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Mexican soldiers enter US, hold border agent at gunpoint

Four Mexican army soldiers entered southern Arizona and pointed their rifles at a U.S. Border Patrol agent early this week, the Border Patrol said.

The incident Sunday was the Mexican military's 43rd incursion across the U.S. border since October, the agency said. However, it was unusual because firearms were involved. The Border Patrol and the Mexican government are investigating, Border Patrol spokesman Mike Scioli said.

Details remain sketchy, but the incident occurred at 2 a.m. on the Tohono O'odham Indian Reservation about 50 miles southeast of Ajo. The incident took place just north of the border in sight of the new border fence.

The soldiers held their weapons on the agent for several minutes until he identified himself in Spanish, whereupon they lowered their guns and walked back across a gap in the fence, Scioli said. More

America goes to the Dark Side - torture for fun and profit

In a series of gripping articles, Jane Mayer has chronicled the Bush Administration’s grim and furtive dealings with torture and has exposed both the individuals within the administration who “made it happen” (a group that starts with Vice President Cheney and his chief of staff, David Addington), the team of psychologists who put together the palette of techniques, and the Fox television program “24,” which was developed to help sell it to the American public.

In a new book, The Dark Side, Mayer puts together the major conclusions from her articles and fills in a number of important gaps. Most significantly, we learn the details on the torture techniques and the drama behind the fierce and lingering struggle within the administration over torture, and we learn that many within the administration recognized the potential criminal accountability they faced over these torture tactics and moved frantically to protect themselves from possible future prosecution. More

Feds to snoop your eBay, Amazon transactions

The U.S. Congress puts on a big show about "doing something" to solve your many problems, but they really contrive ways to monitor, control and feed off of your life energy.

Hidden deep in Senator Christopher Dodd's 630-page Senate housing legislation is a sweeping provision that affects the privacy and operation of nearly all of America's small businesses. The provision, which was added by the bill's managers without debate this week, would require the nation's payment systems to track, aggregate, and report information on nearly every electronic transaction to the federal government.

FreedomWorks Chairman Dick Armey commented: "This is a provision with astonishing reach, and it was slipped into the bill just this week. Not only does it affect nearly every credit card transaction in America, such as Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express, but the bill specifically targets payment systems like eBay's PayPal, Amazon, and Google Checkout that are used by many small online businesses. The privacy implications for America's small businesses are breathtaking." More

Navy prosecutor claims flight 93 shootdown in trial

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba — The Pentagon opened its first war crimes prosecution Tuesday with words purportedly from the mouth of Osama bin Laden, overheard by his driver in the aftermath of 9-11:

"If they hadn’t shot down the fourth plane, it would’ve hit the dome," the al Qaeda leader supposedly told his deputy, Egyptian Ayman al-Zawahari, referring to the U.S. Capitol.

With his first words to a military jury, a Pentagon prosecutor, Navy Lt. Cmdr. Timothy Stone, evoked a conversation — a conspiracy theory, actually — that defendant Salim Hamdan had revealed to the Americans after his arrest.

Bin Laden told his No. 2 that U.S. forces, not heroic passengers, stopped the hijackers from slamming United Airlines Flight 93 into the Capitol. It crashed into a Pennsylvania field instead. More

Drug smugglers bribing U.S. agents on Mexico border

U.S. Border Patrol agent Reynaldo Zuniga was arrested last month lugging a bag of cocaine up from the Rio Grande, one of a growing number of law enforcement officers accused of taking bribes from drug gangs.

Former colleagues say Zuniga used to wait until agents in the south Texas town of Harlingen were distracted with paperwork, then slip down to the river and help smuggle in drugs from Mexico.

The increasing use of bribes by Mexican drug cartels to corrupt U.S. agents comes as Washington is sending $400 million to help Mexico's army-led war on the trafficking gangs, whose brutal murders have surged to unprecedented levels.

"Zuniga was a good agent and a hard worker. I can't understand why he would do this. We're supposed to be protecting our borders," said Border Patrol agent Daniel Doty, a former colleague. More

Cheney Considered Proposal To Dress Up Navy Seals As Iranians And Shoot At Them to Provoke War

Speaking at the Campus Progress journalism conference earlier this month, Seymour Hersh — a Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist for The New Yorker — revealed that Bush administration officials held a meeting recently in the Vice President’s office to discuss ways to provoke a war with Iran.

In Hersh’s most recent article, he reports that this meeting occurred in the wake of the overblown incident in the Strait of Hormuz, when a U.S. carrier almost shot at a few small Iranian speedboats. The “meeting took place in the Vice-President’s office. ‘The subject was how to create a casus belli between Tehran and Washington,’” according to one of Hersh’s sources.

According to Hersh, "There was a dozen ideas proffered about how to trigger a war. The one that interested me the most was why don’t we build — we in our shipyard — build four or five boats that look like Iranian PT boats. Put Navy seals on them with a lot of arms. And next time one of our boats goes to the Straits of Hormuz, start a shoot-up." More

O'Reilly, Savage, Hannity on accused church shooter's reading list

Police found right-wing political books, brass knuckles, empty shotgun shell boxes and a handgun in the Powell home of a man who said he attacked a church in order to kill liberals "who are ruining the country," court records show.

Knoxville police Sunday evening searched the Levy Drive home of Jim David Adkisson after he allegedly entered the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church and killed two people and wounded six others during the presentation of a children's musical.

Adkisson told officers he left the house unlocked for them because "he expected to be killed during the assault."

Inside the house, officers found "Liberalism is a Mental Health Disorder" by radio talk show host Michael Savage, "Let Freedom Ring" by talk show host Sean Hannity, and "The O'Reilly Factor," by television talk show host Bill O'Reilly. More

Overzealous drug war claims another casualty

The question isn't whether a Pembroke Pines police officer was justified in fatally shooting Vincent Hodgkiss in his home early Thursday morning, or whether illegal drug activity was taking place there. The real question is this: Was a paramilitary-style dawn raid the best way to go about serving a drug-related search warrant?

Deputy Police Chief David Golt defended the use of the Special Response Team, Pembroke Pines' version of SWAT, to carry out the 6:30 a.m. raid that left Hodgkiss, 46, dead.

"We use SRT to serve all narcotics warrants," Golt said Friday. "You never know what you're going to encounter."

In addition to providing a special court review of lawsuits against telecommunication companies, the bill would increase oversight of U.S. intelligence activities and bolster privacy protection -- but not as much as civil liberties groups and a number of lawmakers want. More

Barky woos Germans, gets cheered

In a stirring speech in Germany on Thursday, U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama called on the world to look to Berlin as a symbol of strength and hope that persevered against the threat of communism.

