BULLETIN BOARD

 

WELCOME TO CEDAR CREEK VOICE.

   Email address: http://cedarcreekvoice.wordpress.com

Cedar Creek Voice is a weekly news magazine and opinion blog dedicated to the citizens of Cedar Creek Township, as well as greater Wexford County, Michigan.

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WEXFORD  COUNTY,  MICHIGAN:

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Want to leave a comment OR submit a letter for publication? 

Click on “Make Comment” at the beginning of each Post. 

[Updates are usually done every week.]

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*EDITOR’S COMMENTS:

(1)  The local gas stations claim they aren’t responsible for pricing, but it hasn’t escaped anyone’s notice that when the stock market goes up and the price of crude oil futures goes up, the price of gas goes up VERY FAST.   I’ve seen it go up anywhere from 10 cents to 25 cent per gallon in one day.  However, when the stock market goes down and the price of crude oil futures goes down,  the price of gas goes down VERY SLOWLY.  The price will go down anywhere from 1 cent to 4 cents per day until the price goes up again.  Somehow the price never goes down to what it had been, but alway goes up higher than what it was when the crude oil futures price reaches a particular level.  I believe this unfair pricing practice is up to the individual gas stations to correct. 

(2)    Today (Tuesday) we had to call the police because we were the victims of a theft.   I had waited until the tent-type deer blinds were on sale and bought one for my husband’s birthday in September.   He was all excited, but due to recent surgeries, he did not want to sit and freeze, so he bought himself a small portable propane heater.    He anchored his new deer blind down and left it in place for over a month so the deer would get used to it being there.   He invited one of his brothers to come up for a visit. so they could go deer hunting from his new blind.    His brother was excited, too, and bought himself a (November) birthday present — a bi-pod on which to rest his gun.  They went out Sunday and Monday and on Tuesday the deer blind was GONE!   It was stolen in the middle of the night by thieves who came onto the middle of our 14 wooded acres to take it.  They stole my husband’s new portable heater and his brother’s bi-pod, too.   My husband and his brother were really angry, as was everyone else who’s heard about the theft. People in this part of Michigan take their deer hunting seriously, and word gets around fast.   Stealing their equipment is like taking away their identity.   My husband called the Sheriff’s police and an officer came out to take a report, but told my husband that they have many similar thefts every year at this time.    This led us to believe that little will be done about  apprehending the culprits.   Our land is posted exactly as the law demands, yet someone ignored the posting and came onto private property to steal from us.  All of us felt that we had been “violated” every bit as much as if it had been a home break-in.   What I worry about is the anger and resentment that’s left behind that goes far beyond the price of the equipment.   If  other people are as angry as we are and many thefts occur every year,  it’s just a matter of time before some poor slob gets lost after dark and wanders onto someone’s private property by accident and gets shot or attacked by dogs.

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ATTENTION:

For those of you who have tried to get to TRAVERSE CITY from points south & east, like the  CADILLAC area,  but were surprised when you got to the Manistee River bridge on U.S. 131 and found it was closed due to construction:    Like many people, you may have noticed there were no signs anywhere near the bridge offering an alternate route or pointing the way toward a detour.   Actually we found one sign between Cadillac and Traverse City that tells you not to use M-113, but rather to take M-115 West (to Mesick), then turn right  onto  M-37 North, which will take you across the Manistee and  all the way into Traverse City.   We did find shorter alternate routes, but they were complicated.   This route is longer, but direct.  Hope this helps!

Editor -

 

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 HAPPY  NOVEMBER  BIRTHDAYS

  

 

NOVEMBER 5 …..Remembering CHARLES RAMSEY.

NOVEMBER 13 …..HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SHERRIE FUSCONE!

NOVEMBER 14 …..HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JERRY LOFTIS!

NOVEMBER 17 …..HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LOIS STANCIAK!

NOVEMBER 19 …..HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LOUIE FUSCONE!

NOVEMBER 19 …..HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JANET LOCK!

NOVEMBER 20 …..HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JERRY AHRENS!

NOVEMBER 21 …..HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SEAN AHRENS!

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CURRENT POSTS (from 11/15/09):

• Bulletin Board
• Letters, Opinions, & Commentary
• Local News
• Local Dining:  There’s More to Explore in Michigan!
• Michigan News
• National News
• State of our U.S. Economy
• Elsewhere in the World
• Politics…As Usual
• Rx:  Laughter, P.R.N.
• Celebrities in the News
• Crime & Punishment
• U.S. Troops & Veterans News
• Massacre at Fort Hood – continued
• Text of President Obama’s Fort Hood Memorial Speech
• Health News
• Health Care Reform in the Senate
• Science News
• Tracking Area Gas Prices:  November, 2009

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    S     E     R     V     I     C     E     S

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For FREE  PRESCRIPTIONS,  HEALTH CARE

 

(including diabetes & hypertension clinics; 

 

diagnostics including mammogram & pap smear

 

 

with follow up care if results abnormal);  

 

 

PREGNANCY HELP; and  DENTAL CARE in the

 

 

Cadillac area: 

See the Page titled: 

“Can’t Afford Your Prescriptions

  or Health Care”

 (Names of agencies, locations, and/or

telephone numbers are included.)

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 ::::: H E L P ::: W I T H ::: H U N G E R ::::   

 * Check Page titled: 

“FOOD PANTRIES in MISSAUKEE, OSCEOLA, and WEXFORD COUNTIES.”

            – Or call the Chamber of Commerce of town nearest you and ask where you may donate (or obtain) needed food items.

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-FOOD STAMP HOTLINE…..

          1-800-481-4989.

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-Call DEPT. OF HUMAN SERVICES OF 

      WEXFORD & MISSAUKEE COUNTIES

 re:  food, housing, and other basic needs  ……..  (231) 779-4500.

                        Our thoughts and prayers are with you.

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  H  O  M  E  S

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Governor Granholm Announces Toll-Free Number to Help Families Facing Mortgage Foreclosure.  

“Save the Dream” campaign toll-free number is ………………….1-866-946-7432.

ALSO:  See Link titled, ”HELP FOR THOSE FACING FORECLOSURE”  with information from HUD.

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VETERANS:  Please see the 10/11/08 Post, “U.S.Troops & Veterans’ News” regarding President Bush signing the Veterans’ Benefits Improvement Act,  especially the part about V.A. home loans:

“…One change in the benefits law that would be vital to many veterans at a time of turmoil in the home mortgage is an overhaul of the veterans’ home loan program that makes it easier for people with non-VA loans to refinance their mortgages through VA. This is done by raising the amount VA will guarantee and reducing the amount of equity a homeowner must have in order to refinance…”

[Editor's note:  For information regarding many Veteran's needs, see the Post "VETERANS'  HQ"]

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   I   N   C   O   M   E  

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 Call, Visit, or Write your local MICHIGAN WORKS! at:

Michigan Works! Service Center,  401 Lake St., Ste. 700,  Cadillac, 49601,

Telephone: (231) 775-3408.

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FOR THOSE LOOKING FOR

A FIRST JOB, 

A NEW JOB,

OR ANY JOB: 

 Be sure to check the job listings and career information in the (NOW 20) LINKS under

the heading: JOB SEARCH!  To go directly to  these websites to check “help wanted”, ”employment” or “careers” - just click on the name of the Link itself  (all start 

with  “JOB SEARCH:…”).   The link will take you directly there.

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VETERANS:  Try checking the Link: JOB SEARCH:  DESTINY GROUP – “Employers Seeking Those Who Served in the Military.  Search over 100,000 jobs.”

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UNEMPLOYMENT   BENEFITS  

                                 in MICHIGAN:

How Do I File for Unemployment Insurance?

Claims by Mail:

Jobless workers may take cuts in line by using our convenient Claims By Mail service.  Mail-in applications are available in Bureau branch offices, most Michigan Works! service centers and in the FORMS section of our Web site…

Internet Claims:

To use the on-line servcice, applicants must be filing a new or additional claim.  An additional claim is one filed to reactivate benefits when a person already has a claim in existence, interrupts the payment of benefits on the claim by returning to work and then becomes unemployed again.

Applicants filing new claims must meet these criteria:

• Are not employed full time.

• Have been employed during the past 18 months.

• Live in Michigan.

• Were employed by only one Michigan employer during the past 18 months.

• Filed a claim for unamployment benefits during the past 10 years.

• Did not work in family employment.

• Were not in Military Service during the past 18 months.

• Were not employed by the federal government during the past 18 months.

• Did not work in another state during the past 18 months.

• Did not file a claim against another state during the past 12 months.

• Did not work under more than one social security number diring the past 18 monhts.

• Are not trying to claim past weeks of benefits.

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE AGENCY:

To File a Benefit Claim, Call (toll free): ………………….1-866-500-0017.

Click on website:  http://www.unemploymentoffice.net/State_resources/Michigan

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WET  PANTS

     Come with me to a third grade classroom.  There is a nine-year-old kid sitting at his disk and all of a sudden, there is a puddle between his feet and the front of his pants are wet.  He thinks his heart is going to stop because he cannot possibly imagine how this has happened.  It’ never happened before, and he knows that when the boys find out, he will never hear the end of it.  When the girls find out, they’ll never speak to him again as long as he lives.

     The boy believes his heart is going to stop.  He puts his head down and prays this prayer,
“Dear God, This is an emergency!  I need help now!  Five minutes from now I’m dead meat!”

     He looks up from his prayer and here comes the teacher with a look in her eyes that says he has been discovered.

     As the teacher is walking toward him a classmate named Susie is carrying a goldfish bowl that is filled with water.  Susie trips in front of the teacher and inexplicably dumps the bowl of water in the boy’s lap.

     The boy pretends to be angry, but all the while is saying to himself, “Thank you, Lord!  Thank you, Lord”

     Now all of a sudden, instead of being the object of ridicule, the boy is the object of sympathy.  The teacher rushes him downstairs and gives him gym shsorts to put on while his pants dry out.  All the other children are on their hands and knees cleaning up around his desk.  The sympathy is wonderful.  But, as life would have it, the ridicule that should have been his has been transferred to someone else — Susie.

     She tries to help, but they tell her to get out.  “You’ve done enough, you klutz!”

     Finally, at the end of the day, as they are waiting for the bus, they walks over to Susie and whispers, “You did that on purpose, didn’t you?  Susie whispers back,  “I wet my pants once, too.”    

May God help us see the opportunities that are always around us to do good.

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1110-40857-497-1115

 

LETTERS, OPINIONS, & COMMENTARY

 

LOCAL  LETTERS

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CALL COMMISSIONERS AND SAY “NO DEAL”

When haulers take trash over the county line, small business gets the shaft.
Small businesses don’t have the volume or political connections to negotiate lower trash rates. Haulers use the county’s high rates and flow control policy to justify expensive pickup. Then they take the trash over the county line, dump at a cheaper landfill, and pocket the profit.

By turning a blind eye to offenses, county officials collude in theft from their own residents.

Instead of being outraged on the people’s behalf, the BPW looked for technical loopholes. Trash didn’t go to another landfill, they said; it went to a transfer station in Grand Traverse.

Instead of seeking restitution for stolen revenue, they recommend that the people pay a $1.2 million debt to expand the landfill for the benefit of a private company.

The video presented to the BPW showed an American Waste truck picking up garbage from mom and pop businesses in Buckley . The truck left Buckley, crossed the county line, topped off in Kingsley, and wound up at a Grand Traverse transfer station.

Did Wexford collect one dime on trash taken to the transfer station?
Did Buckley businesses benefit from lower trash rates because their garbage went out of county?
Does our solid waste plan allow trash to leave the county except under emergency situations?
The answer to all these questions is no.

The taxpayers have sunk roughly $19 million into landfill operations and expansion.
Should that investment be handed over to a company that pulled revenue out of the county?
Should taxpayers be strapped with construction debt that benefits American Waste?
Should we become a 23-county dumping ground because American Waste says so?

 Call your commissioner and say, “No deal.”

Rita J. McNamara   

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COMMISSIONERS HAVE ANOTHER BAD PLAN  

Wexford County has an unprofitable landfill that has contaminated the aquifer in Cedar Creek Township.  Much of the funds set aside to close the landfill went toward the new county courthouse.  Commissioners spent a fortune to rectify contamination problems, but failed. They spent even more installing a water system, but were so high-handed and treated people so unfairly that lawsuits were brought against the county.  

