Chip Cafiero says he learned Friday he'd lost his attempt to contest the $115 ticket he got in Brooklyn on November 28, 2008.
The 60-year-old retired schoolteacher had a sport utility vehicle double-parked near him while he handed out holiday bounty from a horse-drawn carriage.
The SUV was ticketed.
He told the Department of Finance the SUV was there to protect the carriage and children from traffic.
Cafiero says the city can take his money, but it won't take away his Christmas spirit.
Theresa Schlossarek, of La Grande, found the invitation last week in her mailbox. The envelope, which had been opened, was postmarked June 2, 1987, from Toms River, N.J., where her brother, Hermann Ilnseher, lives.
Ilnseher said the lack of response from his sister was noticed but dismissed.
"We just thought that she lived so far away, she couldn't come," Ilnseher said. "She usually would send money, though, so we did joke about that later on, that maybe she could send some and add interest for the years passed."
Peter Hass, spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service's Portland district, called the delay "very unusual and very unfortunate."
Hass said the envelope could have been stuck in machinery or misrouted and delivered to the wrong address, which would explain why it arrived opened. But he said no matter the age of the mail, "if it's postmarked, we're obliged to deliver it."
Schlossarek's nephew, Michael Ilnseher, now an assistant principal at an Atlanta-area high school, said he didn't remember his aunt not receiving an invitation.
"I never realized something could be lost for 22 years like that," he said.
At the edge of cities and towns across North Carolina, property rights collide with progress, resulting in anger and mistrust that has festered for 50 years.
The controversy over involuntary annexation – in which a city or town can expand its borders even if an affected property owner does not consent – has raised blood pressure and sparked fights for a half century. The issue is a perennial problem at the legislature.
But this year, the pressure to do something has reached a boiling point and lawmakers say they want to give property owners more rights when cities start stretching their borders.
Read the rest here.
Annexation Facts:
What is involuntary annexation?
There are multiple ways a city or town can extend its borders in North Carolina. One method has sparked controversy for decades. Involuntary or forced annexation allows a city or town to extend its borders without the permission of property owners. The city must provide certain services, such as police and fire protection, and generally has an obligation to give water and sewer service to those who request it.
In some cities, involuntary annexation happens on a regular schedule with little controversy. In other places, it has sparked protests, lawsuits and outrage. Here's why:
Arguments for:
Ensures that everyone who benefits from the amenities of an urban area shares the cost.
Reduces duplication in services.
Helps a city or town keep its tax base. Without annexation, cities lose population and property values decrease.
Arguments against:
A guiding principle of the United States is that people cannot be taxed without a voice. Involuntary annexation increases taxes, and property owners cannot stop it.
People have a right to choose where and how they live. Government, through involuntary annexation, can take that right away.
Property owners living near a town or city already spend money in that community, which has a greater benefit to the area economy than higher taxes.
Even before the current economic crisis, 45 million Americans were uninsured. That number is expected to rise to 54 million by 2019 if changes aren't made to the system, according to the director of the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office.
One of the swelling ranks, Amy Newlin, has been getting by on her savings and unemployment benefits after she and her husband lost their jobs last fall.
But while they can cut back on dinners out, new clothes or other inessentials, the costs of treating her diabetes, high blood pressure and thyroid difficulties have risen dramatically.
"I need insulin strips to test my blood, and medicine for my high blood pressure," Newlin told AFP.
"My insulin is 80 dollars a bottle without insurance and the strips are expensive, too. It's not easy to keep up."
Read the rest here.
Afro-Caribbean islanders — most of whose forbears toiled in the sugarcane fields under the yoke of slavery more than 160 years ago — not only resent France's handling of the global economic crisis, they have long resented that slaveholders' descendants control the economy on both islands.
They also suspect that businesses earn too high a profit on goods, most of which are imported.
This resentment against the primarily white, elite slaveholder descendants, known as bekes (bay-KAY), has lent an especially sharp edge to weeks of demonstrations that at times have erupted in gunfire, arson, looting, and the death of one activist in Guadeloupe.
"They've got the money, they've got the power, they've got Guadeloupe," snapped protester Lollia Naily. "This is not a race thing. It is a money thing and it is a power thing."
Read the rest here.
Photo via Change, Inc.
Ingenious act of head turning activism, or wacko publicity stunt gone too far? You decide. Ingrid Newkirk, the president of PETA, has recently fashioned a will stipulating that upon her death, her body is to be donated to the infamous animal rights org. And she's written up a bizarre list of instructions on what they're to do with each of her body parts after she's deceased. Just a warning to the squeamish—this gets weird.
While officials in Myrtle Beach continue efforts to subdue the May biker rallies, their neighbors in North Myrtle Beach are putting out the word that bikers are welcome in their town.
The Sun News of Myrtle Beach reports that tourism promoters sent an e-mail last week to 90,000 potential visitors mentioning the biker controversy and Myrtle Beach's strategy to tame them. The message promotes what the north end has to offer and includes a note from North Myrtle Beach City Manager John Smithson.
Promoters sent the e-mail aiming to lure some biker business and clarify that North Myrtle Beach hasn't approved the same stricter biker rules that Myrtle Beach has.
New rules in Myrtle Beach were approved last year after officials said the biker rallies had gotten too big and rowdy.
A man was killed in a freak accident after a tree fell on him while cleaning up a small cemetery in Catawba County.
The Catawba County Sheriff’s Office says the man was killed Friday but was not found until Sunday afternoon.
The man had been hired to clear away some trees at the small family plot off of Morgan Road.
His wife noticed he didn't come home Friday and kept looking for him all weekend, when she came to the cemetery and found him.
The sheriff's office is calling it an accidental death.
Live by the snitch, die by the snitch.
If you want to rat out your neighbours, allow the home secretary to enumerate the ways. Do you know someone who claims more from the state than they're entitled to? Who is "picking the pockets of law-abiding taxpayers"? Not politicians over-egging their allowances, obviously, but "benefit thieves". If so, call 0800 854 440 now. "We're closing in with hidden cameras. We're closing in with every means at our disposal."Do they own more than one mobile phone? Then call 0800 789 321. "Terrorists need communication. They often collect and use many pay-as-you-go mobile phones, as well as swapping Sim cards and handsets."
No mobile phones? What about if they're "hanging around"? Or, as the Home Office-funded radio advertisement puts it: "How can you tell if they're a normal everyday person or a terrorist? The answer is that you don't have to. If you call the confidential Anti-Terrorist Hotline on 0800 789 321, the specialist officers you speak to will analyse the information. They'll decide if and how to follow it up. You don't have to be sure. If you suspect it, report it."
It's such a lovely turn of phrase, that. If you suspect it, report it. Don't wait for evidence. Or question your own prejudices. If someone's not a "normal everyday person" exactly like you, then they could well be a member of al-Qaida. What flawless logic that is.
Instead of moving toward greater transparency, the emirates seem to be moving in the other direction. A new draft media law would make it a crime to damage the country’s reputation or economy, punishable by fines of up to 1 million dirhams (about $272,000). Some say it is already having a chilling effect on reporting about the crisis.Like it is really going to matter ...Last month, local newspapers reported that Dubai was canceling 1,500 work visas every day, citing unnamed government officials. Asked about the number, Humaid bin Dimas, a spokesman for Dubai’s Labor Ministry, said he would not confirm or deny it and refused to comment further. Some say the true figure is much higher.
“At the moment there is a readiness to believe the worst,” said Simon Williams, HSBC bank’s chief economist in Dubai. “And the limits on data make it difficult to counter the rumors.”
