper. The county is facing a more than $1.7 million deficit in this year's budget and the Board of Supervisors gave department heads the option of cutting costs or facing the possibility of unpaid furloughs or layoffs.

The county also is moving forward with a $1 million bond issue later this month, leaving department directors to make up the balance.

County Budget Director Cheryl McVey says billing inmates for toilet paper could save more than $2,300.

*****

Everyone is making sacrifices!

Man runs out of gas after robbing gas station

From the "Karma is a bitch" Department:

Authorities in Florida said they arrested a man who apparently forgot to fill up when he was robbing a gas station.

The Charlotte County Sheriff's Office said a 23-year-old man used a Bowie knife to rob a Cape Haze gas station early Sunday.

Deputies said the man pulled the 12-inch blade and demanded money.

But when he left, a customer followed him and called 911.

While deputies were looking for signs of the robber, a newspaper carrier told them that a man in a car matching the one from the robbery had run out of gas nearby.

The man was arrested several hours after the robbery and charged with robbery with a weapon and loitering/prowling.

Saturday Jam

In today's Saturday Jam ...
Morgana Palace

Andreas Vollenweider

Spiderman

The Ramones

Foggy Mountain Breakdown

Earl Scruggs and Friends, Live on Letterman

Fuego

Bond

Hot Legs

Rod Stewart

Hooked on Facts

Six random facts:

Turkeys tend to look in the sky up during a rainstorm. Unfortunately some have been known to drown because of this.

Crocodile babies do not have sex chromosomes; the temperature of the eggs during incubation determines the gender.

Urine is used in many countries as a laundry detergent.

Sound travels fifteen (15) faster through steel than through the air.

The Canary Islands were not named after a bird called the canary. They were named after a breed of dog.

Next to Warsaw, Chicago has the largest Polish population in the world (in cities that is).

*****

Bonus Fact: Anteaters prefer termites to ants.

Science News

30-year-old seen for first time in 3,000 years

The beautiful singer was about 30 years old when the world forgot about her. But now we know what she looks like for the first time in nearly 3,000 years.

It's all thanks to one of the most sophisticated CT scanners in the world. Without even cracking open the Egyptian casket, you can now see the smallest details of the woman's features. Her skin, muscles and bones are intact.

"Her eyes are set far apart, and she has a very full mouth and high cheek bones. You know, I think I could recognize this individual if I saw her in life," said Michael Vannier, a radiologist at the University of Chicago Medical Center.

Egyptologist Emily Teeter recruited Vannier to help her get a look at the mummy no one had seen. Teeter is a researcher at the Oriental Institute, a small museum on the University of Chicago campus where the mysterious mummy was first brought in 1920.

Researchers had long wanted to know more about the looks of the mummy locked in the coffin. But opening the coffin was not an option.

"It's impossible to open it without destroying it," Teeter said.

"A major concern of archeology is preserving evidence intact, and so CT technology is ideal for studying a coffin and mummy like Meresamun," she said. "It's so astounding with the advances of CT technology -- that with this newest generation of scanner, we can learn so much more about her life, her health and the way she was mummified."

Teeter had looked at the mummy's coffin nearly every day over the past 19 years. Through this project, she said, she now looks at the mummy "as an individual instead of just an artifact."

Today, the mummy is the museum's star, the highlight of a new exhibit. She's undergone a high-tech unwrapping in breathtaking detail on film clips produced by Vannier, using a CT scanner normally used for patients who are still alive.

"The first patient we scanned was this mummy," Vannier said.

He's taken about 100,000 images. The images border the beautiful and the creepy: an up-close look at someone who died hundreds of years ago. CT scans have been used on mummies before, but they rarely generated such an amazing set of data, Vannier said.

"Many of the mummies had been taken out of their casket for scanning. In this particular case, this casket's never been opened," he said. "So everything we're seeing there has never been seen before -- at least not in 2,800 years."

The mummy was discovered in Luxor, Egypt, and sold to the Oriental Institute in 1920.

Teeter said the coffin, painted and carved to look like the figure of a beautiful woman, is an archeological marvel. She said singers who served in Egyptian temples were traditionally young, beautiful women from high-ranking families.