Wexford commissioners also found a way to make the rest of the county pay for their mistakes.  They couldn’t raise taxes.  However, they fixed it so individuals and businesses in Wexford must pay much more for waste disposal in their own county than if they hired an outside company–which they aren’t allowed to do.

For several years Wexford commissioners have discussed plans which all involve taking in trash from 21 outside counties at cheap rates, but forcing our residents and local businesses to pay high rates in order to sell the landfill.  Negotiations were with three companies:  TransGreen, Waste Management, and American Waste.

Haulers from American Waste charge expensive waste pickup fees to local businesses due to Wexford’s high rates and flow control policy.  Yet citizens have brought evidence to the commissioners’ attention that this waste is not being dumped in our landfill.  Results:  Our businesses are charged more for pickup;  our landfill makes no money; and it’s against Wexford’s policy.  Did our commissioners call for an investigation?  No.

They again ignored citizens’ concers and voted 7-2 to sell out to American Waste.  (Commissioners McKeever and Beck voted against it.)

I suggest we call our commissioners to say “NO” to this sale.  And if they can’t come up with better plans, we need to vote them out!

Sherrie Fuscone

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  CADILLAC  NEWS

November 9, 2009

BPW to get update on water system

By Jeff Broddle

 

CADILLAC – The Wexford County Board of Public Works will hear an update on construction of the water system serving homes in Cedar Creek Township whose wells were contaminated by seepage from the Wexford County Landfill.
Director of Public Works John Divozzo said he expected an operating permit for the system should be received “at any time.”
He said he has verbal assurance from the DEQ that the permit will be issued, but written confirmation is needed before the water system can be put into service.
Pipes serving the homes are in the ground and ready to go; all that needs to be done is for pipes to existing wells to be disconnected and the connections made to the home water systems.
After that, the wells will be abandoned, capped with cement and pumps and other appurtenances inside the homes will be removed. There are 45 homes in the Remedial Action Plan area. 42 of them have provided access to the water system, Divozzo said.
The BPW also will consider issuing a request for proposals for environmental monitoring at the landfill site.
A couple of factors come into play in seeking a firm other than consultant CTI to perform the monitoring, Divozzo said.
“We’ve kept them on because historically, we have used our consultant as our groundwater firm, but we are not required to,” Divozzo said.
Under an acquisition of the landfill by American Waste, the company would be responsible for some of the groundwater monitoring at the site. The change would give the county the opportunity to search for a sampling firm closer by than CTI, which is based in Brighton, Divozzo said.
The BPW also will review the RAP schedule and make sure they are in compliance.
Divozzo said the BPW will need to revise the date set for waste relocation from unlined areas of the landfill to the lined areas designed to capture leaking contaminants.
The state is seeking assurance that the relocation will be done in a timely matter.
jbroddle@cadillacnews.com | 775-NEWS (6397)

~~~~~~~~~~~~Letter Refering to this Article Below:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

PROPERTY OWNERS DO NOT WANT WELLS CAPPED

 

November 14, 2009

 

According to this newspaper article, there are three “Holdouts” left  (i.e. property owners whose wells have been affected by contamination from Wexford Landfill)  who have not signed any form of access agreements.  Forty-two families may have been forced to sign access agreements, thus losing any chance at “just compensation”, and making the R.A.P. go at all costs.

 

There is no law saying the MDEQ can force people to cap their wells– unless they’re just making up a brand new “Permits” — probably just to intimidate the three holdouts.   The county Health Department has the only legal right to cap, but theirs is only a “concern” and they have no legal right to cap, even in the Wexford County Landfill R.A.P. Area.   The District No. 10 Health Dept. could not be coerced (by MDEQ) into forcing the well capping, so now the MDEQ is making a ”last ditch” effort to take people’s property rights away.   Even the help of Wexford County Prosecutor Smathers’  ”access agreement”  bluff  being called,  people have been intimidated into signing any form of access.

 

I believe they have lost some of their property rights and maybe most of their rights of Inverse Condemnation of their Private Property.

 

They should ust think of it this way:   Anyone who signed an Access Agreement should retain their rights, even if comes down to their making a plea to a judge to keep their wells, water rights, and now, not to let their wells be capped.

 

The county defense lawyer may say that they accepted the municipal water and the ”limited free water”, so they have been justly compensated and have lost the guaranteed by the US Constitution,  thus losing their rights of Just Compensation.

 

Our rights are being eroded by attrition, especially with the help of Cedar Creek Township’s board making decisions for individuals against their input and without their permission.  Most people do not want their wells capped, whether they signed an agreement or not.  CCT will not help to keep both public water and your private well– political promise or not!

 

The Cedar Creek Township Ground Water Ordinance  (bought buy the MDEQ) ”bluff ” has been called.  Nobody will enforce it.  Why?  It’s because the Plaintiffs’ lawyers told CCT to “ just try to enforce it and will sue you for that,too!”   Nobody can stop government officials from making another new law, but we sure can SUE you for trying to enforce it.

 

The Governent is responsible for the contamination plumes and will do anything to cover it up!

 

The fight has been long and hard.  People’s rights should not be “collateral damage”.  Some seem to think that the Plaintiff’s Suit is a class action suit.  One person signing off on anything is only that one person’s settlement — not mine!

 

Robert Lohman

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LOCAL NEWS

CADILLAC NEWS

 November 14, 2009

 

Deer season

brings in the bucks

 By Jeff Broddle 

JEFF BRODDLE | CADILLAC NEWS Cadillac News file Warm weather and a ban on baiting are blamed for a decline in deer hunters, but the opening weekend still is the best one in November for some local businesses.

 

JEFF BRODDLE | CADILLAC NEWS Cadillac News file Deer perk up their ears at the sight of a car stopped on the road in Osceola County.

 

JEFF BRODDLE | CADILLAC NEWS Carl Carlson, owner of Carl’s Gun Shop on M-55 east of Cadillac, gets a Department of Natural Resources gun ready for the season. Carlson said warm weather and lack of snow translate into less than optimal conditions for the start of deer season. 

 

JEFF BRODDLE | CADILLAC NEWS Carl Carlson, owner of Carl’s Gun Shop on M-55 east of Cadillac, gets a Department of Natural Resources gun ready for the season. Carlson said warm weather and lack of snow translate into less than optimal conditions for the start of deer season.

CADILLAC – Over the past couple of weeks Pat Ringler, owner of the Chase Creek Smokehouse in Chase, made the rounds with other local business owners to see how they were doing. Universally, the news wasn’t too good.

“Things have been incredibly slow,” Ringler said.

But Thursday night, with the opening of rifle season just three days away, the buzz of lively conversation and clink of tableware on plates signaled a steady hum of activity in the restaurant’s dining room.

“I’m not getting my hopes up, but it’s looking up from what I’ve seen so far,” Ringler said.

Hunters had been in and out all day, offering some hope during the doldrums.

“It’s looking good now. We’re all hoping for a huge weekend,” Ringler said.

That first weekend of rifle season provides a welcome boost for many small businesses.

“In our area, all the businesses look forward to it because it’s a busy time of year,” said Suzie Williams, executive director of the Reed City Area Chamber of Commerce. 

“I think the hunters really help the local economy,” Williams said.

Steve Knaisel, owner of Pilgrim Village Resort and Fishing Shop, said the first weekend of deer season is good for them and economically very important to the Cadillac area.

“It’s traditionally a very, very strong weekend for us,” Knaisel said.

He noted, though, that much of the action has shifted downstate, which offers more doe permits. Many hunters have better luck in the southern part of the state, where the DNR is trying harder to keep deer from wandering into roadways or munching on backyard gardens.

Hunters up north have the advantage of thousands of acres of state and federal land open to hunting that folks downstate don’t have, though, unless they’re fortunate to have land of their own or have a place they can lease or get permission from the landowner.

Still, hunting is an activity rich in tradition, although some traditions, such as the whole family coming along with grandma getting up at 5 a.m. to make breakfast, have been falling away.

Carl Carlson, owner of Carl’s Gun Shop on M-55 east of Cadillac, said deer season once accounted for 30 to 35 percent of his annual business, but now it amounts to about five to ten percent.

“The weather is not cooperating,” Carlson said of the relatively warm temperatures and lack of snow. Carlson said he felt the ban on baiting deer has taken its toll, as well.

But while sales of new guns may be down, Carlson said, the demand for repair work has increased.

Robert Gattin, executive director of the Cadillac Area Visitors Bureau, said he didn’t have numbers on bookings yet, but deer season still provides a good bit of business for local lodges, restaurants and stores.

“The weather is not breaking like most hunters would like, but we still expect to see a bump,” Gattin said.

In Reed City, Gary Smith, owner of Reed City Hardware, said deer hunting accounts for about half of his November sales. Smith isn’t expecting a huge rush before opening day, however, because shoppers have been coming in steadily for the past week and a half.

Smith said that this year, hunters seem to be spreading out their purchases, “rather than going on a big spree.”

 jbroddle@cadillacnews.com

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Hunting season dates

-Archery Dec 1-Jan. 1

-Regular Firearm Nov. 15-30

-Muzzleloading Dec. 4 to Dec. 20, depending on zone

-Late firearm Dec. 21-Jan. 1

-(Antlerless deer on private land only in open Deer Management Units)

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CADILLAC NEWS

 November 14, 2009

 Salvation Army

Kettle Campaign kicks off

 BY MARDI SUHS,  CADILLAC NEWS

MARDI SUHS | CADILLAC NEWS Glen’s Market shopper Darlene Lukity heard the Salvation Army bell and immediately donated money to help those in need. “I give to this cause every year,” she stated.

 

MARDI SUHS | CADILLAC NEWS Captain Erin Eddy positioned herself outside the doors to Glen’s Market in Cadillac for the Kick-off for the Red Kettle Campaign on Friday. When it gets cold, bell ringers will be welcomed inside to keep warm.

 CADILLAC – Volunteer bell ringers are standing by their Salvation Army red kettles, encouraging Holiday shoppers to give their spare change to meet local needs.

The Salvation Army kicked off its Red Kettle Campaign Friday, November 13 at Glen’s Market.

Glen’s Market has welcomed the Salvation Army every year, and for the last five years, bell ringers have been invited into the warmth of all Spartan Stores, making it easier for customers to make a donation.

Darlene Lukity, a Glen’s Market shopper, didn’t hesitate when she heard the bell ringing.

“I give to this cause every year,” she said. “It’s worthwhile because there are a lot of homeless people out there who need the help.”

Captains Jeff and Erin Eddy said that all three kettle locations will be up and running by next Friday through Christmas Eve.

In Cadillac, kettles and bell ringers will be stationed at Glen’s Market and Wal-Mart, with a possible third location at Walgreens or the Tractor Supply Company. 

“If we get enough volunteers to ring the bells,” stated Eddy, “we’ll do more locations.”

Last year the Red Kettle Campaign netted $30,000, and the Eddys hope that this year will match or surpass last year.

…………………………………………………………………………………………

-The Salvation Army seeks volunteer bell ringers to work in two-hour shifts.

For information, call 775-7131.

-mardijo@chartermi.net | 775-NEWS (6397)

-The Red Kettle Campaign is the nation’s largest holiday fundraising drive. Every holiday season, more than 25,000 volunteers from all across the country ring bells to solicit donations that get dropped into the red kettles.

 -Last year, the campaign raised $111 million. More than 83 cents of every dollar is spent on direct service for those in need.

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CADILLAC NEWS

November 14, 2009

 

Men turn themselves in

after accidental shooting

 

CADILLAC – Two men have turned themselves in in response to an accidental shooting of a bow hunter in Greenwood Township Thursday, the Wexford County Sheriff’s Department reported.

On Friday morning, two men contacted Wexford County Sheriff’s detectives and stated that they believed they were involved in the shooting of 56-year-old Edward Hutchinson of Lake City. Hutchinson, who was shot in the back, is still in critical condition at Butterworth Hospital in Grand Rapids.

According to the sheriff’s department, the two men said they had been sighting in a 30-06 rifle near the man’s location at about the same time as the shooting and felt that the right thing to do was to contact the authorities.

Detectives were able to match their story with evidence at the scene and information from the victim, who had been bow hunting in the area. Hutchinson called 9-1-1 after being shot and attempted to describe his location. He also called his son, who was familiar with the area where they hunted and was able to guide emergency responders to him.

The prosecutor’s offices will review the police report to determine any possible charges.

Speaking on behalf of the family, daughter-in-law Heather Hutchinson confirmed that her father-in-law is still in critical condition and said the family is thankful for the assistance of many people who located Hutchinson after he was shot, including Mesick Rescue, the Department of Natural Resources, the sheriff’s department, and individual community members.

“We want to thank everyone in the community who went out and looked for him,” she said.

 —–

news@cadillacnews.com | 775-NEWS (6397)