He started off his speech with a blatant lie. He denies being a presidential candidate, as if he were giving his delegates over to Hillary Clinton.

“I come to Berlin as so many of my countrymen have come before,” Obama said, confronting the delicate issue of campaigning abroad. “Tonight, I speak to you not as a candidate for President, but as a citizen — a proud citizen of the United States, and a fellow citizen of the world.”

His speech went downhill from there. He mentioned the "burdens of global citizenship" and that "Americans and Europeans alike will be required to do more" as if Americans and Europeans had voted to do more, which they had not. The public has no choice as it will be forced on them. This requirement comes from his own personal desires, and those of his hidden backers. They desire to put a burden on the public. You have been warned!

“Yes, there have been differences between America and Europe,” Obama said. “No doubt, there will be differences in the future. But the burdens of global citizenship continue to bind us together. A change of leadership in Washington will not lift this burden. In this new century, Americans and Europeans alike will be required to do more — not less. Partnership and cooperation among nations is not a choice; it is the one way, the only way, to protect our common security and advance our common humanity.” More

Hear a dictator in the making.

Dick Cheney denies veterans a pot to piss in

WASHINGTON - Vice President Cheney's invitation to address wounded combat veterans next month has been yanked because the group felt his security demands were Draconian and unreasonable.

The veep had planned to speak to the Disabled American Veterans at 8:30 a.m. at its August convention in Las Vegas.

His staff insisted the sick vets be sequestered for two hours before Cheney's arrival and couldn't leave until he'd finished talking, officials confirmed.

"Word got back to us ... that this would be a prerequisite," said the veterans executive director, David Gorman, who noted the meeting hall doesn't have any rest rooms. "We told them it just wasn't acceptable." More

Fake Government set up in India

In Uttar Pradesh, new-age fraudsters are redefining trickery. Authorities here have unearthed a fully functional "branch" office of a "Nagar Nigam" in Jhansi.

The office, run by an employee of Jhansi Nagar Nigam, not only employed over 20 people, but was also performing civic works and collecting taxes and even issuing birth and death certificates. It was only after the authorities got a whiff that the person running it, Shyam Valmiki alias Shyam Netaji, was caught.

Jhansi district magistrate (DM) Rajeev Agarwal, shocked by the manner in which the entire racket was operating, says: "It would've been difficult for me to believe that a racket like this could exist, had we not actually stumbled upon this."

Police believe the racket was initially confined to fake appointment of sweepers. Valmiki's idea, according to the police, would have primarily been to pocket Rs 40 lakh in the name of ensuring their appointment and then disappear. "But he later seems to have decided to carry on with the office as it didn't appear to be a loss-making proposition. And when he tried to change his decision, things went out of hand," said a police officer. More

Congressmen's Plane Makes Emergency Landing

Houston, TX — The Federal Aviation Administration has started investigating the emergency landing in New Orleans of a Continental Airlines Boeing 737 carrying former presidential candidate Ron Paul and six other members of Congress, officials said.

Les Dorr, an FAA spokesman, said the plane, from Houston enroute to Washington D.C., was being inspected in New Orleans, where Continental Flight 458 landed late Tuesday. After a loss in cabin pressure, the pilot declared a mid-air emergency and oxygen masks dropped from overhead compartments.

He said the agency routinely reviews such incidents and that it made no difference that seven national lawmakers were aboard. The aircraft and its maintenance records are being reviewed to see "if there was any kind of possible correlation," Dorr said. He said that there could have been a number of reasons why the plane made the emergency landing.

The seven congressmen, all from Texas, were trying to get back in time for a Tuesday night vote on an aviation safety bill when the flight landed without incident, a spokesman for one of the representatives said. No injuries were reported among the 128 crew and passengers. More

Police, Firefighters, Utility Workers Trained as “Terrorism Liaison Officers”

Hundreds of police, firefighters, paramedics and even utility workers have been trained and recently dispatched as "Terrorism Liaison Officers" in Colorado and a handful of other states to hunt for "suspicious activity" — and are reporting their findings into secret government databases.

It's a tactic intended to feed better data into terrorism early-warning systems and uncover intelligence that could help fight anti-U.S. forces. But the vague nature of the TLOs' mission, and their focus on reporting both legal and illegal activity, has generated objections from privacy advocates and civil libertarians.

"Suspicious activity" is broadly defined in TLO training as behavior that could lead to terrorism: taking photos of no apparent aesthetic value, making measurements or notes, espousing extremist beliefs or conversing in code. More

San Diego Comes Under Mock Bio-Terror Attack

A four-day training exercise stretching from the U.S.-Mexico border to East County puts more than 70 agencies to the test during a fake anthrax attack.

"Operation Golden Phoenix 2008" began Monday and will put physicians, nurses, Marines, Border Patrol agents and city and county officials to the test, with cameras recording every move.

Its all part of a mock bio-terrorism attack on San Diego, in which the city comes under a fake anthrax contamination. Officials said the drill involves the simulation of terrorists sneaking in anthrax at the border.

Temporary houses made of foil covered with foam and tape were setup for victims along with a reunification center for families affected by the mock drill. More

McCain, Obama address racial supremist group

Republican nominee John McCain and Democratic nominee Barack Obama spoke at the annual conference of the National Council of La Raza, which in English is translated as "The Race", and is an extreme Hispanic lobby group that advocates a militant "reconquista" of the Southwestern United States.

“Obama spoke to all the important issues to our community. It was a very good speech that helped connect him to the Latino community,” said Raul Yzaguirre, who served as NCLR’s president from 1974 to 2005.

“Incredibly, McCain did not even address the issues of the war in Iraq or his policy on health care. On immigration it was more of the same: secure the borders and no stop to the raids,” said Angela Sambrano, an NCLR board member and director of the National Alliance of Latin-American and Caribbean Communities. More

War on Photography: No freedom on July 4th

As millions of Americans celebrated a holiday that marks their freedom, an Oklahoma man got a real look at what it is like to have that freedom taken away by thugs and bullies.

Chris Owens said he was handcuffed, thrown into the back of a police car and harassed for taking pictures of a car crash scene Monday evening.

He said he witnessed the end of a high-speed chase while riding his scooter down N Classen Blvd. Monday.

"That black SUV passed me doing about 120," Owens said. "I stopped, pulled off on the median, had my camera and just walked around and shot a few pictures."

