Recently in the news it was reported that in some parts of the Northeast a packet of heroin is cheaper than a 6 pack of beer. The lil bags of heroin were stamped with cute names like “Barack Obama,” “Crime 360″ and “Swine Flu.” Classy.
Ok everybody, can we PLEASE secure the border with Mexico? I somehow think there’s a connection between all this cheap heroin and a porous border with Mexico where the drug cartels are literally slaughtering cops, regular folks and even priests.But I could be wrong.
Image nydailynews.com
Authorities found $30 million worth of heroin stuffed inside Build-a-Bear toys in a NYC drug raid. (July 6, 2009) Image www.wpix.com
Photo provided by the DEA
The DEA says the drugs were stamped with dozens of brand names including Barack Obama, Swine Flu, and Crime 360.
The drugs were seized at several locations throughout the Bronx.
Drug bust nets heroin stuffed in Build-A-Bear toys
AP | July 4, 2009
NEW YORK (AP) — A dozen people have been arrested, and 33 pounds of heroin worth $30 million and stuffed inside Build-A-Bear toys has been seized in a drug bust in the Bronx.
The arrests late Friday afternoon were announced Saturday by the New York office of the Drug Enforcement Administration along with city and state police.
The authorities say the arrests broke up a drug ring that each week sold hundreds of thousands of small bags of drugs.
The drugs were stamped with such brand names as Barack Obama, Swine Flu and Crime 360.
Authorities say $150,000 in cash was also seized and the drugs were distributed in New Jersey and New York.
As the newspaper industry changes stories as thoughtfully reported and written as the one below will perhaps fade away. Thanks to JL for this wonderful article.
Rabid cat raises alert
Bloomsburg Press Enterprise | June 4, 2009 | By GARY PANG, Press Enterprise Writer
BLOOMSBURG _ A rabid cat lunged at Margaret Huttenstine while she was gardening outside her house last Friday. The cat also had run-ins with one or two other people near Town Park, and tried to attack police before it was shot to death.
The incident brought state health inspectors to the area Wednesday. They were looking for any other animal that might have been infected by the potentially fatal virus.The inspectors also warned students and teachers at nearby Bloomsburg High to be on the lookout. “It really was frightening,” said Huttenstine, 12 Fort McClure Blvd., of her experience. She wound up with scratches on her legs and ankles. Doctors at Bloomsburg Hospital gave her five rabies shots, and still more are coming.
Moaned loudly
The blond cat was extremely thin and dirty, with black greasy marks on its body, Huttenstine said. When she saw the cat wandering around her house at 6:30 p.m., she thought it was an abandoned kitten. Later, the cat jumped at Huttenstine, again and again. It clawed at her shoes, and tried to crawl up her pant legs. The woman was holding a shovel at the time, and she was tempted to swing it at the cat. Instead, she ran into her house and called 9-1-1. Huttenstine also tried to calm the cat by putting out food. But the cat hid beneath the home’s porch, moaning loudly.
Hit with baton
When police showed up, the feline lunged at one officer. When it got too close again, an officer hit it with a baton, Huttenstine said. Eventually, police had to shoot the cat, but its head was still intact for rabies testing, Huttenstine said. She was glad her grandchildren and her golden retriever, Theo, were not at her home that night. Otherwise, the cat might have attacked them. Huttenstine wanted to thank police for helping her.
Warning flyers
On Tuesday, the state Department of Agriculture confirmed the feline was rabid, a press release states. A rabid cat can infect other animals, so health inspectors canvassed the neighborhood yesterday, said Holli Senior of the state Department of Health. The inspectors also met with Bloomsburg High officials, warning them about the rabid cat, said Principal Dan Bonomo. They even gave Bonomo a flyer with a picture of the cat, plus a phone number for people to report incidents involving the animal. Bonomo posted the flyer at the school office. He also forwarded the information to the elementary school, whose students often play at Town Park.