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LOCAL DINING: There’s More to Explore in Michigan!

cadillac march 1 2009 sunday North Guide flickr.com

cadillac photos december 29 2008 North Guide flickr.com

Editor’s Note:   Even though times are tough, sometimes a night out for a good meal together is still a great way for a family or friends to spend some time together.  There’s no prep or cooking or cleaning up afterward.  Cadillac has restaurants for different tastes and for different-sized pocketbooks!  There’s a big holiday coming up with people traditionally eating at private homes.  However, it’s a long holiday weekend!  Take time to eat out and try a local restaurant you haven’t tried before!  If it’s good–sing its praises!  If it’s bad, well, add a COMMENT to this Post saying what you would like to see changed. 

cadillac michigan along the lake KrisEllisR

flickr.com 

Beach Bar & Grill - Cadillac Sands Resort
Outdoor Patio Restaurant open Memorial Weekend through Labor Day Weekend.  Open seven days a week serving lunch & dinner.  Overlooking Lake Cadillac and the Private Beach of Cadillac Sands Resort located at M-55 & M-115.
Cadillac, MI 49601
231-775-2407

Blackmer Lodge at Caberfae Peaks Ski and Golf Resort
16,000 sq ft day lodge, cafeteria
Caberfae Rd.
Cadillac, MI 49601

(231) 779-3541 

 

Bob Evans Resturant
Completely Smoke Free
Kids’s meals start at $1.99
Plenty of RV & Bus Parking!
Location:
1931 N Mitchell
Cadillac, MI 49601
(231) 775-8017

Clipper Room & Porthole Lounge - Cadillac Sands Resort
Family Friendly Restaurant specializing in Steaks & Seafood.  Also offering lighter fare, sandwiches, hamburgers, appetizers, and a great Kid’s Menu.  Serving dinner seven days a week.
Located at M-55 & M-115.
Cadillac, MI 49601
231-775-2407

Curly’s Bar & Grill - McGuire’s Resort

Nostalgic fun atmosphere, scheduled live entertainment.
One Mile south of Cadillac
Mackinaw Trail
Cadillac, MI 49601
(231) 775-9947
G & D Party Store
Carry out, pizza, subs and sandwiches
23 S. Mitchell St.
Cadillac, MI 49601
(231) 775-1229
MacKenzie Lodge Dining Room
We offer full service dining, conference facilities available
at Caberfae Peaks Ski Resort
Cadillac, MI 49601
(231) 779-0685

 Sand Bar Niteclub  – Cadillac Sands Resort
Evening fun for adults!  Dancing, DJ, Live Bands, & Theme Nites.  Open Thursday, Friday, & Saturday at 7:30 pm.  Thursday is Country Night, Theme Nights are featured on Fridays & Saturdays.  Call to find out what is planned for this month’s Party Calendar.  Located inside Cadillac Sands Resort at M-55 & M-115.
Cadillac, MI 49601
231-775-2407
Terrace Room Restaurant - McGuire’s Resort
Authentic Northern Michigan cuisine which features a Saturday Buffet, and Sunday Brunch.  Open 7 days a week, serving breakfast, lunch and dinner located one mile South of Cadillac.
7880 S Mackinaw Trail
Cadillac, MI 49601
(231) 775-9947
Timbers Restaurant
Specializing in a prime rib and seafood menu
5535 E. M-115
Cadillac, MI 49601
(231) 775-6751

Other Cadillac Area Restaurant Listings:

sunrise on cadillac lake michigan Judith Bursot…

                     flickr.com

Arby’s Roast Beef (231) 775-8891Bear Claw (231)779-7800 Big Boy Restaurant (231) 775-7125 Blue Heron Cafe & Bakery (231) 775-5461 Bob Evans Farms Restaurant (231) 775-8017 Burger King (2 locations) (231) 775-8800 Burke’s Waterfront Restaurant (231) 775-7555 Cadillac Grill at Eldorado Golf Course (231) 779-3663 Cadillac Party Lounge (231) 775-9073 Checkers (231) 779-5357 Chico’s Taco House (231) 775-7272 China One (231) 876-8888 The Coffee Cup (231) 839-4859 Country Garden Café (231) 775-9969 Coyote Crossings (231) 826-3212 Culver’s (231) 775-2166 Domino’s Pizza (231) 775-0044 Duane’s Family Restaurant (231) 826-3313 Big Boy Restaurant (231) 775-7125 Frosty Cup Family Restaurant (231) 775 7451 Great Wall (231) 775-8600 Hermann’s European Cafe’ (231) 775-9563 Herranduras Mexican Bar & Grill (231) 775-4575 House of Hunan (231) 779-0988 Jim’s Bucksnort Saloon (231) 885-2314 Kelly’s Deli (231) 775-2033 Kentucky Fried Chicken (231) 775-4601 Kestelwoods Restaurant Wellston   (231) 862-3476 Kodiak’s Coffee House and Deli (231) 775-5282 Kountry Kitchen (231) 775-9051

Lakeside Charlie’s & Crabby Charlie’s (231) 775-5332Little Caesar’s of Cadillac (231) 775-9100 Maggie’s Tavern (231) 775 1810 Mancino’s Pizza and Grinders (231) 775-7360 Marina Ristorante (231) 775-9322 McDonalds (2 locations) (231) 775-7893 – (231) 779-1775 Mr. Foisie’s Pasties (231) 779-9042 Mesick Mushroom Bar (231) 885-1371 Park Place Cafe (231) 775-5550 Paisano’s Pizza, Pasta (231)-775-2445 Pines Pizza Pub (231) 775-7752 Pizza Hut (231) 775-6515 Pizza Plus (231) 775-7727 Ponderosa (231) 779-3151 Quizno’s Subs (231) 775-7379 Roaring 20’s (231) 775-8411 Ruby Tuesday’s (231) 779-1240 Saddle Inn (231) 775-0076 Sally’s Downunder/Lounge (231) 775-9666 Shay Station Coffee Company (231) 775-6150 Subway Restaurant (3 locations) (231) 775-1782 Taco Bell (231) 779-1380 The Bear Claw (231) 779-7800 The Pines (231) 775-6111 Thirsty’s Elmrest (231) 775 3039 Tillie’s (231) 779-1570 Tom’s Cone & Coney Mesick (231) 885-1160 Waterfront Restaurant (231) 775-7555 Wendy’s Hamburgers (231) 775-5204

lake mitchell cadillac michigan forestlady                                  flickr.com

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MICHIGAN NEWS

400px Michigan map png, 207.150.180.135  

 

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Traverse City RECORD EAGLE

November 09, 2009 06:50 am 

        

Michigan 21-year-old

 

in poker final

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A 21-year-old professional poker player from Michigan hit a lucky king to cap a nearly impossible comeback at the World Series of Poker Sunday morning, setting up a showdown with a self-employed logger for $8.55 million.

Joe Cada, of Shelby Township, dodged elimination several times during the longest no-limit Texas Hold ‘em main event final table in history. Cada — who at 123 hands into the session held just 1 percent of the chips in play — could become the youngest series champion ever in the finale tonight.

“Luck always helps,” Cada said. “I’ll take all the luck I can get.”

Cada eliminated French poker professional Antoine Saout when a river king gave Cada a better pair than Saout’s eights.

The hand ended an improbable comeback Saout staged himself, climbing from eighth in chips to start the session to finish third. He won $3.48 million.

Cada faces Darvin Moon, 46, of Oakland, Md., who finished the session with about the same number of chips he started with.

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Traverse City RECORD-EAGLE

November 10, 2009 

State cuts college scholarships

 

It’s impacting college students across the state who

were expecting the state money.

By Melissa Smith
Tuesday, November 10, 2009 at 7:08 p.m.

TRAVERSE CITY — Kayla Hilden is a freshman at Northwestern Michigan College in Traverse City.  She earned the Michigan Promise Grant and was planning on using the $1 thousand for books and tuition.  That’s not an option anymore.

“It’s just a disappointment really.  I was excited not to have to pay for college but I mean these things happen,” says Hilden.

The recently signed state budget doesn’t provide money to renew several college scholarships like the Michigan Promise this fall.

“Now I’ll have to pay for my books separately which I’m hoping won’t be too much,” says Hilden.

“It was free money so without it you’re going to have to have to work for it.  You’re going to have to find a way to get that thousand or how every much you earned,” says NMC freshman, Connor Mehl.

The question is what do students do if they were expecting this financial aid that’s now no longer.

“We’re seeking other funds for them.  Some may be internal, some may qualify for additional federal dollars but we’re working with each of those students as individuals and we’ll say, ‘here are the options, here’s how you can continue your education,’ ” says NMC president, Tim Nelson.

Nelson says out of the 5,076 students at NMC, 382 of them are no longer receiving Michigan Promise funds.

“We want to provide the options that we can as a starting point and then invite each student to come and talk with us, the financial aid department…Our job is to help them find ways to finance their education which we will continue to do,” says Nelson.

7&4 News also spoke with Kirtland Community College in Roscommon and North Central Michigan college in Petoskey about the scholarship cuts.  Both schools say they are actively working with their students on other financial aid options.

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November 10, 2009

GM chairman says co.

committed to repaying aid

 

NEW YORK – The chairman of General Motors says the automaker is committed to repaying its billions in government loans, though it’s too soon to say when that will happen.

Ed Whitacre says the Detroit-based company has a long way to go before it’s in “fighting shape” again, but added it has made major strides since emerging from bankruptcy protection this summer.

Whitacre made the remarks late Tuesday at Texas Lutheran University in Seguin, Texas.

GM has received more than $50 billion in taxpayer aid and is now majority-owned by the U.S. government. Both parties have said they expect the automaker to become publicly traded again sometime next year, though Whitacre said Tuesday the timing of any IPO remains uncertain.

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DETROIT FREE PRESS

November 15, 2009

Bruce Springsteen News

Springsteen’s embarrassing mistake

 

‘Hello, Ohio!’ (Psst! Boss, we’re in Michigan)

The curse of Friday the 13th struck Bruce Springsteen in a most unusual way: it made the 60-year-old rock legend forget where he was.

The Boss bellowed “Hello, Ohio!” to his fans at the Auburn Hills Palace in Michigan.

Springsteen referred to the neighboring state several times in the following 30 minutes until E Street Band guitarist Steve Van Zandt whispered in his ear.

A visibly embarrassed Springsteen grinned and said such a mistake was “every front man’s nightmare.”

The Detroit Free Press says Springsteen rocked the forgiving audience for nearly three hours Friday night with new and old hits including a complete performance of his album “Born to Run.”

___

Information from: Detroit Free Press, http://www.freep.com

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NATIONAL NEWS

 

 

November 10, 2009 

UA pilot charged with

being over alcohol limit

AFP/File – A commercial airliner prepares

to land at London’s Heathrow airport. Police arrested a United Airlines …

 

By RAPHAEL G. SATTER, Associated Press Writer

LONDON – A United Airlines pilot who was pulled from his trans-Atlantic flight to Chicago shortly before takeoff has been charged with having too much alcohol in his system, British police said Tuesday.

Scotland Yard said that 51-year-old Erwin Vermont Washington, of Lakewood, Colorado, was arrested after officers were called to United Airlines Flight 949, which was already full of passengers and due to leave London’s Heathrow Airport just after noon on Monday.

BAA, Heathrow’s operator, said the plane had been due to leave imminently. A BAA spokesman quoted by Britain’s Press Association news agency added that the pilot had been reported to authorities by another member of United’s staff. BAA did not immediately return a call from the AP seeking comment late Tuesday.

It was not immediately clear how much alcohol Washington was accused of having consumed. Under British law, pilots are forbidden from having any more than 20 micrograms of alcohol for each 100 milliliters of blood in their system, or .02 percent. For most average-sized men, that is the equivalent of having just had about half a glass of regular strength beer.

Scotland Yard said that Washington, who has been released on bail, would have to appear at a court in northwest London on Nov. 20. If convicted, he faces up to two years in prison, a fine, or both.

United Airlines spokeswoman Megan McCarthy said Washington, who she did not identify by name, has been removed from service pending an investigation. She said her airline had strict rules on alcohol “and we have no tolerance for violation of this well-established policy.”

She declined to say how long Washington had worked for the airline.

McCarthy said that the flight was canceled and that the plane’s 124 passengers were put on other flights.

Monday’s incident bears a strong resemblance to the arrest in May at Heathrow of an American Airlines pilot — also scheduled to fly a plane to Chicago — after he failed a breath test. Airport security staff had alerted airport police about the pilot.

In January, Southwest Airlines put a pilot on leave after passengers at a security checkpoint in Columbus, Ohio, told authorities that he smelled of alcohol. The pilot ran into a restroom and changed out of his uniform jacket and called in sick.

Union leaders say pilots are under increased scrutiny by security agents and passengers because of high-profile cases involving drunk pilots.

___

Associated Press Airlines Writer David Koenig in Dallas contributed to this report.

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November 12, 2009

The other Afghan war:

Fight erupts over media leaks

  ABC News  – Afghanistan War Strategy

AP – Defense Secretary Robert Gates

listens to a question as he talks with the media while en route to Oshkosh, …

 

By Jonathan S. Landay, Dion Nissenbaum and John Walcott,

McClatchy Newspapers 

– Thu Nov 12, 8:39 pm ET

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration’s internal debate over Afghan policy has escalated into a battle of media leaks that’s straining relations between officials who’re seeking a major troop increase and those who want a more limited approach and a greater focus on domestic priorities.

The feud also has poisoned ties between the top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan and the U.S. ambassador in Kabul , and left the administration struggling for leverage to press Afghan President Hamid Karzai to appoint untainted officials to his new government, attack corruption and share power with the parliament and provincial officials.

The battle in the media prompted normally mild-mannered Defense Secretary Robert Gates to lash out at leakers Thursday, telling reporters on a flight to Oshkosh, Wis. , that the disclosures do “not serve the country or . . . the military,” and “everyone should just shut up.”

It may be too late for that.

A U.S. defense official said the U.S. commander in Afghanistan , Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal , feels he was “stabbed in the back” by Karl Eikenberry , the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan . Three months ago, Eikenberry supported McChrystal’s request for more troops, but last week he sent a classified cable opposing it until Karzai shows that he can be trusted.

The official, like others who were interviewed for this article, requested anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak publicly.