Hieroglyphs on the front of the coffin tell researchers more about the mummy's life. The woman's name was Meresamun, which means "Amun Loves Her," and she was a singer in the temple of the Egyptian god Amun.

Teeter also said the Oriental Institute's exhibit highlights the fact that Meresamun was not just another pretty face.

"She was a working woman. She had her job at the temple, and she'd come home," she said.

Meresamun's multitasking lifestyle, she said, makes "connections between modern day and ancient life."

Teeter believes that Meresamun would be pleased that modern medical science has given her new fame.

"One of the ideas in ancient Egypt is to live forever and be remembered by people. She has her wish," Teeter said.

The only thing that remains a mystery is how she died. Vannier said there are no signs of trauma to the body, and his only theory is that she died of some kind of infectious disease.

He's most surprised by how perfect her teeth are, suggesting that she didn't follow our modern-day high-sugar diet. She didn't have a single cavity.

"I think the thing that we learned that was very surprising, at least to me, was the fact that our dental disease is obviously related to our diet," he said. "She obviously had no refined sugars. A lot of the things that they ate were grain and more fresh materials."

He said what they've learned is astonishing. "We had some expectations, but they've all been so far exceeded. We're really not sure where the limit of all of this is."

*****

This is why Archeology is so cool!

Repugican War On Obama

From the "As if we didn't know it already" Department:

Andrew Sullivan in his 'The Daily Dish' post from yesterday says:

"Byron York confirmed that it was Republican partisan pressure that forced Gregg to pull out. The idea that a Republican could help give Obama cover on entitlement reform and that he would preside over a big increase in Hispanic representation in the Census was too much for the Rovian partisans. Shill Kristol lets the cat out of the bag:

they were worried that clever “post-partisan” or bipartisan tactics by Obama could split and weaken an already uncertain and demoralized GOP.

Party first. Country always always last. Welcome to today's Republicans."

Whew, and I thought things wouldn't be the same - repugicans assisting and building instead obstructing and destructing - glad to see all is still normal.

President Obama's Weekly Address

---

WEEKLY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT
TO THE NATION

February 14, 2009

This week, I spent some time with Americans across the country who are hurting because of our economic crisis. People closing the businesses they scrimped and saved to start. Families losing the homes that were their stake in the American Dream. Folks who have given up trying to get ahead, and given in to the stark reality of just trying to get by.

They’ve been looking to those they sent to Washington for some hope at a time when they need it most.

This morning, I’m pleased to say that after a lively debate full of healthy difference of opinion, we have delivered real and tangible progress for the American people.

Congress has passed my economic recovery plan – an ambitious plan at a time we badly need it. It will save or create more than 3.5 million jobs over the next two years, ignite spending by business and consumers alike, and lay a new foundation for our lasting economic growth and prosperity.

This is a major milestone on our road to recovery, and I want to thank the Members of Congress who came together in common purpose to make it happen. Because they did, I will sign this legislation into law shortly, and we’ll begin making the immediate investments necessary to put people back to work doing the work America needs done.

The work of modernizing our health care system, saving billions of dollars and countless lives; and upgrading classrooms, libraries, and labs in our children’s schools across America.

The work of building wind turbines and solar panels and the smart grid necessary to transport the clean energy they create; and laying broadband internet lines to connect rural homes, schools, and businesses to the information superhighway.

The work of repairing our crumbling roads and bridges, and our dangerously deficient dams and levees.

And we’ll help folks who’ve lost their jobs through no fault of their own by providing the unemployment benefits they need and protecting the health care they count on.

Now, some fear we won’t be able to effectively implement a plan of this size and scope, and I understand their skepticism. Washington hasn’t set a very good example in recent years. And with so much on the line, it’s time to begin doing things differently.

That’s why our goal must be to spend these precious dollars with unprecedented accountability, responsibility, and transparency. I’ve tasked my cabinet and staff to set up the kind of management, oversight, and disclosure that will help ensure that, and I will challenge state and local governments to do the same.

Once the plan is put into action, a new website – Recovery DOT gov – will allow any American to watch where the money goes and weigh in with comments and questions – and I encourage every American to do so. Ultimately, this is your money, and you deserve to know where it’s going and how it’s spent.