Tallies vary
Officials had different tallies for the number of victims. Health inspectors reported two people were bitten and one person scratched, Bonomo recalled. Meanwhile, the Department of Health counted only two people “known to be exposed,” said Senior. A press release did not identify the victims.
Please note not all the “cracks” in this ancient piece of ivory are there because of age.
The Venus of Hohle Fells is the oldest known example of figurative female art (Image: H.Jensen/University of Tubingen/Nature)
Further views of the Venus (Image: H.Jensen/University of Tubingen/Nature)
Further views of the Venus (Image: H.Jensen/University of Tubingen/Nature)
Ivory ‘Venus’ is first depiction of a woman
www.newscientist.com | May 2009 by Andy Coghlan
With its outsize bulbous breasts and hugely exaggerated genitalia, a statuette of a woman has pushed back the history of female figurative art by 5000 years, to at least 35,000 years ago.
Anthropologists are staggered by the find, which also shows that even this long ago, our brains and their ability to think in abstract ways were probably as sophisticated as they are now.
Discovered in the Hohle Fels Caves of south-western Germany, the “Venus” figurine carved from mammoth ivory is remarkably well-preserved, with only the left arm and shoulder missing. “It’s perhaps the earliest example of figurative art worldwide,” says Nicholas Conard of the University of Tübingen in Germany.
Apparently the buggy was hit from behind at 7 a.m. in the morning. The Glick’s were probably on their way to Sunday services. Mrs Glick was ejected from the vehicle. Other reports state the Glicks were a family and that the infant son was named “Elmer” not “Elmber.” Deepest sympathies to the Glick family on their loss and best wishes to Mr Glick and the baby for a speedy recovery.It’s unclear whether the Glick’s were Amish or Mennonite.
Random shot of an Amish Horse and Buggy
Woman killed in Chesco as car hits horse-drawn buggy
INQUIRER STAFF | Posted on Mon, Jun. 29, 2009 | Philly.com
Pennsylvania state police are investigating a crash involving a car and a horse-drawn buggy in western Chester County yesterday that killed a young woman and seriously injured a 29-year-old man.
Police said the crash occurred shortly before 7 a.m. on Gap Newport Pike in West Fallowfield Township, near the Lancaster County line.
In a news release, Trooper Mark Knock said a Mitsubishi Eclipse driven by Robert P. Stanton Jr., 19, of Atglen, struck the buggy from the rear, ejecting all three occupants from the horse-drawn vehicle and fatally injuring the horse.
Killed was Rebecca Glick, of Gap, Pa., whose age was listed as 25 to 29. Police said Reuben B. Glick, also of Gap, suffered serious head injuries and was flown to Lancaster General Hospital. A third victim, J. Elmber Glick, 9 months, was treated at Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington The release did not say how the victims were related.
Stanton, who suffered minor injuries in the crash, was treated at Lancaster General and released.
If I could, I’d go to interesting business conventions, like this one, all the time. Click here for a previous post about Haunted House Insurance.
Tim Gavinski, former president of the International Association of Haunted Attractions, has been instrumental in bringing the Haunted Attraction National Tradeshow and Convention to Milwaukee this weekend. Gavinski has haunted house buildings at the Waukesha County Expo Center, including Morgan Manor. Photo Journal Sentinel
Haunted house convention in Milwaukee aims to scare up business
By Doris Hajewski of the Journal Sentinel | Apr. 30, 2009 | Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Make your own Eyeballs. Corpsifying a Bucky Skull. Creature Hands Make N Take.
There are so many sessions to choose from at HAuNTcon that it almost makes your head spin.
The show floor at the sixth annual Haunted Attraction National Tradeshow and Convention opens Friday at the Wyndham Milwaukee Airport Hotel. Organizers are hoping to attract 1,000 people to the gathering, which connects spooky product vendors with operators of haunted houses across the United States. The show, which runs through Monday, is open to the public.
While most people think of haunted houses as charity fund-raisers, the business of scaring has turned into a major for-profit industry, according to Leonard Pickel, who operates the trade show.