However, according to a half-dozen U.S. military and administration officials, published reports that Obama was settling on a major troop increase, which began with a McClatchy story last Saturday, have deprived Eikenberry and other officials of the ability to tell Karzai that no more American troops will be forthcoming if he doesn’t agree to implement reforms.

Eikenberry wrote the cable last Friday after a meeting in which he pressed Karzai to send his brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai , the political power in southern Kandahar province who allegedly has links to the drug trade, anywhere outside the country, and to embrace a program of overhauls, known as the “Afghanistan Compact,” that was drafted by U.S. and Afghan officials, three U.S. officials said.

Karzai rejected the demands, the officials said.

The Afghan leader is also under U.S. pressure to select senior officials for his new government from a U.S. list of 40 individuals whom the Obama administration considers competent and clean, said a diplomat in Kabul who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

“There is tremendous pressure on Karzai that is piling up,” the diplomat said. “They (U.S. officials) basically said there should be no place for warlords or cronies.”

Among those thought to be on the list is Sarwar Ahmedzai , one of the candidates who challenged Karzai in the fraud-marred August presidential election.

Ahmedzai told McClatchy that Karzai’s advisers met with him on Thursday and offered him a cabinet post, but that he turned down the offer.

“I don’t think this man is going to last five years,” said Ahmedzai, who voiced concerns that Karzai would be pushed out by the U.S. if he failed to address international concerns over endemic corruption.

“It’s not easy to eradicate corruption in five or six years,” he said. “Corruption has taken over every single institution, including the private entities.”

The increasingly acrimonious policy dispute may force President Barack Obama to delay unveiling his new Afghan policy until after Thanksgiving as the White House , the Pentagon and U.S. commanders in Afghanistan strive to resolve their differences.

Marvin Weinbaum , a former State Department intelligence analyst now with the Middle East Institute , said the leaks about Eikenberry’s cable have left Obama with no choice but to delay the unveiling of his new Afghan policy.

“He can’t dismiss it (the cable),” Weinbaum said. “It complicates things enormously. It really sets things back.”

In the end, however, some U.S. officials think that Obama will still embrace a plan that calls for sending just over 30,000 additional U.S. troops because no more than that are available now, and because sending fewer troops would telegraph a lack of resolve to Taliban -led insurgents, their funders across the Muslim world, ordinary Afghans, Pakistan and U.S. allies.

Still, U.S. commanders and senior defense officials said the prospect of a delay could mean putting off preparations for housing and supplying the additional forces, most of whom likely would be sent to Taliban strongholds in southern Afghanistan .

Moreover, these commanders and officials worry that the public brawl and media leaks that Obama is seeking “off ramps” — options to curtail the U.S.-led military mission if Karzai doesn’t comply with demands for changes — will encourage insurgents to intensify attacks on U.S. and allied soldiers in a bid to weaken flagging public support for the war in the U.S. and Europe .

Finally, the officials said, extending the deliberations would stoke frustrations among European allies and also open Obama to more charges from Republicans that he’s jeopardizing the lives of U.S. forces as the Taliban continue to gain strength.

The policy battle has been simmering since administration officials led by Vice President Joe Biden and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel began leaking to journalists this summer their opposition to McChrystal’s call for a major troop increase to support intensified efforts to expand Afghan security forces and civilian aid programs.

McChrystal and his allies fired back by criticizing the more limited counterterrorism approach favored by Biden.

Advocates of this approach argue that the administration should be concentrating its time and political capital in tackling domestic issues such as health care and unemployment. They worry that Afghanistan is a quagmire, and think that the U.S. should limit the size of its force there and instead use Special Forces and missile-firing drone aircraft to kill al Qaida leaders.

The policy feud erupted anew in public after McClatchy on Saturday reported that Obama was leaning toward sending more than 30,000 additional U.S. soldiers and Marines to Afghanistan . The New York Times , CBS News , Fox News and the Reuters and Associated Press wire services, among others, subsequently produced their own versions of the story.

These leaks angered some White House aides and other officials, who suspected that senior military officials were trying to force Obama to agree to McChrystal’s troop increase.

In what the officials said was an effort to derail McChrystal’s plan and regain some leverage over Karzai, administration officials then leaked that Obama was still considering four force-level options.

Next, they leaked that the president had rejected all four options, then that he’d asked for refinements of the options and finally, in an orchestrated disclosure on Wednesday, that Eikenberry, a former Army general who served in Afghanistan , had opposed a troop increase in his classified cable.

Obama, who departed Thursday for a weeklong tour of Asian countries, won’t announce his decision until he returns from the trip, which ends on Nov. 19 , and holds another strategy session with his top aides, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters traveling with the president.

Gibbs said that U.S. and Afghan officials are discussing setting benchmarks to measure progress against the insurgency after the new strategy is announced.

“Some benchmarks have been discussed,” Gibbs said. “But . . . the president believes that we have been there for eight years. And we’re not going to be there forever. . . . It’s important to fully examine not just how we’re going to get folks in but how we’re going to get folks out.”

—–

(Landay and Walcott reported from Washington , and Nissenbaum reported from Kabul . Nancy A. Youssef in Oshkosh, Wis. , and Steven Thomma in Washington contributed to this article.)

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November 13, 2009

NYC trial of 9/11 suspects

poses legal risks

 AP  – Holder: Sept. 11 suspects to face N.Y. trial

 

AP – FILE – This July 2009 photo

downloaded from the Arabic language web site www.muslm.net

shows a man identified …

 

By DEVLIN BARRETT, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON – In the biggest trial for the age of terrorism, the professed 9/11 mastermind and four alleged henchmen will be hauled before a civilian court on American soil, barely a thousand yards from the site of the World Trade Center’s twin towers they are accused of destroying.

Attorney General Eric Holder announced the decision Friday to bring Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four others detained at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to trial at a lower Manhattan courthouse.

It’s a risky move. Trying the men in civilian court will bar evidence obtained under duress and complicate a case where anything short of slam-dunk convictions will empower President Barack Obama’s critics.

The case is likely to force the federal court to confront a host of difficult issues, including rough treatment of detainees, sensitive intelligence-gathering and the potential spectacle of defiant terrorists disrupting proceedings. U.S. civilian courts prohibit evidence obtained through coercion, and a number of detainees were questioned using harsh methods some call torture.

Holder insisted both the court system and the untainted evidence against the five men are strong enough to deliver a guilty verdict and the penalty he expects to seek: a death sentence for the deaths of nearly 3,000 people who were killed when four hijacked jetliners slammed into the towers, the Pentagon and a field in western Pennsylvania.

“After eight years of delay, those allegedly responsible for the attacks of September the 11th will finally face justice. They will be brought to New York — to New York,” Holder repeated for emphasis — “to answer for their alleged crimes in a courthouse just blocks away from where the twin towers once stood.”

Holder said he decided to bring Mohammed and the other four before a civilian court rather than a military commission because of the nature of the undisclosed evidence against them, because the 9/11 victims were mostly civilians and because the attacks took place on U.S. soil. Institutionally, the Justice Department, where Holder has spent most of his career, has long wanted to reassert the ability of federal courts to handle terrorism cases.

Lawyers for the accused will almost certainly try to have charges thrown out based on the rough treatment of the detainees at the hands of U.S. interrogators, including the repeated waterboarding, or simulated drowning, of Mohammed.

The question has been raised as to whether the government can make its case without using coerced confessions.

That may not matter, said Pat Rowan, a former Justice Department official.

“When you consider everything that’s come out in the proceedings at Gitmo, either from the mouth of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and others or from their written statements submitted to the court, it seems clear that they won’t need to use any coerced confessions in order to demonstrate their guilt,” said Rowan.

Held at Guantanamo since September 2006, Mohammed said in military proceedings there that he wanted to plead guilty and be executed to achieve what he views as martyrdom. In a letter from him released by the war crimes court, he referred to the attacks as a “noble victory” and urged U.S. authorities to “pass your sentence on me and give me no respite.”

Holder insisted the case is on firm legal footing, but he acknowledged the political ground may be more shaky when it comes to bringing feared al-Qaida terrorists to U.S. soil.

“To the extent that there are political consequences, I’ll just have to take my lumps,” he said. But any political consequences will reach beyond Holder to his boss, Obama.

Bringing such notorious suspects to U.S. soil to face trial is a key step in Obama’s plan to close the military-run detention center in Cuba. Obama initially planned to close the prison by next Jan. 22, but the administration is no longer expected to meet that deadline.

Obama said he is “absolutely convinced that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed will be subject to the most exacting demands of justice. The American people will insist on it and my administration will insist on it.”

After the announcement, political criticism and praise for the decision divided mostly along party lines.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said bringing the terrorism suspects into the U.S. “is a step backwards for the security of our country and puts Americans unnecessarily at risk.”

Former President George W. Bush’s last attorney general, Michael Mukasey, a former federal judge in New York, also objected that federal courts were not well-suited to this task. “The plan seems to be to abandon the view that we are at war,” Mukasey told a conference of conservative lawyers. He said trial in open court “creates a cornucopia of intelligence for those still at large and a circus for those being tried,” and he advocated military tribunals instead.

But Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said the federal courts are capable of trying high-profile terrorism cases.

“By trying them in our federal courts, we demonstrate to the world that the most powerful nation on earth also trusts its judicial system — a system respected around the world,” Leahy said.

Family members of Sept. 11 victims were also divided.

“We have a president who doesn’t know we’re at war,” said Debra Burlingame, whose brother, Charles Burlingame, had been the pilot of the hijacked plane that crashed into the Pentagon. She said she was sickened by “the prospect of these barbarians being turned into victims by their attorneys.”

Valerie Lucznikowska, whose nephew died at the World Trade Center, said she wouldn’t care if the suspects sounded off in court — as long as the victims’ families got to see them put on trial.

“What are words? It was a horrible thing to have 3,000 people killed,” she said.

The five suspects headed to New York are likely to face thousands of counts of murder and conspiracy. Mohammed and the four others — Waleed bin Attash, Ramzi Binalshibh, Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi and Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali — are all accused of orchestrating the 2001 attacks.

The government also announced five other Guantanamo detainees, including the alleged mastermind of the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, would be sent to military commissions to face charges.

Holder said no decision had been made on where commission-bound detainees would go. A Navy brig in South Carolina has been high on the list of sites under consideration.

The actual transfer of the detainees from Guantanamo to New York isn’t expected to happen for many more weeks because formal charges have not been filed against most of them.

Other trial locations that Holder considered, including Virginia, Washington, D.C., and a different courthouse in New York City, could end up conducting trials of other Guantanamo detainees later.

The administration has already sent one detainee, Ahmed Ghailani, to New York to face trial.

The four other detainees headed to military commissions in the United States are: Omar Khadr, Ahmed Mohammed al Darbi, Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi and Noor Uthman Muhammed. Their cases are not specifically connected, but two of them are accused of plotting against or attacking U.S. military personnel.

Barry Coburn, a lawyer for Khadr, called the decision about his client “devastating and shocking.”

Khadr “was 15 years old when he was detained in Afghanistan as a child soldier and has been locked away in Guantanamo ever since,” he said.

___

Associated Press writers Pete Yost, Mark Sherman and Jesse J. Holland in Washington, David B. Caruso in New York and Ben Fox and Mike Melia in San Juan contributed to this story.

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STATE of our U.S. ECONOMY

 

November 10, 2009

Now it’s the Senate’s turn

for financial legislation

Reuters – Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sen. Chris Dodd listens to testimony at the Senate Banking Committee …

By Kevin G. Hall and David Lightman, McClatchy Newspapers 