This historic step won’t be the end of what we do to turn our economy around, but the beginning. The problems that led us into this crisis are deep and widespread. Our response must be equal to the task.

For our plan to succeed, we must stabilize, repair, and reform our banking system, and get credit flowing again to families and businesses.

We must write and enforce new rules of the road, to stop unscrupulous speculators from undermining our economy ever again.

We must stem the spread of foreclosures and do everything we can to help responsible homeowners stay in their homes.

And in the weeks ahead, I will submit a proposal for the federal budget that will begin to restore the discipline these challenging times demand. Our debt has doubled over the past eight years, and we’ve inherited a trillion-dollar deficit – which we must add to in the short term in order to jumpstart our sick economy. But our long-term economic growth demands that we tame our burgeoning federal deficit; that we invest in the things we need, and dispense with the things we don’t. This is a challenging agenda, but one we can and will achieve.

This morning, I’m reminded of words President Kennedy spoke in another time of uncertainty. "Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men. Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for powers equal to your tasks."

America, we will prove equal to this task. It will take time, and it will take effort, but working together, we will turn this crisis into opportunity and emerge from our painful present into a brighter future. After a week spent with the fundamentally decent men and women of this nation, I have never been more certain of that. Thank you.

Photos that changed the World

Tiananmen Square 1989

A hunger strike by 3,000 students in Beijing had grown to a protest of more than a million as the injustices of a nation cried for reform. For seven weeks the people and the People’s Republic, in the person of soldiers dispatched by a riven Communist Party, warily eyed each other as the world waited. When this young man simply would not move, standing with his meager bags before a line of tanks, a hero was born. A second hero emerged as the tank driver refused to crush the man, and instead drove his killing machine around him. Soon this dream would end, and blood would fill Tiananmen. But this picture had shown a billion Chinese that there is hope.

Check out Photos that changed the World for the singular photographs at literally changed the world as we know it.

Be warned these photographs are raw and graphic (even the ones posed and not 'of the moment').

Classical Chicken

Gonzo and his Chickens doing Strauss

All in a Day's work

Enis walked into a doctor's office and the receptionist asked him what he had. Enis said 'Shingles'. So she wrote down his name, address, medical insurance number and told him to have a seat.

Fifteen minutes later a nurse's aide came out and asked Enis what he had. Enis said 'Shingles.' So she wrote down his height, weight, a complete medical history and told Buford to wait in the examining room.

A half hour later a nurse came in and asked Enis what he had. Enis said 'Shingles.' So she gave Enis a blood test, a blood pressure test, an electrocardiogram, told Enis to take off all his clothes and wait for the doctor.

An hour later the doctor came in and asked Enis what he had. Enis said 'Shingles.'

The doctor asked Where?

Enis said 'Outside on the truck. Where do you want 'em?'

In a case of not if but what ...

Feds mount evidence in salmonella outbreak probe

First, federal investigators said Stewart Parnell knowingly shipped salmonella-tainted foods even after internal tests showed they were contaminated.
Then they revealed the evidence: e-mails Parnell sent to his employees urging them to ship out the products that authorities say ultimately sickened hundreds and may have caused the deaths of ninepeople.
Federal authorities, who started an investigation last month, have remained closed-mouthed about possible charges against Parnell.
So, too, the FBI, which raided the company's Georgia plant about a week ago.

But food safety attorneys say prosecutors have an array of options for what could be one of the Food and Drug Administration's most high-profile tainted food cases in decades.
"Any time you've got interstate commerce, those are the buzz words for federal prosecution," said Kent Alexander, a former U.S. attorney in Atlanta who is now general counsel at Emory University.
"And prosecutors can be very creative in alleging schemes involving interstate commerce."

One tool federal prosecutors could use is the 1938 Federal Food Drug and Cosmetic Act, which carries a maximum penalty of three years in prison and a fine of $10,000 if prosecutors prove there's an intent to "defraud or mislead."
Prosecutors could also turn to a range of other laws if they are seeking a tougher punishment.