“It’s a business like any other,” Pickel said. “When the for-profits realized that 10,000 to 30,000 people were going through, it didn’t take long for them to take over.”
The spiritual ceremony that Lucille Hamilton underwent "substantially improves the life," according to the Web site of voodoo priest Houngan Hector (right). Image philly.com
Lucille Hamilton, a Little Rock, Ark., resident, died early Sunday in this house in the 400 block of Loch Lomond Drive in Gloucester Township. Several visitors were at the house for a "voodoo cleansing ritual,' authorities said. Image DENISE HENHOEFFER/Gannett New Jersey
VOODOO BECAME A FATAL OBSESSION
ON A SEARCH FOR SPIRITUAL CLEANSING, SHE DIED IN A SOUTH JERSEY TOWNHOUSE
By JASON NARK, Philadelphia Daily News | narkj@phillynews.com 856-779-3231 | Jul. 14, 2009
LUCILLE HAMILTON paid $621 to have her “spiritual grime” removed by a voodoo high priest in an ordinary townhouse on a winding street in Camden County, a friend said.
Hamilton, 21, a male living as a woman, flew in on Friday from her home in Little Rock, Ark., to the house on Loch Lomond Drive in Gloucester Township, friends said, to take part in a three-day spiritual cleansing referred to on the priest’s Web site as “Lave Tet.”
By Saturday night Hamilton was dead, and authorities are awaiting results of an autopsy and toxicology tests to determine exactly what happened. No charges have been filed.
Although authorities have not called Hamilton’s death suspicious, her friends are eager to know what went wrong.
“I’m still trying to find a scenario that makes sense,” said Billie Miller, Hamilton’s boss at Arkansas Flag and Banner, in Little Rock. “I can’t come up with anything that makes sense.”
Miller said Hamilton was a devout Catholic, with an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe tattooed on her foot, but was also interested in voodoo. She said Hamilton – who used the name Lucie Marie on Facebook – had been saving money to travel to New Jersey, but was not planning to undergo a sex change.
Being born without the 2 front legs is a common birth defect in inbred Chihuahuas. Thanks to the miracle of the interweb, owners and “mommies” can produce and share videos such as these.
It doesn’t make it right, but I do understand the feeling of wanting to punish someone for high prices.
Woman beaten up over asparagus prices
May 18, 2009 | Jacob Comenetz | Reuters
BERLIN (Reuters) – German police are searching for a motorist who beat a 24-year-old woman selling white asparagus because he was upset about her asking price for the coveted springtime vegetable, police said on Monday.
The prices for white asparagus, sometimes called “edible ivory” in Germany, fluctuate wildly during the short springtime season, peaking early in the season at 10 euros per kilo.
The man screamed at the woman that her asparagus was overpriced. He then punched her in the face and threatened to unleash his attack dog at her. She fled and called police.
“The motorist said her prices were totally over the top,” said Dietmar Keck, police spokesman in the Havelland district west of Berlin, without saying how much she was asking.
Prices for asparagus now range from 1 to 5 euros per kilo, he said. Some 55,000 tons valued at 175 million euros are harvested annually.
This story is an example of two very obvious facts: Wikipedia is not gospel truth and journalism is changing, in large part due to the dwindling number of journalists and outlets.
Shane Fitzgerald's obituary-friendly quote — which he added to the Wikipedia page of Maurice Jarre hours after the French composer's death March 28 — flew straight on to dozens of U.S. blogs and newspaper Web sites in Britain, Australia and India. Image Fionn Kidney / AP
Student hoaxes world’s media on Wikipedia
Phony quote appears in obituaries for French composer Maurice Jarre
By Shawn Pogatchnik | AP | May 12, 2009
DUBLIN – When Dublin university student Shane Fitzgerald posted a poetic but phony quote on Wikipedia, he said he was testing how our globalized, increasingly Internet-dependent media was upholding accuracy and accountability in an age of instant news.
His report card: Wikipedia passed. Journalism flunked.