– Tue Nov 10, 6:42 pm ET

WASHINGTON — A key Senate committee chairman unveiled a sweeping 1,136-page bill Tuesday that, if enacted, would mandate the most comprehensive overhaul of financial regulation since the Great Depression.

The legislation would affect both average Americans and the well-heeled on Wall Street . It would bring unregulated entities such as hedge funds under closer supervision, give the government the power to shut down large financial firms, and merge numerous federal banking regulators under a single roof.

The bill proposed by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd , D- Conn. , would give ordinary folks tough protections against predatory lending and abuses by credit card companies, and would create a government agency to oversee mortgages, credit cards and other consumer-credit products.

Dodd’s legislation includes much of what already is in legislation that’s expected to pass the House of Representatives in early December, including what’s called a Council of Regulators in the House bill and in Dodd’s bill would be an Agency for Financial Stability . It would determine when and how to break up big financial firms whose failure could poison the broader financial system.

However, the Senate bill differs in one significant and controversial way: It would strip the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. of their bank supervisory powers and merge federal bank regulation into a single entity, a new Financial Institutions Regulatory Administration .

The reason, Dodd said in a news conference Tuesday, is that in the run-up to the global financial crisis, banks and other financial firms were able to shop for the regulator of least supervision. Additionally, many regulators had oversight over some of a financial firm’s operations but not necessarily over its full range of activities.

To address this, the House legislation would fold the Office of Thrift Supervision , which regulates savings and loan institutions, into the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency , which regulates federally chartered national banks.

Dodd’s bill would go further. It would fold the National Credit Union Administration into the new single supervisor, and get the Fed and the FDIC out of the supervision business. The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Trade Commission also would surrender some banking oversight powers. Under this plan, all banks large and small would answer to one regulator.

“The current system takes into account different shapes and sizes and business models,” said Scott Talbott , the chief lobbyist for the Financial Services Roundtable, which represents big financial firms. He complained that Dodd is offering a dangerous “one size fits all approach.”

Dodd faces a tough re-election battle next year, made tougher by allegations that he got a sweetheart mortgage deal from disgraced lender Countrywide Financial, a major player in the housing crisis, which became a full-blown global financial crisis. He denied Tuesday that he was trying to score political points by punishing the Fed for its failure to prevent the crisis.

“There is nothing punitive in this bill. I really want the Federal Reserve to get back to its core enterprises,” mainly setting monetary policy, Dodd said.

Under the House legislation, the Federal Reserve would watch over the entire financial system with an eye out for potential threats to the economy as a “systemic risk” regulator. Dodd would confine the Fed to its main missions of promoting full employment while keeping a lid on inflation by conducting monetary policy, mainly through setting short-term interest rates.

A Fed official, speaking only on the condition of anonymity because the complex Dodd bill hadn’t been fully reviewed, said it was too early to gauge what changes the legislation might bring for the independent central bank.

“We will consider and evaluate the draft language in light of our responsibilities for promoting economic growth, price stability, employment and financial stability,” the official said.

While the House bill was crafted with close input from the Treasury Department , Dodd’s was drafted with help from the FDIC , whose chairman, Sheila Bair , has clashed repeatedly with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner .

Dodd said the times demanded a bold plan.

“This is not the time for timidity,” he said.

“Look, I could have tried to draft something that was already a compromise of ideas, but I think it would be a huge mistake,” he added later. “You are given very few moments in history to make this kind of a difference.”

Senate Republican leaders frowned on Dodd’s bill.

“This is just another thousand-page bill not important to the general public. … I don’t think the public is clamoring for another thousand-page bill. I don’t yet see bipartisan support for that bill,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell , R- Ky.

Although Dodd hopes that his committee will pass the measure by Christmas, it’s likely to languish in the full Senate until health care legislation is finished, which Dodd conceded could be well into next year. Then his measure would have to be reconciled with the competing House bill.

Success for Dodd will depend on moderates, both Democrats and Republicans. There’s been scant bipartisanship during the House debate on financial regulation, but moderate Senate Republicans sounded conciliatory Tuesday.

“Let’s face it, financial regulation is pretty arcane. It’s not something people wake up every day and think about,” said Sen. Bob Corker , R- Tenn. “I think we have a great opportunity to do something that is bipartisan and will stand the test of time.”

Sen. Susan Collins , R- Maine , supported Dodd’s call to have an independent appointee head the Agency for Financial Stability . The House bill would have the treasury secretary head this body, which could dismantle large failing institutions.

However, many Republicans fiercely oppose Dodd’s proposal to create a Consumer Financial Protection Agency , which is also in the House legislation. The panel would consolidate powers that now are scattered across several agencies.

“I think it’s a very serious mistake. It would undermine the availability of credit, especially to people in small business,” said Sen. Judd Gregg , R- N.H. , charging that it would be run by “some academics that don’t have any knowledge of the marketplace.”

“The consumer panel is too big,” added Sen. Tom Coburn , R- Okla.

Moderate Democrats such as Virginia Sen. Mark Warner also have concerns. Appearing with Dodd at a news conference Tuesday, Warner gave only qualified support.

“I think there are some real differences around the consumer agency, but on a lot of other issues I think there is a great deal of agreement,” Warner said. “There is much more work to be done.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

November 12, 2009

 

Jobless claims fall, but

hiring gains seem far off

 CBS4 Denver  – Recruiters Give Tips To Land A Job

AP – In this photo made Thursday, Nov. 5, 2009, Linda Cook, of Cranston, R.I. examines job listings at a state …

 

By CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER, AP Economics Writer

 

WASHINGTON – Fewer people are claiming unemployment benefits — but still too many to signal that the economy is close to gaining jobs.

First-time claims for jobless benefits dropped last week to a seasonally adjusted 502,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. That’s the fewest claims since the week ending Jan. 3, and below economists’ estimates.

Claims would have to fall to the high 400s to indicate the economy could soon produce even a slight gain in jobs, estimates Abiel Reinhart, an economist at JPMorgan Chase. That level of claims could be reached by January, he said, and the economy should start gaining jobs sometime in the first quarter of 2010.

Still, Reinhart doesn’t expect the gains to be strong enough to push down the unemployment rate — now at a 26-year high of 10.2 percent — until the second quarter.

Zach Pandl, an economist at Nomura Securities, said he thinks jobless claims would need to drop to about 425,000 before jobs would be added. Pandl expects the economy to produce a net gain in jobs by January.

President Barack Obama said Thursday he’ll host a White House summit next month on combating the joblessness that continues to drag on a struggling economy.

Many private economists and Federal Reserve officials worry the nation could be in for a “jobless recovery” as the unemployment rate rises despite some overall economic growth. Companies would start hiring — but not enough to absorb new people seeking jobs.

For now, Pandl said the weekly jobless claims figures are “showing steady progress.”

“Firing activity is starting to taper off,” he said.

The four-week average of unemployment claims, which smooths fluctuations, dropped to 519,750, also the lowest in almost a year. It has fallen by more than 20 percent since its peak in the spring.

Economists closely watch initial claims as a gauge of the pace of layoffs. But claims also can provide a signal about the willingness of companies to hire, because laid-off workers able to find jobs are less likely to request benefits.

The last time the economy saw job gains was in December 2007, when employers added 120,000 jobs. Claims that month averaged about 340,000, though Reinhart said claims don’t have to fall that far at the end of the recession to signal gains.

Many analysts estimate that job gains need to top 125,000 to account for population growth and lower the unemployment rate.

“We are open to any demonstrably good idea to supplement the steps we’ve already taken to put America back to work,” Obama said before taking off for a trip to Asia. With millions of unemployed Americans, Obama said the government has “an obligation to consider every additional responsible step we can” to get people back to work.

The December jobs “forum” will bring in public and private sector experts to talk about how to get the job-creation engine running again, Obama said.

The stock market dipped in afternoon trading. The Dow Jones industrial average fell about 65 points, while broader indexes also edged down.

Employers cut a net total of 190,000 jobs in October, the government said last month, bringing total losses in the recession to 7.3 million.

Several regional Fed bank presidents warned in speeches Tuesday that the unemployment rate is likely to remain high for several years.

The economy grew at a 3.5 percent annual rate in the July-September quarter after a record four straight quarterly drops. The disparity between the unemployment rate and economic growth figure has raised fears among many economists that the nation’s economy could be in for a “jobless recovery.”

The government also said Thursday that the number of people continuing to claim benefits dropped by 139,000 to 5.6 million, below analysts’ estimates. The figures on continuing claims lag initial claims by a week.

But millions of unemployed Americans have used up the regular 26 weeks of benefits typically provided by states and are receiving extended benefits for up to 73 additional weeks, paid for by the federal government. Congress added 14 to 20 weeks to the extended program last week, the fourth extension since the recession began and the longest total extension on record.

About 4.1 million people were receiving extended jobless benefits in the week ended Oct. 24, little changed from the previous week.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

November 12, 2009

Foreclosures dip 3 pct.

in October from September

 AP  –  Homeowners needing financial help

AP – Graphic shows total foreclosure filings for past

13 months

 

By J.W. ELPHINSTONE, AP Real Estate Writer J – Thu Nov 12, 6:38 am ET

NEW YORK – The number of homeowners on the brink of losing their homes dipped in October, the third straight monthly decline, as foreclosure prevention programs helped more borrowers.

But foreclosure filings are still up 19 percent from a year ago, RealtyTrac Inc. said Thursday, and rising job losses continue to threaten the stabilizing trend.

More than 332,000 households, or one in every 385 homes, received a foreclosure-related notice in October, such as a notice of default or trustee’s sale. That’s down 3 percent from September.

Banks repossessed more than 77,000 homes last month, down from nearly 88,000 homes in September.

New state programs, like one launched in Nevada in July, that require mediation before banks can seize a property have helped stem foreclosure activity, said Rick Sharga, senior vice president at RealtyTrac.

Also, anecdotally, lenders are delaying foreclosure as they evaluate which borrowers might qualify for the federal loan modification program, he said.

“That’s the reason there’s been a buildup of homes that are seriously delinquent but not foreclosed,” he said.

Despite Nevada’s legislative efforts to slow foreclosures, the state still clocked in the nation’s highest foreclosure rate for the 34th month in a row, followed by California, Florida, Arizona and Idaho. Rounding out the top 10 were Illinois, Michigan, Georgia, Maryland and Utah.

Among cities, Las Vegas had the highest rate, the report showed. One in 68 homes there received a foreclosure filing in October, more than five times the national average. Seven of the top ten metros were in California, led by Vallejo and Modesto at No. 2 and 3.

After three years of declines, home prices reversed course in June and have been rapidly climbing month-over-month. This will rebuild home equity and reduce the number of borrowers that owe more than their homes are worth.

Still, foreclosures remain near record highs and the mortgage industry is still struggling to manage the onslaught. The government has had to push many lenders to participate in the Obama administration’s loan modification plan.

The Treasury Department said Tuesday that more than 650,000 borrowers, or 20 percent of those eligible, had signed up for temporary trial plans lasting up to five months. But since the beginning of September, only about 1,700 modifications had been made permanent. The Treasury Department expects to release updated data later this month.

Congress last week also extended and expanded a key federal tax credit for homebuyers that has been credited for boosting home sales recently.

Buyers who have owned their current homes for at least five years are eligible for tax credits of up to $6,500, while first-time homebuyers — or anyone who hasn’t owned a home in the last three years — would still get up to $8,000. To qualify, buyers have to sign a purchase agreement by April 30, 2010, and close by June 30.

“Anything that stimulates buying activity,” Sharga said, “will go a long way to mediate the foreclosure problem.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

ELSEWHERE IN THE WORLD

 

November 10, 2009–VATICAN CITY

Vatican looks to heavens

for signs of alien life

 