Fred Pritzker, a food safety lawyer in Minneapolis who filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Peanut Corp., said investigators could charge Parnell with federal anti-conspiracy charges.
Or authorities could charge Parnell and his company with mail fraud or wire fraud if prosecutors believe they can prove they were knowingly giving customers adulterated product, said Jim Frush, a former federal prosecutor who is now a criminal defense attorney.
And Alexander said the ongoing investigation could yield a separate, perhaps indirect, charge.
"In cases like this, sometimes the biggest vulnerability people have is lying under oath or lying to federal investigators," he said.

Authorities say a Blakely, Georgia, plant run by Parnell's company, Peanut Corp. of America, is the sole source of a salmonella outbreak that has led to one of the nation's biggest food recalls. The company filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection Friday.
Prosecutions in such cases are fairly rare, and they generally lead to fines against companies rather than jail time or other punishments for individuals.
Recent convictions include the 1996 case against juice-maker Odwalla Inc., which was fined $1.5 million on charges of shipping unpasteurized apple juice that killed a baby.
Five years later, Sara Lee Corp. was fined $200,000 after pleading guilty to misdemeanor charges of selling tainted meats in a listeria outbreak that killed 15 people.

Other, more high-profile outbreaks haven't yielded criminal charges.
Prosecutors decided not to press charges against two produce companies involved in a 2006 tainted spinach case that killed three people and sickened 200 others, saying the investigation found growers and processors did not deliberately skirt the law.

Parnell's e-mails, released this week by House investigators, depict a man driven by profits who instructed his employees to ship out products despite reports that salmonella was detected. "Turn them loose," he said in one e-mail.Parnell, summoned by congressional subpoena, repeatedly invoked his right not to incriminate himself.
He said his attorneys had advised him not to talk.

The company, in statements, has said it is cooperating with federal investigators.
Food safety watchdogs have long argued that the FDA doesn't pursue criminal charges enough in tainted food cases, but they have little doubt that investigators are building a case as public outrage grows.
"I am no attorney," said Mike Doyle, a University of Georgia food safety scientist.
"But the evidence appears to be a smoking gun.
It appears that Mr. Parnell knowingly ordered shipment of salmonella-contaminated product."

Creighton Magid, a Washington-based products liability attorney often on the defense side, said prosecutors may not press charges in food safety cases because they don't want to discourage responsible companies from coming forward with their mistakes.
Parnell's case, he said, appears to be a sharp contrast.
"There's a huge difference between a recall of a product because of a flaw in manufacturing and knowingly selling a product that is contaminated," he said.
"That's a different ball game entirely."

Either way, food safety attorneys say the revelations this week could be the opening act of one of the most high-profile tainted food prosecutions in recent history.
"The question is not whether there will be charges," said Bill Marler, a food safety lawyer who has filed lawsuits against Parnell's company.
"But what they will charge him with."

Not welcome anywhere

Rohingya are Muslim outcasts

For generations, the ethnic Muslim Rohingya have endured persecution by the ruling junta of Burma, a predominantly Buddhist country.

The plight of the Rohingya, descendants of Arab traders from the 7th century, gained international attention over the past month after five boatloads of haggard migrants were found in the waters around Indonesia and the Andaman Islands.
But unlike the Kurds or the Palestinians, no one has championed the cause of the Rohingya.
Most countries, from Saudi Arabia to Malaysia, see them as little more than a source of cheap labor for the dirtiest and most dangerous jobs.

"The Rohingya are probably the most friendless people in the world. They just have no one advocating for them at all," said Kitty McKinsey, a spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.
"Hardly any of them have legal status anywhere in the world."

There are an estimated 750,000 Rohingya living in Burma's mountainous northern state of Rakhine, which borders Bangladesh.
Thousands flee every year, trying to escape a life of abuse that was codified in 1982 with a law that virtually bars them from becoming citizens.

The farm of tomorrow

An old look into the future.

Unusual Holidays and Celebrations

Did you know that not only is today Valentine's Day, it is also ...

Ferris Wheel Day
National Condom Day
National Have A Heart Day

Our Readers

Today some of our readers have hailed from:

Nice, Provence-Alpes-Cote-D'Azur, France
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Redondo Beach, California, United States
Grants Pass, Oregon, United States
Berlin, Berlin, Germany

Daily Horoscope

Today's horoscope says:

You're walking on the edge of the sword.

Better watch my step then - depending on whether it is the broad edge or the narrow edge will determine how carefully.