The sociology major’s made-up quote — which he added to the Wikipedia page of Maurice Jarre hours after the French composer’s death March 28 — flew straight on to dozens of U.S. blogs and newspaper Web sites in Britain, Australia and India.
They used the fabricated material, Fitzgerald said, even though administrators at the free online encyclopedia quickly caught the quote’s lack of attribution and removed it, but not quickly enough to keep some journalists from cutting and pasting it first.
Tyler Maloney is a tough kid. I share his family’s relief he was not gravely injured. When Tyler says, ‘I could have died,’ he is absolutely right. Those inflatable ride are dangerous and kill more people than traditional rides. Want more info on how lucky Tyler is and info about rides in general? www.rideaccidents.com.
Tyler Maloney, 11, (center) was on an obstacle course bounce ride Saturday, June 27, afternoon in Goldman Park in Middletown when somehow the inflatable unit pulled away from the ground and blew end over end with Tyler hanging on. The Highview Elementary student suffered only bruises. Also at the park that day were his sister Brittany, 13; and brother Zach, 9.
image from www.kirotv.com
From middletownjournal.com
From middletownjournal.com
From middletownjournal.com
From cincinnati.com
From middletownjournal.com
An inflatable bounce ride obstacle course got loose with children still in it at about 3:41 p.m. Saturday, June 27, at Goldman Park in Middletown. One 11-year-old boy was taken to the hospital, and a few other children received minor injuries, according to Middletown police. From middletownjournal.com
Cell Phone Picture from www.local12.com
An inflatable bounce ride obstacle course got loose with children still in it at about 3:41 p.m. Saturday, June 27, at Goldman Park in Middletown. from www.middletownjournal.com
From middletownjournal.com
‘I could have died’ says boy on runaway inflatable
By Rick McCrabb, Columnist | www.middletownjournal.com | June 30, 2009
The Maloney family portrait — father, mother and three healthy children — nearly was shattered.
On Saturday, June 27, Chris Maloney, a board member on the Middletown Pee Wee Football League, was signing up players at Douglass Park, while a few miles away, his wife, Melissa, and two sons, Tyler, 11, and Zach, 9, were watching their sister, Brittany, 13, play in a girls fast-pitch softball tournament run by Young American Youth Advancement Services.
“It was a good day,” Chris Maloney said.
Then his cell phone rang with “shocking” news that turned his life upside down.
At 3:40 p.m., Tyler, a fifth-grader at Highview Elementary School, was sitting near the top of the inflatable slide monitoring children as they rode the ride at Goldman Park.
Wow, what a wonderful and amazing story. Tough kid.
The baby's fall on Friday, May 15, 2009 was broken by these shrubs at the base of this apartment building at 1300 Mississauga Valley Blvd. Image from CTV.ca
Mississauga toddler survives eight-story drop
By Chelsea Murray, National Post | May 15, 2009 | network.nationalpost.com
A toddler has survived an eight-storey fall from a Mississauga high-rise, Peel police said.
The boy fell from his mother’s arms today from a building at 1300 Mississauga Valley Boulevard.
“He had been in his mother’s arms on the balcony and he started wriggle to the point where she lost her grip on him,” said Cst. Marlene Murphy.
Peel police said the boy landed on some dense shrubbery directly below the balcony, and suffered from scratches and a broken nose, but remains in hospital for observation.
‘‘The shrubs essentially broke his fall, and that’s what essentially saved his life,’’ Const. J.P. Valade told CP24.
Rami Kandil, 14, was walking out of the building when he heard people screaming and saw the toddler’s grandfather searching through the bushes.
“I came down and he was searching through the bushes, then right when he grabbed the kid, that’s when he started crying,” said Rami, whose mother owns Danuta Cleaning Services, based in the same high-rise. “I’m guessing he was in shock or something.”
A group of people gathered around the boy — whose face was bleeding — looking “shook” and “in shock,” he added. “They were yelling like crazy too.”
Cst. Murphy said they’ve determined the fall was “a dreadful accident.”