Much to Owens' surprise, when police saw him taking the pictures, they demanded he hand them over or go to jail. Owens said three troopers and an Oklahoma City police officer were present during the incident.

Troopers told Owens he was inside a crime scene and had no right taking pictures. Owens said he was outside the tape, but deleted the pictures fearing he would be thrown in jail.

"Where's the checks and balances? Who lets them run like unleashed dogs," Owens said. More

Monopoly money increases in value relative to Dollar

The popular board game Monopoly was introduced by Parker Brothers company in 1934 and sold for five cents.

In 2008 the game sells for a typical price of $20 and still includes the same amouint of game money as in 1934.

Even is the game currency is only a fraction of the value of the game, this represents an astonishing plummet in value of the dollar, relative to a cheaply printed pretend currency.

The US Treasury and Federal Reserve offered no explanation as to why their policies would cause this steep devaluation to occur to the dollar.

“Strike teams” invade Iowa flood victims’ homes

So far the federal government has done little to respond to the historic floods in eastern Iowa which are among the worst in recorded history. In order to maintain tyranny in the flooded areas, local governments have had to step up to meet the challenge.

Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff said that he was pleased with the federal government’s virtually invisible response to the Midwest flooding, which in some areas exceeded 500-year plan levels and has destroyed millions of acres of crops across six states and displaced tens of thousands of people.

In Cedar Rapids, where the Cedar River crested at 31.1 feet, flooding nine square miles and displacing over 24,000 people, police have cordoned off large areas of the town and have sent in so-called “strike teams” to “inspect” houses as floodwaters begin to recede.

Police chief Greg Graham said that while firefighters would enter homes through unlocked doors and windows, law enforcement would not enter homes. Yet video evidence has surfaced that police officers were not only entering homes, but breaking down locked doors and windows to do so. More

Chinese Olympics clean-up: death camp for cats

Thousands of pet cats in Beijing are being abandoned by their owners and sent to die in secretive government pounds as China mounts an aggressive drive to clean up the capital in preparation for the Olympic Games.

Hundreds of cats a day are being rounded and crammed into cages so small they cannot even turn around.

Then they are trucked to what animal welfare groups describe as death camps on the edges of the city.

The cull comes in the wake of a government campaign warning of the diseases cats carry and ordering residents to help clear the streets of them. More

"Goatse" Congress gives it up for Bush

WASHINGTON - A White House-backed spy bill to protect telecommunication companies from billions of dollars in possible privacy lawsuits passed a Senate test vote and headed toward final congressional approval.

On a vote of 80-15, mostly Republican supporters of the bipartisan measure, which would also implement the most sweeping overhaul of U.S. spy laws in decades, easily mustered the 60 needed to clear a Democratic procedural roadblock.

Overwhelmingly approved by the House of Representatives on Friday, the bill may win needed Senate concurrence before Congress begins a holiday break the end of this week.

President Bush has promised to sign the measure, which would replace a temporary surveillance law that had expired in February.

In addition to providing a special court review of lawsuits against telecommunication companies, the bill would increase oversight of U.S. intelligence activities and bolster privacy protection -- but not as much as civil liberties groups and a number of lawmakers want. More

Irish voters say no to Fourth Reich

Substantial vote tallies across Ireland show the European Union Lisbon reform treaty has been rejected, Irish Justice Minister Dermot Ahern has said.

European Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso said all indications were that Ireland had indeed rejected the treaty.

He called for other states to continue their ratification processes and said a solution should be sought.

The treaty must be ratified by all 27 members. Only Ireland has held a public vote on it. More

Michael Reagan advocates sexual assault of children

Michael Reagan, son of former president Ronald Reagan, advocated sexually abusing Arab children by anally assaulting them with a foreign object. He made the comments on his publicly aired radio program.

Speaking of Arab babies, Mr. Reagan said, "You know what I'd get them for their first birthday? I'd put a grenade up their butts and light it. Happy birthday baby, bye-bye."

Later in his program, Reagan stated that we will achieve peace "when everybody in the Middle East is dead."

Reagan wrote an autobiography in which he claims he was sexually abused as a child. Being well paid to catapult neocon propaganda, he apparent draws on his unresolved emotional anguish to do his job.

Watch the video

Raped by lookalike foods: The Tomato Caper

The source of the Salmonella that has sickened hundreds of people through tainted tomatoes may be in Mexico and South and Central Florida, according to U.S. investigators.

Health officials said all indications pointed to a single geographic region as the source of the outbreak, which has sickened 228 people in 23 states.

David Acheson, associate commissioner for foods at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said on a conference call that nine people who became ill with Salmonella had eaten at two different outlets of the same restaurant chain. He declined to name the chain or the location of the restaurants. "That represents a small cluster within this outbreak," he said.

The outbreak has been disastrous for the U.S. tomato industry, which produced $1.28 billion of the fruit last year. More

Clinton ends campaign charade

Hillary Clinton has finally ended her pretend campaign against Barak Obama and has conceded to his effort to be elected president of the United States.

Ms. Clinton, shown here with a supporter, also told her supporters they should join her in the fight to help Obama win the White House.

Life is too short, time is too precious, and the stakes are too high to dwell on what might have been,'' Clinton, 60, told a crowd of more than 1,000 supporters gathered at the National Building Museum in Washington.

``We have to work together for what still can be. And that is why I will work my heart out to make sure that Senator Obama is our next president.''

This news did not find acceptance from Harriet Christian, an alleged Clinton supporter, who ranted angrily about how inadequate Obama is and how she was now going to vote for McCain.

Council snoopers use terror powers to scour people's phone records

Council snoopers using terror powers have delved into almost 1,000 peoples' phone records in a bid to probe anything from a bogus faith healer to dog smuggling.

Other bizarre investigations carried out under surveillance powers designed to track terrorists include a rogue pharmacist and unburied animal carcasses.

A survey of Big Brother spying Town Halls revealed that one council used the powers almost 100 times to monitor private phone calls and emails.

It comes just a month after it was revealed Poole Council in Dorset had spied on a family because it wrongly suspected the parents of abusing rules on school catchment areas.

In total councils looked into 936 people's private communications data - who they phoned and emailed - under the Regulation Of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) in the 2006/2007 financial year. More

States make room for DNA samples

At last fall's groundbreaking ceremony for North Dakota's 7,300-square-foot crime laboratory, state Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem said space at the existing facility was so "desperately" short, some staffers had resorted to "cutting mouse pads in half to make them fit."