AP – FILE – In this July 17, 2008 file photo,

Pope Benedict XVI admires the sky above Sydney, Australia. The …

 

By ARIEL DAVID, Associated Press Writer

VATICAN CITY – E.T. phone Rome. Four hundred years after it locked up Galileo for challenging the view that the Earth was the center of the universe, the Vatican has called in experts to study the possibility of extraterrestrial alien life and its implication for the Catholic Church.

“The questions of life’s origins and of whether life exists elsewhere in the universe are very suitable and deserve serious consideration,” said the Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes, an astronomer and director of the Vatican Observatory.

Funes, a Jesuit priest, presented the results Tuesday of a five-day conference that gathered astronomers, physicists, biologists and other experts to discuss the budding field of astrobiology — the study of the origin of life and its existence elsewhere in the cosmos.

Funes said the possibility of alien life raises “many philosophical and theological implications” but added that the gathering was mainly focused on the scientific perspective and how different disciplines can be used to explore the issue.

Chris Impey, an astronomy professor at the University of Arizona, said it was appropriate that the Vatican would host such a meeting.

“Both science and religion posit life as a special outcome of a vast and mostly inhospitable universe,” he told a news conference Tuesday. “There is a rich middle ground for dialogue between the practitioners of astrobiology and those who seek to understand the meaning of our existence in a biological universe.”

Thirty scientists, including non-Catholics, from the U.S., France, Britain, Switzerland, Italy and Chile attended the conference, called to explore among other issues “whether sentient life forms exist on other worlds.”

Funes set the stage for the conference a year ago when he discussed the possibility of alien life in an interview given prominence in the Vatican’s daily newspaper.

The Church of Rome’s views have shifted radically through the centuries since Italian philosopher Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake as a heretic in 1600 for speculating, among other ideas, that other worlds could be inhabited.

Scientists have discovered hundreds of planets outside our solar system — including 32 new ones announced recently by the European Space Agency. Impey said the discovery of alien life may be only a few years away.

“If biology is not unique to the Earth, or life elsewhere differs bio-chemically from our version, or we ever make contact with an intelligent species in the vastness of space, the implications for our self-image will be profound,” he said.

This is not the first time the Vatican has explored the issue of extraterrestrials: In 2005, its observatory brought together top researchers in the field for similar discussions.

In the interview last year, Funes told Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano that believing the universe may host aliens, even intelligent ones, does not contradict a faith in God.

“How can we rule out that life may have developed elsewhere?” Funes said in that interview.

“Just as there is a multitude of creatures on Earth, there could be other beings, even intelligent ones, created by God. This does not contradict our faith, because we cannot put limits on God’s creative freedom.”

Funes maintained that if intelligent beings were discovered, they would also be considered “part of creation.”

The Roman Catholic Church’s relationship with science has come a long way since Galileo was tried as a heretic in 1633 and forced to recant his finding that the Earth revolves around the sun. Church teaching at the time placed Earth at the center of the universe.

Today top clergy, including Funes, openly endorse scientific ideas like the Big Bang theory as a reasonable explanation for the creation of the universe. The theory says the universe began billions of years ago in the explosion of a single, super-dense point that contained all matter.

Earlier this year, the Vatican also sponsored a conference on evolution to mark the 150th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s “The Origin of Species.”

The event snubbed proponents of alternative theories, like creationism and intelligent design, which see a higher being rather than the undirected process of natural selection behind the evolution of species.

Still, there are divisions on the issues within the Catholic Church and within other religions, with some favoring creationism or intelligent design that could make it difficult to accept the concept of alien life.

Working with scientists to explore fundamental questions that are of interest to religion is in line with the teachings of Pope Benedict XVI, who has made strengthening the relationship between faith and reason a key aspect of his papacy.

Recent popes have been working to overcome the accusation that the church was hostile to science — a reputation grounded in the Galileo affair.

In 1992, Pope John Paul II declared the ruling against the astronomer was an error resulting from “tragic mutual incomprehension.”

The Vatican Museums opened an exhibit last month marking the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s first celestial observations.

Tommaso Maccacaro, president of Italy’s national institute of astrophysics, said at the exhibit’s Oct. 13 opening that astronomy has had a major impact on the way we perceive ourselves.

“It was astronomical observations that let us understand that Earth (and man) don’t have a privileged position or role in the universe,” he said. “I ask myself what tools will we use in the next 400 years, and I ask what revolutions of understanding they’ll bring about, like resolving the mystery of our apparent cosmic solitude.”

The Vatican Observatory has also been at the forefront of efforts to bridge the gap between religion and science. Its scientist-clerics have generated top-notch research and its meteorite collection is considered one of the world’s best.

The observatory, founded by Pope Leo XIII in 1891, is based in Castel Gandolfo, a lakeside town in the hills outside Rome where the pope has his summer residence. It also conducts research at an observatory at the University of Arizona, in Tucson.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 

November 10, 2009–BRAZIL 

 An extraordinary power outage plunged tens of millions into darkness and sparked crime fears.

Massive blackout leaves Brazil

on edge 

AFP – Customers at a restaurant hold

candles during a blackout on November 10 in Rio de Janeiro. A massive …

 

by Marc Burleigh

SAO PAULO (AFP) – A massive blackout plunged tens of millions in Brazil’s largest cities into darkness, sparking major disruptions, fears of crime and energy supply concerns Wednesday for the newly named Olympic hosts.

The outage across much of southern Brazil started at 10:15 pm Tuesday (0015 GMT) and lasted some four hours. Neighboring Paraguay also suffered a 30-minute nationwide blackout.

It originated at the Itaipu hydroelectric plant that straddles the border between Brazil and Paraguay, supplying both with much of their energy needs.

Police in Sao Paulo and Rio, recently named as the host of the 2016 Olympics, feared an opportunistic crime wave and accidents because of non-functioning traffic lights.

Officials called up off-duty officers and urged the public to stay off the streets.

The metro system in Sao Paulo and Rio suddenly halted, stranding many passengers between underground stations.

There were no immediate reports of disturbances, but local radio and television said they had received many reports of muggings, and residents voiced worries about walking in pitch-black streets.

In Rio, people lit candles, cigarette lighters and cell phones to find their way through darkened streets.

Firefighters said they were overwhelmed by calls from people trapped in elevators.

With bars and restaurants plunged in darkness, patrons slipped away without paying their bills.

Traffic lights were extinguished, causing most motorists to nose carefully through intersections.

Taxis, normally numerous, were hard to flag down by stranded residents walking the suddenly darkened streets. Some of the drivers said they were wary of armed robbers taking advantage of the emergency.

Rio’s Tom Jobim international airport and Santos Dumont domestic airport were able to continue functioning with their own generators, but the outage snarled operations, causing delays.

Lights started returning in Rio, particularly in the city’s tourist districts, at around 1:00 am (0300 GMT).

Brazilian Energy Minister Edson Lobao said it was not yet known what caused the unprecedented “complete paralysis” of the entire Itaipu plant, but speculated that lightning from a storm might have shorted one of the facility’s five high-tension supply lines.

The plant provides around 20 percent of the energy needs of Brazil, Latin America’s most populous and economically important nation.

Paraguay, which gets 90 percent of its electricity from the installation, was without power for 30 minutes because of the problem, a spokesman for the National Electricity Administration told AFP.

While Brazil has encountered severe power shortages in the past, notably in 2001, 2005 and 2007, the scale of Tuesday’s blackout was extraordinary.

One radio station, Bandnews, estimated that 50 million people, or more than a quarter of Brazil’s 190-million-strong population, were suddenly thrown into the dark.

Itaipu was reactivated within hours and power was progressively restored in the early hours of Wednesday.

Witnesses and officials said its duration was around four hours, with the states of Sao Paulo, Minas Gerais, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Rio de Janeiro, Goias, Rio Grande do Sul, Parana and Espirito Santo all affected.

According to the National Electric System Operator, the problem caused 17,000 megawatts to abruptly disappear from the national energy grid — a huge amount of electricity that is equivalent to the needs of Sao Paulo and its suburbs, South America’s biggest urban agglomeration with 20 million inhabitants.

A “domino effect” meant Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and other major cities and towns were left with no illumination, Itaipu’s management said in a statement.

Lobao denied that Brazil’s energy system was in crisis.

“The system is not fragile. It’s the most secure in the world,” he told reporters.

The blackout occurred two days after US network CBS aired a report claiming massive power outages in Brazil in 2005 and 2007 were caused by cyber hackers attacking control systems.

Although Brazilian media were skeptical of that assessment, the US channel said those incidents should serve as a wake-up call to the United States, which a former chief of US national intelligence, Mike McConnell, warned could see its power supplies hit by computer sabotage. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 

November 10, 2009–ENGLAND

Anger over Afghan war

as 6 UK war dead mourned

 

AP – People wearing t-shirts bearing an

image of Guardsman Jimmy Major react as the coffin of Major and five …

 

By JENNIFER QUINN, Associated Press Writer  – Tue Nov 10, 6:40 pm ET

WOOTTON BASSETT, England – Grieving over the death of her son in Afghanistan, the woman tore into British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

“Mr. Brown, listen to me,” she said. “I know every injury that my child sustained that day. I know that my son could have survived. But my son bled to death.”

A tape of the 13-minute telephone conversation was broadcast by The Sun newspaper Tuesday and then played over and over across Britain, a rallying cry for mounting anger over a war many now see as badly planned and impossible to win.

It came as six other British soldiers killed in Afghanistan were brought home on the eve of Remembrance Day, when Britain honors its war dead. That, too, provided powerful symbolism for a war gone bad, with hundreds of mourners lining the streets and throwing flowers as the hearses made their way through this market town in south central England.

Jacqui Janes’ 20-year-old son, Jamie, was not in Tuesday’s somber procession. He was mortally wounded by a roadside bomb last month.

When Brown called Monday to offer condolences, her anger and grief boiled over, and she berated him for a lack of troop helicopters, equipment and his spelling errors in the letter — addressing her as “Mrs. James” and making a mistake in her son’s name.

There were 25 errors in all, she said, “an insult to my child.”

Brown tried multiple times to defend himself, only to be interrupted by Janes.

“I cannot believe I have been brought down to the level of having an argument with the prime minister of my own country,” she said.

Brown, who lost an infant daughter in 2002 and is nearly blind in one eye, apologized for his mistakes and offered his condolences.

“However strongly you feel about my mistakes in this matter, I still feel very, very personally sad about the death of your son and I want you to know that, and I’m sorry if you’ve taken offense at my letter,” Brown said.

Britain is at a crossroads in its Afghanistan policy as it considers plans to boost troop numbers — all while balancing waning public support and demanding democratic reform in the ravaged nation.

Five of the soldiers returned Tuesday were killed by an Afghan officer they had worked with. The deaths have triggered a sense of betrayal among Britons, and mourners gathered in Wootton Bassett questioned whether foreign troops would ever win the loyalty of the Afghan people.

British and allied troops have spent years training Afghan forces and securing villages vulnerable to Taliban attacks since the mission began in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The sixth soldier was killed in a roadside bomb two days later. The soldiers ranged in age from 18 to 40.

Some 232 British troops have died since 2001, and many troops and families alike have criticized the government for a lack of equipment. Several military commanders have also resigned, questioning the sustainability of the ill-defined mission.

“Your guard is down — you trust these people. You’re trying to train them up so they can go on themselves,” said Steve Morgan, a 42-year-old who served in the Royal Air Force and traveled from Swindown in western England to Wootton Bassett to pay tribute.

People come from all across the United Kingdom to pay respects to the war dead in Wootton Bassett — a small town about 85 miles west of London that has become synonymous with the Afghan mission’s dangers.

Until April 2007, bodies were taken to Brize Norton RAF base in Oxfordshire and then to a hospital in Oxford before being released to families. That route was away from main thoroughfares through towns.

When renovations began at that base, they began using RAF Lyneham — and processions now have to pass through the middle of Wootton Bassett.