When the $5.3 million Bismarck facility is completed in October, the spacious quarters will easily accommodate the current staff, who soon will be asked to process and maintain an increasing amount of DNA.

A rapid expansion of DNA sampling is corresponding with a building and hiring boom in North Dakota and other states to accommodate the collection of hundreds of thousands of new genetic profiles.

Five states are slated to begin new sampling of suspects arrested for felony offenses between July and January 2009. Of those, North Dakota, California, Maryland and Kansas are spending millions of dollars to prepare for the additional testing. South Dakota, which will begin additional sampling in July, built a new lab in 2006. More

Unsafe Deposit Boxes Thanks to States Greed

The 50 U.S. states are holding more than $32 billion worth of unclaimed property that they're supposed to safeguard for their citizens. But a "Good Morning America" investigation found some states aggressively seize property that isn't really unclaimed and then use the money -- your money -- to balance their budgets.

Unclaimed property consists of things like forgotten apartment security deposits, uncashed dividend checks and safe-deposit boxes abandoned when an elderly relative dies. Banks and other businesses are required to turn that property over to the state for safekeeping. The problem is that the states return less than a quarter of unclaimed property to the rightful owners. More

Aboriginal stolen children 'were used in leprosy tests'

The Australian government has launched an investigation into claims that aboriginal children seized from their parents during the 1920s and 1930s were secretly used as guinea pigs for leprosy treatments.

The allegations surfaced at a Senate inquiry this week into plans to compensate the "stolen generation" of aboriginal Australians who were taken from their families as part of a government programme.

"As well as being taken away, they were used... There are a lot of things that Australia does not know about," Kathleen Mills, a member of the Stolen Generations Alliance and an indigenous elder, told the hearing.

Ms Mills said children held at a compound in Darwin were injected with serums designed to be used in the treatment of leprosy – a practice which seriously damaged their health. Her uncle, who worked there as a medical orderly, had told her about the sinister goings-on.

"He said it made our people very, very ill. The treatment almost killed them," she told reporters outside the hearing. "It was a common experience and a common practice." More

Food Rationing begins in US

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Many parts of America, long considered the breadbasket of the world, are now confronting a once unthinkable phenomenon: food rationing.

Major retailers in New York, in areas of New England, and on the West Coast are limiting purchases of flour, rice, and cooking oil as demand outstrips supply. There are also anecdotal reports that some consumers are hoarding grain stocks.

At a Costco Warehouse in Mountain View, Calif., yesterday, shoppers grew frustrated and occasionally uttered expletives as they searched in vain for the large sacks of rice they usually buy. More

Vancouver transit riders tasered for not paying fares

VANCOUVER, Canada — The country's only armed transit police have been tasering passengers who try to avoid paying fares.

According to documents provided in response to a Freedom of Information request, police patrolling public transit in the Metro Vancouver area have used tasers 10 times in the past 18 months, including five occasions when victims had been accosted for riding free.

In one incident, a non-paying passenger was tasered after he held onto a railing on the SkyTrain platform and refused to let go.

"After several warnings to the subject to stop resisting arrest and the subject failing to comply with the officers' commands, the taser was deployed and the subject was taken into control," said the report provided by TransLink, the region's transit authority.

An internal review of the incident concluded that the action taken by transit police officers complied with the force's policy and was within guidelines "set out in the National Use of Force Model," the report said. More

Experts dubious about 3rd-graders’ plot

WAYCROSS, Ga. - Allegations that third-graders hatched an elaborate plot to knock out, handcuff and stab their teacher were met with shock by neighbors and with doubt by psychiatry experts who said it is unlikely that children that young seriously intended to hurt anyone.

Police say the plot at Center Elementary School began because the children, ages 8 to 10, were apparently angry after the teacher disciplined one of the students for standing on a chair.

Students brought a crystal paperweight, a steak knife with a broken handle, steel handcuffs and other items as part of last week's plot, police said Tuesday. They said nine students were involved, but prosecutors are seeking juvenile charges against only three of them. More

Absolut vodka pulls ad showing California in Mexico

The contours of the billboard map of Mexico and its neighbors may have been familiar, but not its political boundaries: California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Texas were shaded in the green of a Mexico that stretched from close to Canada to the jungles of Guatemala. "In an Absolut World!" the billboard proclaimed, alongside the image of a bottle of Absolut vodka.

Ruminating over the loss to the U.S. of what had been Mexican territories before the Mexican-American war of 1846-1848 may have been an ad maker's idea of a good way to sell hard liquor and get a chuckle south of the Rio Grande, but some up north didn't find it so funny. After a barrage of complaints on its Internet site and threats to boycott the Swedish-made brand in the U.S., Absolut announced it was withdrawing the advert. "In no way was this meant to offend or disparage, nor does it advocate an altering of borders, nor does it lend support to any anti-American sentiment, nor does it reflect immigration issues," wrote Absolut spokeswoman Paula Eriksson on the company website. "Instead, it hearkens to a time which the population of Mexico may feel was more ideal." More

Possible Japan Ban For Chinese Torch 'Thugs'

LONDON - The mysterious Chinese guardians of the Olympic flame, whose charming blue tracksuits do not make them seem any less sinister, may have to hang up their fanny-packs when they return to the Pacific.

Japan is the latest country to consider banning the boys in blue from protecting the Olympic torch, according to Japan's Kyodo News Agency. National police chief Shinya Izumi told the agency that security would be firmly maintained by Japanese police, adding: "We do not know what position the people who escorted the relay are in…If they are for the consideration of security, it is our role."

The comments mirror the position of Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd, who was adamant that security should be the preserve of the country hosting the torch relay. "We will not be having Chinese security forces, or the security services, providing security for the torch when it's in Australia," Rudd told reporters on Wednesday. "We in Australia will be providing that security." More

TSA nipple ring nightmare

LOS ANGELES, CA - The Transportation Security Administration said Friday its officers at a Texas airport appear to have properly followed procedures when they allegedly forced a woman to remove her nipple rings -- one with pliers -- but acknowledged the procedures should be changed.

The woman involved -- Mandi Hamlin -- told reporters earlier Friday she was humiliated by last month's incident, in which she was forced to painfully remove the piercings behind a curtain as she heard snickers from male TSA officers nearby. The incident occurred at the Lubbock, Texas, airport.

The officers "rightly insisted that the alarm that was raised be resolved," the TSA said in a statement posted on its Web site Friday afternoon. "TSA supports the thoroughness of the officers involved as they were acting to protect the passengers and crews of the flights departing Lubbock that day.".