The town of about 11,000 essentially shuts down for the brief ceremonies, residents standing several deep along the route — some saluting.

The repatriations — usually broadcast live on television — have taken on national significance.

“The British way of mourning war dead is quite formal,” said Robert Lee, spokesman for the Royal British Legion.

Crowds have grown from dozens into the thousands as the number of deaths has escalated over the past two years. More than 70 repatriation ceremonies have taken place.

Tuesday’s ceremonies drew three times the crowd as past events, mourners said.

The American military just this year removed its 18-year ban on media covering the return of U.S. service members killed in action, and only then with family permission.

NATO leaders said Tuesday they expected member states to commit more troops to train Afghanistan’s expanding security forces. More allied troops would fit into U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s plan to expand the Afghan National Army’s strength from 94,000 to 134,000.

But any decision to send more troops could backfire for the British Labour-led government.

A poll last week showed that 64 percent of Britons — up from 58 percent over the summer — think the war is unwinnable. And 63 percent of the 1,009 people polled wanted the troops withdrawn.

Brown said Tuesday that by mid-2010, British forces will begin handing over control of some districts of the southern Helmand province to Afghan military leaders and local lawmakers — a tactic aimed at preparing the way for an eventual withdrawal from the province.

Brown, who has said the Afghanistan mission is crucial to protecting Britons against terrorism, paid tribute to Tuesday’s dead.

“Each life lost is an irreplaceable loss from a family,” Brown said. “It reminds us of the stark human cost of armed conflict in the service of our society.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 

November 14, 2009-ITALY

Few call Venice home,

but it’s not history, either

AP – Native Venetians stage a mock funeral procession in Venice, Italy, Saturday, Nov. 14, 2009. Historic …

 

By COLLEEN BARRY and LUIGI COSTANTINI, Associated Press Writer

VENICE, Italy – A dozen gondolas snaked down the Grand Canal on Saturday in a mock funeral procession bemoaning Venice’s approach to the dreaded status of living museum, with a population now below 60,000.

While the largely symbolic threshold is considered by some to signal the end of the city’s viability, Venetian officials say reports of Venice’s demise are premature, and even Saturday’s somber funeral ended with a surprise, bright hope for rebirth.

In fact, while native Venetians have been fleeing the expensive lagoon city for cheaper and easier living on the mainland, the population of the historic center was officially 60,025 as of Thursday, up from the 59,992 it had fallen to in recent weeks.

“They will have the funeral in a living village, not yet dead. And it won’t die, even if it goes to 59,999,” Mara Rumiz, the city official in charge of demographics, said in a telephone interview Friday.

She said the numbers don’t take into account the inhabitants of Venice’s islands — including glassmaking Murano and the Lido beach — nor the many who are not officially registered, including students. Together, they add another 120,000 souls.

But Venice must still resist becoming merely a tourist destination, Rumiz said.

“It is evident that Venice has to safeguard its residents and attract new inhabitants. If not, we risk that Venice becomes only a tourist mecca, and this is a destiny that we don’t want,” Rumiz said.

While wandering the narrow alleys and waterways of Venice is a tourist’s delight, life in Venice is for the hardy and financially resilient.

Housing costs and rents drop to as much as a third in the nearby city of Marghera. And consider the logistics of an everyday errand like grocery shopping. One would likely need a water taxi ride to a supermarket, another to get home with the groceries, and then with few elevators in residential buildings, there is a heavy load to lug upstairs. Historic Venice does not permit the comfort of a car parked outside the door.

Yet as if to echo Rumiz’s optimism about Venice’s fate, Saturday’s mock funeral ended with an unexpected bright look to the future.

The ceremony kicked off with an aquatic procession of gondolas — led by a pink one carrying a flower-draped coffin — down the inverted S-shaped canal. The boats docked in front of Ca’ Farsetti, the palazzo housing Venice’s City Hall, where hundreds of Venetians joined the procession.

But after a black-caped actor read poetry in Venetian dialect bemoaning the problems of life in the lagoon city, the funeral’s “pallbearers” smashed open the coffin and pulled out a flag of La Fenice — phoenix in Italian — the mythical winged creature that rises from ashes and is a symbol of rebirth.

The significance of the phoenix is particularly acute for Venetians, since their own La Fenice opera house rose from its own ashes and reopened in 2003 after being destroyed by a fire set by electricians in 1996.

After the surprise ending, participants uncorked sparkling wine to toast Venice’s rebirth and hope for the future.

Venetians themselves would like to see more money put toward retaining natives, and are critical of such projects as the new Calatrava Bridge over the Grand Canal. Building the bridge, designed by the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, ran well over projected costs while doing little to ease the lives of average Venetians.

“People go to live where you don’t have to spend too much,” city resident Alberto Gallo said. “Many would like to remain, but they can’t.”

The city’s population declined by a steep 100,000 from the 1950s to the 1980s, making today’s fluctuations minimal by comparison.

“In all, fewer people are leaving than those who are arriving,” Rumiz said, but “fewer children are being born in respect to the people who die.”

“What is changing is the social base of Venice,” she said, explaining that most of the people who are leaving are older while those arriving are “more educated and with better skills.”

But who is a Venetian, really? Genetically, a National Geographic Study being conducted by experts from the Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts intend to find out.

They took advantage of Saturday’s “funeral” to take saliva swabs to determine where most of the natives of Veneto — the larger region of which Venice is the capital — came from, northern Europe or lands around the Caspian Sea.

“It will be an opportunity to find a few Venetians,” said Gallo, who is helping to organize the study.

___

Associated Press Writer Colleen Barry reported from Milan.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

POLITICS … AS USUAL

 

November 9, 2009

Abortion could roil Senate

health care debate

 CBS4 Denver  – Planned Parenthood Unhappy With Abortion Provision

AP – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, center, is flanked by Rep. Jim McDermott, right, and Rep. Jay Inslee during …

 

By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR, Associated Press Writer 

– Mon Nov 9, 9:41 pm ET

 

WASHINGTON – Abortion opponents in the Senate are seeking tough restrictions in the health care overhaul bill, a move that could roil a shaky Democratic effort to pass President Barack Obama’s signature issue by year’s end.

Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., said Monday he could not support a bill unless it clearly prohibits federal dollars from going to pay for abortions. Nelson is weighing options, including offering an amendment similar to the one passed by the House this weekend.

“I want to make sure something comparable … is in there,” Nelson said.

The House-passed restrictions were the price Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., had to pay to get a health care bill passed, on a narrow 220-215 vote. But it’s prompted an angry backlash from liberals at the core of her party, and some are now threatening to vote against a final bill if the curbs stay in.

Obama said the legislation needs to find a balance.

“I want to make sure that the provision that emerges meets that test — that we are not in some way sneaking in funding for abortions, but, on the other hand, that we’re not restricting women’s insurance choices,” Obama said in an interview with ABC News.

Senate Democrats will need Nelson’s vote — and those of at least a half-dozen other abortion opponents in their caucus. They face a grueling debate against Republicans who are unified in their opposition to a sweeping remake of the health care system. It’s unclear how the abortion opponents would line up; the pressure on them will intensify once the legislation is on the floor.

Former President Bill Clinton, whose failed effort to revamp the health care system contributed to the Republican takeover of the House and Senate in 1994, was expected to speak to Senate Democrats about health care legislation during their weekly caucus on Tuesday, officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss his schedule.

An intraparty fight over abortion is the last thing that Majority Leader Harry Reid needs. Reid, D-Nev., is already facing a revolt among Democratic moderates over the government-sponsored health plan that liberals want to incorporate in the legislation as a competitor to private insurance companies.

Reid, who is himself opposed to abortion, will have to confront the issue directly as he puts together a Democratic bill for floor consideration. The committee-passed Senate versions differ on abortion, but none would go as far as the restrictive amendment passed by the House.

The House bill would bar the new government insurance plan from covering abortions, except in cases or rape, incest or the life of the mother being in danger. That’s the basic rule currently in federal law.

It would also prohibit health plans that receive federal subsidies in a new insurance marketplace from offering abortion coverage. Insurers, however, could sell separate coverage for abortion, which individuals would have to purchase entirely with their own money.

At issue is a profound disagreement over how current federal restrictions on abortion funding should apply to what would be a new stream of federal funding to help the uninsured gain coverage.

Abortion opponents have sought to impose the same restrictions that now apply to the federal employee health plan, military health care and Medicaid, the federal-state health program for the poor. Abortion rights supporters say such an approach would threaten women’s right to a legal medical procedure already widely covered by private insurance.

The Senate health committee bill is largely silent on abortion, a stance that abortion opponents interpret as permitting coverage by private insurance plans that would receive federal subsidies.

The Senate Finance Committee bill attempts to craft a compromise, as the House unsuccessfully tried to do before this weekend’s vote tightened restrictions.

The Finance plan would require insurance carriers to separate federal subsidy moneys from any funds used to provide abortions, and it would prohibit abortion coverage from being included in a minimum benefits package. It would require that state and regional insurance markets offer one plan that covers abortion, and one plan that does not.

Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., said he had thought the issue was settled. His panel rejected a number of Republican amendments to toughen abortion language.

Abortion opponents — including U.S. Catholic bishops — disagree. They spurned a somewhat similar approach to Baucus’ bill in the House, saying that the approach of keeping federal funds separate amounted to little more than an accounting gimmick.

For now, the liberals are saying they will fight. Abortion rights supporters in the House were circulating a letter to Pelosi, threatening to vote against a final bill that restricts access to abortion coverage. At least 40 lawmakers had signed by early Monday.

“I, along with the other pro-choice members in the House, intend to push very hard to ensure that language is not included in the final conference product,” said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla.

They’re likely to have help in the Senate from two Republican women who support abortion rights, Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine. Collins indicated Monday that she thinks the House went too far.

“I think the Senate Finance Committee did a good job of putting up a firewall that would prevent federal funds from being used for abortion,” she said. “Generally, I prefer the Senate approach.”

___

AP Special Correspondent David Espo contributed to this report.

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November 11, 2009

AP-GfK Poll: A grouchy public

sticking with Obama

Reuters – U.S. President Barack Obama speaks in San Francisco, California October 15, 2009. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/Files

 

By LIZ SIDOTI, AP National Political Writer

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama still has the approval of a majority of Americans, but it’s an increasingly pessimistic nation.

The public grew slightly more dispirited on a range of matters over the past month, including war and the economy, continuing the slippage that has occurred since Obama took office, the latest Associated Press-GfK poll shows.

This comes at a time when he is trying to revive the struggling economy, considering sending more troops to the 8-year-old Afghanistan war, muscling a health care reform overhaul through Congress and hoping to push through other ambitious measures like legislation focused on climate change.

People were gloomier about the direction of the country than in October. They disapproved of Obama’s handling of the economy a bit more than before. And, perhaps most striking for the commander in chief, more people have lost confidence in Obama on Iraq and Afghanistan over the last month. Overall, there’s a malaise about the state of the nation.

“It’s in pretty bad shape,” said truck driver Floyd Hacker of Granby, Mo., a Democrat who voted for Obama. “He sounded like somebody who could make things happen. I still think he can.”

Still, Hacker said, he questions the president’s approach to the economy, what the U.S. is trying to accomplish in Afghanistan and Obama’s focus on health care, adding, “He can’t handle everything at one time.”

Public attitudes like that are troubling for a president trying to accomplish an ambitious agenda at home while fighting wars abroad, as well as for a Democratic Party heading into a critical election year. It will have to stave off losses that a new president typically experiences in his first midterm elections. A third of the Senate, all of the House and most governors’ offices will be on the ballot.