However, "TSA has reviewed the procedures themselves and agrees that they need to be changed," the statement said. "In the future, TSA will inform passengers that they have the option to resolve the alarm through a visual inspection of the article in lieu of removing the item in question." More

Police insert fingers into woman's vagina to search for drugs

ALBANY, NY - The cops in the marked patrol car had circled through West Hill a couple times keeping an eye on their female target.

They were part of the Street Drug Unit, an aggressive squad assigned to help rid Albany's neighborhoods of drug dealers and addicts blamed for much of the city's problems.

It was early evening and already dark when the patrol car's emergency lights flashed in the rearview mirror of Lisa Shutter's Mitsubishi sedan on Quail Street, just off Central Avenue. Police records show the officers called out a "Signal 38" to alert a dispatcher they were onto something suspicious and about to pull someone over.

They would later write in a report that they had pulled her over for "failure to signal," although no ticket was issued, according to police records shared with the Times Union. The actions of police in the minutes that followed would end in controversy rather than with an arrest. They would also leave Shutter, a 28-year-old single mother from Ravena, shaken and angry after one of the officers allegedly inserted his finger into Shutter's vagina on a public street during an apparent search for drugs.

When it was over, "I pulled off down the road and I just cried for probably a half hour," Shutter said. "I called my dad. ... I felt like I had been basically raped." More

FBI spawns 'shoot-to-kill' citizens

An alliance dubbed the 'InfraGard', which reportedly consists of over 23,000 representatives of the US' private sector in addition to the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security, is engaged in secret activities to maintain elements of 'critical national infrastructure'.

According to an article published in the Progressive magazine, these businessmen impart vital information to the FBI in return for secret intelligence about 'terrorist threats' prior to informing the public and perhaps even government officials.

"One business owner in the United States tells me that InfraGard members are being advised on how to prepare for a martial law situation-and what their role might be," author Matthew Rothschild quoted a whistleblower as saying. More

Canadians with disabilities to pay single fare - including the obese

GATINEAU, Que. - Canadian airline passengers with disabilities, including passengers in wheelchairs and the severely obese, will no longer have to pay double fares for an extra seat on domestic flights, the Canadian Transportation Agency has ruled.

The agency has ordered Air Canada, Air Canada Jazz and WestJet to adopt a one-person, one-fare policy to allow persons with severe disabilities to travel on flights within Canada without having to pay twice.

One of the Canadians who launched the case, a B.C. woman who is confined to a wheelchair, was thrilled with the decision.

"It means we have the same rights as everyone else," said Joanne Neubauer from her home in Victoria. "I've always wanted to go to the Maritimes," she said. "I've seen pictures but I've never been because I haven't been able to afford (two seats.)" More

80-year-old Texan puts attacker in hospital

Investigators say they were definitely going to rob him - possibly even kill him. But an 80-year-old North Texan wasn't about to let that happen, so he took action.

One of the suspects is in the hospital and both are facing charges.

Two men obviously thought James Pickett, 80, was an easy target when they showed up at his home on Saturday with a knife.

"He just came through that door, stabbing and beating," said Pickett.

Captain Clint Pullin said it looked as though the men wanted to kill him. More

It's the immigration theme park

Ever wonder what it's like to be an illegal border crosser? Mexico's Parque EcoAlberto offers tourists the chance to find out with caminata nocturna - a staged adventure that simulates illegally crossing the Rio Grande from Mexico into the United States.

The Parque EcoAlberto is a 3,000 acre eco-park owned by the Hñahñu Indians in Hidalgo, Mexico. It does not border the United States but is in central Mexico, about 700 miles south of the actual crossing.

The park opened in 2004 with funding from the Mexican government and created the caminata nocturna - nighttime hike - in July of the same year. It costs 200 pesos (about $18 USD) to become "illegal" for about four hours. More

I hear voices: highly directional sound advertising

Advertising:- They’re determined to get into your head by one means or another, and a US company has found yet another way of invading your privacy in the name of forcing you to pay attention to advertisements.

You’re walking down a street in New York when all of a sudden, “Who’s that?” - whispers a woman’s voice. “Who’s There?”

No. You weren’t having a schizoid episode.

And, “There’s more going on here,” says a spooky voice with heart-beats in the background.

This time, it’s an online ad for Paranormal State, “a ghost-themed series premiering on A&E this week”.

The voice you heard in New York meant you were being subjected, without your permission, to an “audio spotlight” from a rooftop speaker. More

Sean Hannity Lies 3 Times in Rapid Succession

Sean Hannity gets paid very generously to catapult propaganda, and he is very enthuthiastic about what he does, In this clip, from his program in which he is speaking with former California governor, Jerry Brown, Hannity credits Ronald Reagan with creating 21 million new jobs, doubling income to federal government, and the longest peacetime period of econimic growth in history.

The problem is that these are outright lies. It is unclear whether he made up these lies on the spot, or he carefully scripts his lies, but here are the facts.

The number of jobs created when Reagan presided was 16 million. Adjusted for inflation, revenue increased under Reagan by only 15%. The unadjusted figure is 50%, not anything like the manufactured figure of doubling. Finally, economic growth lasted 92 months under Reagan, while it lasted 120 months under Bill Clinton.

The lesson is clear. When something comes out of the mouth of a paid propagandist, you can be sure it is a blatant lie!

Evil Canadian seeks to jail political opponents

David Suzuki has called for political leaders to be thrown in jail for ignoring the science behind climate change.

At a Montreal conference last Thursday, the prominent scientist, broadcaster and Order of Canada recipient exhorted a packed house of 600 to hold politicians legally accountable for what he called an intergenerational crime. Though a spokesman said yesterday the call for imprisonment was not meant to be taken literally, Dr. Suzuki reportedly made similar remarks in an address at the University of Toronto last month.

Addressing the McGill Business Conference on Sustainability, hosted by the Faculty of Management, Dr. Suzuki's wide-ranging speech warned against favouring the economy to the detriment of the ecology -- the tarsands in Northern Alberta being his prime example.

Toward the end of his speech, Dr. Suzuki said that "we can no longer tolerate what's going on in Ottawa and Edmonton" and then encouraged attendees to hold politicians to a greater green standard.

"What I would challenge you to do is to put a lot of effort into trying to see whether there's a legal way of throwing our so-called leaders into jail because what they're doing is a criminal act," said Dr. Suzuki, a former board member of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association. More

Lakota group secedes from U.S.

Political activist Russell Means, a founder of the American Indian Movement, says he and other members of Lakota tribes have renounced treaties and are withdrawing from the United States.

"We are now a free country and independent of the United States of America," Means said in a telephone interview. "This is all completely legal."

Means said a Lakota delegation on Monday delivered a statement of "unilateral withdrawal" from the United States to the U.S. State Department in Washington.

The State Department did not respond. "That'll take some time," Means said.

Meanwhile, the delegation has delivered copies of the letter to the embassies of Bolivia, Venezuela, Chile and South Africa. "We're asking for recognition," Means said, adding that Ireland and East Timor are "very interested" in the declaration.. More

Blackwater: Above the Law

San Diego, California - This is a Blackwater vehicle parked out front of the cigar shop on 7094 Miramar Road in a handicapped spot, although there is no apparent handicapped placard hanging from their rearview mirror.

Tent city in suburbs is cost of US home crisis

ONTARIO, California--Between railroad tracks and beneath the roar of departing planes sits "tent city," a terminus for homeless people. It is not, as might be expected, in a blighted city center, but in the once-booming suburbia of Southern California.

The noisy, dusty camp sprang up in July with 20 residents and now numbers 200 people, including several children, growing as this region east of Los Angeles has been hit by the US housing crisis.

The unraveling of the Inland Empire region reads like a 21st century version of "The Grapes of Wrath," John Steinbeck's novel about families driven from their lands by the Great Depression. More

Maine steals unused gift card funds

Having a ravenous apetite for funing sources, the state of Maine has contrived a way to take funds set aside to cover unused gift cards.

Ever wonder what will happen if someone sticks a gift card from Circuit City, Target, Barnes & Noble or another retail chain into your stocking this holiday season and you lose it, forget about it or can't find anything you want to buy with it?

If you don't use it within two years, the card will become dormant. Once that happens, you'll inadvertently do your small part to fuel a face-off between the state and dozens of out-of-state retailers over who should get that $25, $50 or $100 that you misplaced or tossed aside.

It's a high-stakes game involving dueling claims of ownership and unresolved legal issues. And for state government, it represents more - a multimillion-dollar hole in the budget. More

What New Yorkers know about Rudy Giuliani

When Rudolph Giuliani awoke on the morning of September 11, 2001, his political career was in the toilet. Nearing the end of his second term as mayor of New York City, a tenure marred by conflict and personal scandal, his approval rating was in the dismal 30th percentile, and he was term-limited from running again.

He dropped out of a 2000 Senate race against Hillary Rodham Clinton after being diagnosed with prostate cancer. Besides, no New York City mayor had gone on to higher office since 1868. Newsweek referred to pre-9/11 Rudy as “unpopular” and “irrelevant.”

What a difference a day can make.

Later that day, the American public was introduced to Giuliani, covered in soot, addressing his city with a strength and poise not lacking the emotional weight of the tragedy. He was on the scene, not holed up in a bunker, and he commanded from the streets, just as at-risk as the people he was charged to serve. Holding impromptu press conferences amongst falling buildings and chaos, he displayed the valor of a true leader. That day, even New Yorkers who had long called their mayor a “fascist” and “Adolph Giuliani” loved Rudy. More

TSA Kicks Off New Year With Battery Restrictions

Battery enthusiasts who enjoy lining their checked baggage with excess power supplies are out of luck in 2008 under new government travel regulations, but it looks as though the average traveler with a laptop, cell phone or digital camera will not encounter nearly as much hassle as they might should they be holding more than 3 ounces of moisturizer.

Starting January 1, passengers will not be able to put loose, lithium-based batteries in their checked bags due to the possibility of fire, according to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). Batteries that are attached to their designated devices, however, are permitted. Batteries rolling around with your clothes? Denied. Batteries installed in that extra digital camera? Good to go. Spare batteries must be packed with carry-on luggage.. More

Blackwater USA draws another protest

Mark Colville got a stiffer punishment for simulating Blackwater USA's slaughter of innocent Iraqi civilians than the mercenaries who actually committed the crime.

Colville, a peace activist with the Amistad Catholic Worker house in New Haven, was given a 45-day suspended jail term and ordered to pay a $450 fine for taking part in the Oct. 20 die-in at Blackwater (recently rebranded Blackwater Worldwide) headquarters in Moyock, N.C. Colville and six others drove a Subaru riddled with fake bullet holes and fake blood into Blackwater's sprawling compound to dramatize the Sept. 16 incident at Nisour Square in Baghdad, when 17 Iraqi civilians were gunned down by Blackwater guards. None of the guards has been prosecuted, though the Associated Press reported last week that investigators are zeroing in on the culprits. More

Merry Christmas from HUD

On the 12th day before Christmas, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is planning to unleash teams of bulldozers to demolish thousands of low-income apartments in New Orleans. Despite Katrina causing the worst affordable housing crisis since the Civil War, HUD is spending $762 million in taxpayer funds to tear down more than 4,600 publicly subsidized apartments and replace them with 744 similarly subsidized units " an 82 percent reduction.

HUD is in charge here, and a one-person HUD team makes all the local housing authority decisions. HUD took over the local housing authority years ago " all decisions are made in Washington, D.C. The agency plans to build an additional 1,000 'market rate" and tax credit units, which will still result in a net loss of 2,700 apartments to New Orleans. The remaining new apartments will cost an average of more than $400,000 each. More

Tased and Confused: American torture goes domestic

Stun guns were supposed to make both police and citizens safer. But critics in Pittsburgh and elsewhere say they are dangerous -- and that police are too quick to use them.

Tasers have long been touted as a form of protection for both police and protesters. By using electrical current to stun arrestees, the argument goes, the device makes it less likely that police would use more lethal force. But as Taser use has become more widespread, reports of scattered deaths and police abuse are beginning to accumulate. Some suspect that the device may have more health effects than previously reported.

Vic Walczak, legal director of ACLU Pennsylvania, agrees: "We see Tasers used for what we call 'contempt of cop' violations -- swearing, questioning their authority. Tasers are a way to exact street justice. It's disconcerting to see police officers using Tasers in circumstances where essentially no force can be justified. More

Get Kids Vaccinated Or Else, Parents Told

The parents of more than 2,300 Prince George's County students who failed to get needed vaccinations could face fines of $50 a day and up to 10 days in jail if their children do not meet the state's immunization requirements, county officials said yesterday.

The threat of legal action is a last resort after months in which Prince George's has struggled to get its 131,000 students immunized for chicken pox and hepatitis B, as mandated by the state. More than 2,300 students have not been immunized and have been barred from attending schools, almost two months after a Sept. 20 deadline for meeting the requirement.

"We can do this the easy way or the hard way, but it's got to get done," Prince George's State's Attorney Glenn F. Ivey (D) said at a news conference in Upper Marlboro. "I'm willing to move forward with legal action." More

Polish man tortured to death by taser in Canada

The Canadian Police State took off the gloves recently and tortured a man to death at Vancouver International Airport while an eyewitness recorded a video of the atrocity.

The 10-minute video recording clearly shows four RCMP officers talking to Robert Dziekanski while he is standing with his back to a counter and with his arms lowered by his sides, but his hands are not visible.

About 25 seconds after police enter the secure area where he is, there is a loud crack that sounds like a Taser shot, followed by Dziekanski screaming and convulsing as he stumbles and falls to the floor. Another loud crack can be heard as an officer appears to fire one more Taser shot into Dziekanski. As the officers kneel on top of Dziekanski and handcuff him, he continues to scream and convulse on the floor. One officer is heard to say, "Hit him again. Hit him again," and there is another loud cracking sound. Police have said only two Taser shots were fired, but a witness said she heard up to four Taser shots.

A minute and half after the first Taser shot was fired Dziekanski stops moaning and convulsing and becomes still and silent. More

First-grader suspended over drawing

EAGLE POINT, OR - The vigilance to root out terrorism has taken a new turn as the threat posed by a child's drawing is stamped out.

An Oregon first-grader was suspended for drawing a stick figure shooting another in the head with a gun and allegedly threatening students.

Little Butte School officials sent 6-year-old Ryan Weathers home after receiving complaints from parents saying he threatened their children, said Douglas Weathers, the boy's father.

"He's not a violent kid," Weathers said. "He did not mean any harm."

School district officials declined to comment. State law bars them from discussing disciplinary actions against specific students. The disciplinary report given to Weathers stated the reason for the suspension was the boy "threatened to shoot two girls in the head."

The drawing was inspired by an episode of "The Simpsons," Weathers said. In the television cartoon, a character displays a drawing of a student being shot by a gun. More

Canada uses US databases to scrutinize border crossers

Canada has access to US crime and arrest databases, including local DUI convictions and misdemeanor offenses, and has been using the data to turn back Americans wishing to leave the country.

Two high-profile American peace activists on Thursday accused the Canadian government of denying them entry into Canada solely because of past arrests in the U.S. for peaceful protests against the war in Iraq.

Medea Benjamin, founder of the women's peace movement CodePink, and former U.S. diplomat Ann Wright were detained for several hours by Canadian authorities at the border crossing between Buffalo, N.Y. and Niagara Falls, Ont., then turned back because their names appeared on an FBI database detailing their misdemeanour convictions.

"We believe the Canadian government should not be doing the dirty political intimidation work for the Bush administration by using that database," Wright, a former U.S. army colonel and deputy ambassador, said at a news conference outside the Canadian embassy in Washington. More

Rumsfeld hit with torture lawsuit while visiting Paris

Former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's jaunt to France was interrupted today by an unscheduled itinerary item -- he was slapped with a criminal complaint charging him with torture.

Rumsfeld, in Paris for a discussion sponsored by the magazine Foreign Policy, was tracked down by representatives of a coalition of international human rights groups, who informed the architect of the US invasion of Iraq that they had submitted a torture suit against him in French court.

The filed documents allege that during his tenure, the former defense secretary "ordered and authorized" torture of detainees at both the American-run Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and the US military's detainment facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. More

In the Future, Your Recycling Will Be Monitored

Chris Martin is busting open garbage bags in a Georgetown lot—three days' worth of accumulated waste from two downtown office buildings. He won't say which buildings they are. That's because (a) the tenants are mostly environmental advocacy groups, and (b) the results of this "garbage audit" are not going to be pretty.

Martin and his crew dump the contents on the ground, forming heaps of banana peels, coffee cups, energy-bar wrappers, McDonald's packaging, plastic bags, water bottles, bunched-up paper, and other by-products of office life. They sort through it all with rakes and hands, separating out the recyclables from the true trash—that is, doing what the tenants should have done in the first place.

A half-hour or so into the exam, a crew member tears open a pair of bags piled high with recyclable paper, and a ripple of excitement runs through the group. They're like cops who've just found the rock of cocaine they knew was hiding somewhere. More

Blackwater guards disarmed U.S. Army soldiers

The colonel was furious. "Can you believe it? They actually drew their weapons on U.S. soldiers." He was describing a 2006 car accident, in which an SUV full of Blackwater operatives had crashed into a U.S. ArmyHumvee on a street in Baghdad's Green Zone. The colonel, who was involved in a follow-up investigation and spoke on the condition he not be named, said the Blackwater guards disarmed the U.S. Army soldiers and made them lie on the ground at gunpoint until they could disentangle the SUV. His account was confirmed by the head of another private security company. Asked to address this and other allegations in this story, Blackwater spokesperson Anne Tyrrell said, "This type of gossip has led to many soap operas in the press."

Whatever else Blackwater is or isn't guilty of—a topic of intense interest in Washington—it has a well-earned reputation in Iraq for arrogance and high-handedness. Iraqis naturally have the most serious complaints; dozens have been killed by Blackwater operatives since the beginning of the war. But many American civilian and military officials in Iraq also have little sympathy for the private security company and its highly paid employees. With an uproar growing in Congress over Blackwater's alleged excesses, the North Carolina-based company is finding few supporters. More

Nation on Edge: Operation TOPOFF

PORTLAND, Oregon — The largest civil defense exercise in American history — Operation TOPOFF — is scheduled to run Oct. 15-19 in three locations: Portland, Ore. Phoenix, Ariz., and the U.S. territory of Guam.

The multi-agency exercise encompasses over 15,000 individuals and, according to the Federal government, will feature a "surprise" scenario whereby a hypothetical "Radioactive Dispersal Device," or conventional explosive that disperses radiation, goes off unexpectedly in a metropolitan area. Federal officials say that the exercises will test their ability to react to simultaneous terrorist attacks to determine the impact on emergency resources.

At the same time, the U.S. military’s Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) is running its "Vigilent Shield 08" exercise, which, among other things, contemplates sending Federal troops into disaster zones to bolster local first responders.

Among the Federal agencies taking part in the national-level exercise are FEMA, the FBI, the CIA, the National Guard, USNORTHCOM, NORAD, the National Reconnaissance Office, and other elements of the Department of Defense. In all, more than 275 organizations are expected to be involved. More

Cross the border often? Make it Simple

Each time he flies between Canada and the United States, Michael Campbell feels a little special.

As a member of NEXUS a program designed to simplify border crossings for pre-approved, low-risk travellers, Mr. Campbell speeds up the process at Vancouver International Airport. Instead, he stops at a self-serve kiosk where a machine takes a digital picture of his eye to confirm his identity, asks him to answer the standard customs and immigration questions on a touch-screen and sends him on his way to collect his baggage.

Mr. Campbell, 65, the co-owner of a hotel in Penticton, B.C., is one of a growing number of trusted travellers from Canada and the U.S. who are taking advantage of the expanding NEXUS program to streamline their border crossings. More

Blackwater and the menacing 'Private Security' Industry

Among the many topics covered in his new book, Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army, investigative reporter Jeremy Scahill shows how politically powerful Christian fundamentalists and Neocons are pressing forward with their battle for what they call 'freedom' and 'democracy'—whether the U.S. public, or indeed the rest of the world, wants to fight or not.

Blackwater USA is prominent among many companies that provide "contract security" personnel for governments, corporations and wealthy individuals. It began in 1987 by offering advanced military training at its 7,000-acre main training facility in Moyock, North Carolina, near the Great Dismal Swamp, and has rapidly expanded. It is now doing business on a global scale, with its operations horizontally and vertically integrated to cover just about any imaginable security need.

In addition to its size, Blackwater merits being singled out for attention because of its leaders' well-placed political, social, and religious connections, and its founder Erik Prince's immense wealth and Catholic extremist connections. Scahill's meticulously researched and thoroughly documented account makes for fascinating—and disturbing—reading. See the full book review

Southwest Airlines foils Fashion Terror Plot

Southwest Airlines recently foiled a terror plot.

This plot did not involve any explosives, weapons, or any other substance known to cause harm. Instead, it was a scheme hatched by a young woman who planned to terrorize passengers with the sight of her shapely body.

Kyla Ebbert, 23, was escorted off a Southwest Airlines flight two months ago for wearing an outfit far less revealing than a bikini top.

Ebbert, a Mesa College student and Hooters waitress, was allowed to stay on the plane, but only after she put up a fight and, she says, was lectured on how to dress properly.

The California bottle blonde - who recently had a boob job and was headed to Arizona for a post-op visit with her surgeon - denied being a temptress.

"I was bruised and bandaged. I wasn't trying to show anything," she said. She recalled how the flight attendant chastised her and ordered her to the front of the plane.

Southwest explained its treatment of Ebbert in a letter to her mother, saying it could remove any passenger “whose clothing is lewd, obscene or patently offensive” to ensure the comfort of children and “adults with heightened sensitivities.” More

John Edwards' Healthcare Plan from Hell

If John Edwards is elected president, he wants to force you to go to a doctor, even if you do not need to. He will do it at gunpoint, if needed, since the last resort of a mandated policy is that armed federal agents show up at your door to compel you to perform their will.

Left unanswered in his statement is who will have custody of your medical records. After all, how will the federal government know about what medical treatment you have had unless they posess or gain access to your records?

In his proposal, Edwards states, “It requires that everybody be covered. It requires that everybody get preventive care.”

“If you are going to be in the system, you can’t choose not to go to the doctor for 20 years. You have to go in and be checked and make sure that you are OK.”

He noted, for example, that women would be required to have regular mammograms in an effort to find and treat “the first trace of problem.” Edwards and his wife, Elizabeth, announced earlier this year that her breast cancer had returned and spread. More

Would you let this man protect your identity?

Robert Maynard had in isea. Drawing on his experience in credit repair and with the Internet, Maynard dreamed up a service that would protect people against the dreaded crime of identity theft.

Lifelock, as his new company would come to be called, began offering services to the public the same month in 2005 that Maynard was filing a bankruptcy for some earlier financial indiscretions.

LifeLock's primary service is nothing you can't do yourself. If you think someone has stolen your identity, you can call one of the three major credit bureaus, TransUnion, Experian or Equifax, and place an electronic red flag, called a fraud alert, on your account.

The catch is that Maynard may well be an identity thief.

American Express sued Maynard's father in 2005 for $154,000 in unpaid bills. But Dr. Robert J. Maynard Sr., a prominent local eye doctor, denied he ordered the card.

Records show that someone with Maynard Sr.'s personal information ordered the card. But that someone didn't have the bills sent to Maynard Sr.'s home. Instead, the bills went to a company called Netshield, at a Phoenix address used by one of Maynard Jr.'s former firms.

Though Maynard Sr. says he never asked for the card, he settled with the company. Coincidentally, Maynard Jr. has $170,000 in debt to American Express listed on his 2005 bankruptcy paperwork — and his father is named as a co-debtor.

If Maynard Jr. ordered the card using his dad's data, without his dad's knowledge, that would make him — you got it — an identity thief. More

Hasbro and Visa Train Children to Rack Up Debt

As if credit card-related debt wasn't a big enough problem in the U.S., Hasbro and Visa want to fuel the fire. Hasbro is launching a new edition of The Game of Life called Twists and Turns that will replace play money with a Visa-branded card.

Matt Collins, Hasbro's vice president of marketing, said of the switch, "When we started to design a completely new edition of the popular game, we knew it was also time to reflect the way people choose to pay and be paid - and replacing cash with Visa was an obvious choice."

They also changed the goal of the game from accumulating the most money to earning the most "life points." Supposedly this a combination of wealth and life experiences, but it's not hard to see parallels between "life points" and the reward points and airlines miles offered by certain credit cards. More

Butt Slapping Boys in Oregon Jailed

To some people the sight of a full round butt, such as the one possesed by Dorismar, is enough to entice them to slap it and hear the crack of an open hand smacking the glutes.

In Oregon, two boys tore down the hall of Patton Middle School after lunch, swatting the bottoms of girls as they ran -- what some kids later said was a common form of greeting.

But bottom-slapping is against policy in McMinnville Public Schools. So a teacher's aide sent the gawky seventh-graders to the office, where the vice principal and a police officer stationed at the school soon interrogated them.

After hours of interviews with students the day of the February incident, the officer read the boys their Miranda rights and hauled them off in handcuffs to juvenile jail, where they spent the next five days.

Now, Cory Mashburn and Ryan Cornelison, both 13, face the prospect of 10 years in juvenile detention and a lifetime on the sex offender registry in a case that poses a fundamental question: When is horseplay a crime? More

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