The findings underscore just how quickly the political environment can change, a lesson for out-of-power Republicans who are buzzing with energy after booting Democrats from rule in Virginia and New Jersey governors’ races last week.

It was just over a year ago that Obama won the White House in an electoral landslide and Democrats padded their congressional majorities. The country was riding high with optimism by just about all measures when Obama took office in January.

Hope and change were in vogue back then. But change didn’t happen overnight, as the rhetoric of campaigning crashed headlong into the realities of governing. And hope slipped in a country that always has clung to it.

Now, Obama’s approval rating stands at 54 percent, roughly the same as in October but very different from the enthusiastic 74 percent in January just before he took office. And some 56 percent of people say the country is heading in the wrong direction, an uptick from 51 percent last month and 49 percent in Obama’s first month as president.

The economy is by far the most important issue on Americans’ minds. Unemployment hit 10.2 percent last month even though the administration has promoted glimmers of improvement and many economists say the recession is over.

Those jobless figures help explain why as many people said the economy got worse in the past month as said it got better — and it’s not many people who thought it got better, just 22 percent. Most say the economy stayed the same, and just 46 percent approve of how Obama is handling the economy, compared with 50 percent last month.

“He did good on getting Wall Street up and running. But I’m not going,” said independent Jay Huffaker, 33, of Knoxville, Tenn., a construction worker who has been unemployed for a year and a half. The country is in terrible shape, he said, adding, “It seems like it’s getting worse and worse and worse and worse.”

The nation also has grown more lukewarm on Obama and the wars as he tries to wind down the one in Iraq and considers ramping up the one in Afghanistan.

Compared with October, 45 percent of people now disapprove of Obama’s handling of Iraq, up from 37 percent; while 48 percent now disapprove of his handling of Afghanistan, up from 41 percent. A majority of Americans oppose both wars. And more than half — 54 percent — now oppose sending more troops to Afghanistan, an increase from 50 percent last month.

“We either need to do something to win the wars, or just come home,” said Republican Heather Johannessen, a stay-at-home mom in the suburbs of Minnesota’s Twin Cities, who thinks the U.S. is in a holding pattern in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

On health care, about half of the country approves of how Obama is doing on his signature domestic issue — virtually unchanged from October. In a major victory for Obama, the House passed a sweeping overhaul of the U.S. medical system over the weekend. But the fate of the measure is uncertain in the Senate, where moderate Democrats who are necessary for passage are balking at the cost and various provisions.

Only a third of the country approves of how Congress is doing.

The AP-GfK Poll was conducted Nov. 5-9 by GfK Roper Public Affairs and Media. It involved landline and cell phone interviews with 1,006 adults nationwide and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

___

Associated Press writers Christine Simmons and Natasha Metzler contributed to this report.

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November 13, 2009

FACT CHECK: Palin’s book

goes rogue on some facts

 AP  – Palin book: McCain aides had me ‘bottled up’

AP – FILE – In this July 26, 2009, file photo,

then-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin speaks in Fairbanks, Alaska. Oh, …

By CALVIN WOODWARD, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON – Sarah Palin’s new book reprises familiar claims from the 2008 presidential campaign that haven’t become any truer over time.

Ignoring substantial parts of her record if not the facts, she depicts herself as a frugal traveler on the taxpayer’s dime, a reformer without ties to powerful interests and a politician roguishly indifferent to high ambition.

Palin goes adrift, at times, on more contemporary issues, too. She criticizes President Barack Obama for pushing through a bailout package that actually was achieved by his Republican predecessor George W. Bush — a package she seemed to support at the time.

A look at some of her statements in “Going Rogue,” obtained by The Associated Press in advance of its release Tuesday:

___

PALIN: Says she made frugality a point when traveling on state business as Alaska governor, asking “only” for reasonably priced rooms and not “often” going for the “high-end, robe-and-slippers” hotels.

THE FACTS: Although travel records indicate she usually opted for less-pricey hotels while governor, Palin and daughter Bristol stayed five days and four nights at the $707.29-per-night Essex House luxury hotel (robes and slippers come standard) overlooking New York City’s Central Park for a five-hour women’s leadership conference in October 2007. With air fare, the cost to Alaska was well over $3,000. Event organizers said Palin asked if she could bring her daughter. The governor billed her state more than $20,000 for her children’s travel, including to events where they had not been invited, and in some cases later amended expense reports to specify that they had been on official business.

___

PALIN: Boasts that she ran her campaign for governor on small donations, mostly from first-time givers, and turned back large checks from big donors if her campaign perceived a conflict of interest.

THE FACTS: Of the roughly $1.3 million she raised for her primary and general election campaigns for governor, more than half came from people and political action committees giving at least $500, according to an AP analysis of her campaign finance reports. The maximum that individual donors could give was $1,000; $2,000 for a PAC.

Of the rest, about $76,000 came from Republican Party committees.

She accepted $1,000 each from a state senator and his wife in the weeks after the two Republican lawmakers’ offices were raided by the FBI as part of an investigation into a powerful Alaska oilfield services company. After AP reported those donations during the presidential campaign, she said she would give a comparative sum to charity after the general election in 2010, a date set by state election laws.

PALIN: Rails against taxpayer-financed bailouts, which she attributes to Obama. She recounts telling daughter Bristol that to succeed in business, “you’ll have to be brave enough to fail.”

THE FACTS: Palin is blurring the lines between Obama’s stimulus plan — a $787 billion package of tax cuts, state aid, social programs and government contracts — and the federal bailout that Republican presidential candidate John McCain voted for and President George W. Bush signed.

Palin’s views on bailouts appeared to evolve as McCain’s vice presidential running mate. In September 2008, she said “taxpayers cannot be looked to as the bailout, as the solution, to the problems on Wall Street.” A week later, she said “ultimately what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the health care reform that is needed to help shore up our economy.”

During the vice presidential debate in October, Palin praised McCain for being “instrumental in bringing folks together” to pass the $700 billion bailout. After that, she said “it is a time of crisis and government did have to step in.”

___

PALIN: Says Ronald Reagan faced an even worse recession than the one that appears to be ending now, and “showed us how to get out of one. If you want real job growth, cut capital gains taxes and slay the death tax once and for all.”

THE FACTS: The estate tax, which some call the death tax, was not repealed under Reagan and capital gains taxes are lower now than when Reagan was president.

Economists overwhelmingly say the current recession is far worse. The recession Reagan faced lasted for 16 months; this one is in its 23rd month. The recession of the early 1980s did not have a financial meltdown. Unemployment peaked at 10.8 percent, worse than the October 2009 high of 10.2 percent, but the jobless rate is still expected to climb.

___

PALIN: She says her team overseeing the development of a natural gas pipeline set up an open, competitive bidding process that allowed any company to compete for the right to build a 1,715-mile pipeline to bring natural gas from Alaska to the Lower 48.

THE FACTS: Palin characterized the pipeline deal the same way before an AP investigation found her team crafted terms that favored only a few independent pipeline companies and ultimately benefited a company with ties to her administration, TransCanada Corp. Despite promises and legal guidance not to talk directly with potential bidders during the process, Palin had meetings or phone calls with nearly every major candidate, including TransCanada.

___

PALIN: Criticizes an aide to her predecessor, Gov. Frank Murkowski, for a conflict of interest because the aide represented the state in negotiations over a gas pipeline and then left to work as a handsomely paid lobbyist for ExxonMobil. Palin asserts her administration ended all such arrangements, shoving a wedge in the revolving door between special interests and the state capital.

THE FACTS: Palin ignores her own “revolving door” issue in office; the leader of her own pipeline team was a former lobbyist for a subsidiary of TransCanada, the company that ended up winning the rights to build the pipeline.

___

PALIN: Writes about a city councilman in Wasilla, Alaska, who owned a garbage truck company and tried to push through an ordinance requiring residents of new subdivisions to pay for trash removal instead of taking it to the dump for free — this to illustrate conflicts of interest she stood against as a public servant.

THE FACTS: As Wasilla mayor, Palin pressed for a special zoning exception so she could sell her family’s $327,000 house, then did not keep a promise to remove a potential fire hazard on the property.

She asked the city council to loosen rules for snow machine races when she and her husband owned a snow machine store, and cast a tie-breaking vote to exempt taxes on aircraft when her father-in-law owned one. But she stepped away from the table in 1997 when the council considered a grant for the Iron Dog snow machine race in which her husband competes.

___

PALIN: Says Obama has admitted that the climate change policy he seeks will cause people’s electricity bills to “skyrocket.”

THE FACTS: She correctly quotes a comment attributed to Obama in January 2008, when he told San Francisco Chronicle editors that under his cap-and-trade climate proposal, “electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket” as utilities are forced to retrofit coal burning power plants to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

Obama has argued since then that climate legislation can blunt the cost to consumers. Democratic legislation now before Congress calls for a variety of measures aimed at mitigating consumer costs. Several studies predict average household costs probably would be $100 to $145 a year.

___

PALIN: Welcomes last year’s Supreme Court decision deciding punitive damages for victims of the nation’s largest oil spill tragedy, the Exxon Valdez disaster, stating it had taken 20 years to achieve victory. As governor, she says, she’d had the state argue in favor of the victims, and she says the court’s ruling went “in favor of the people.” Finally, she writes, Alaskans could recover some of their losses.

THE FACTS: That response is at odds with her reaction at the time to the ruling, which resolved the long-running case by reducing punitive damages for victims to $500 million from $2.5 billion. Environmentalists and plaintiffs’ lawyers decried the ruling as a slap at the victims and Palin herself said she was “extremely disappointed.” She said the justices had gutted a jury decision favoring higher damage awards, the Anchorage Daily News reported. “It’s tragic that so many Alaska fishermen and their families have had their lives put on hold waiting for this decision,” she said, noting many had died “while waiting for justice.”

___

PALIN: Describing her resistance to federal stimulus money, Palin describes Alaska as a practical, libertarian haven of independent Americans who don’t want “help” from government busybodies.

THE FACTS: Alaska is also one of the states most dependent on federal subsidies, receiving much more assistance from Washington than it pays in federal taxes. A study for the nonpartisan Tax Foundation found that in 2005, the state received $1.84 for every dollar it sent to Washington.

___

PALIN: Says she tried to talk about national security and energy independence in her interview with Vogue magazine but the interviewer wanted her to pivot from hydropower to high fashion.

THE FACTS are somewhat in dispute. Vogue contributing editor Rebecca Johnson said Palin did not go on about hydropower. “She just kept talking about drilling for oil.”

___

PALIN: “Was it ambition? I didn’t think so. Ambition drives; purpose beckons.” Throughout the book, Palin cites altruistic reasons for running for office, and for leaving early as Alaska governor.

THE FACTS: Few politicians own up to wanting high office for the power and prestige of it, and in this respect, Palin fits the conventional mold. But “Going Rogue” has all the characteristics of a pre-campaign manifesto, the requisite autobiography of the future candidate.

___

AP writers Matt Apuzzo, Sharon Theimer, Tom Raum, Rita Beamish, Beth Fouhy, H. Josef Hebert, Justin D. Pritchard, Garance Burke, Dan Joling and Lewis Shaine contributed to this report.

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Rx: LAUGHTER, P.R.N.

                                                             
                                                                            
WHO DOES WHAT ?

 

                                                           
A man and his wife were having an argument about who should brew           the coffee each morning.  The wife said, “You should do it, because you get up first, and then we don’t have to wait as long to get our coffee.” 

              
The husband said, ” You are in charge of cooking around here and          
you should do it, because that is your job, and I can just wait for my    
coffee.”   

                                                             
Wife replies, “No, you should do it, and besides, it is in the Bible

that the man should do the coffee.” 

               
Husband replies, “I can’t believe that, show me.” 

           
So she fetched the Bible, and opened the New Testamentand showed

him at the top of several pages, that it indeed says………”HEBREWS”   
                                                                           
                                                                           
                  God may have created man before woman,                 
          but there is always a rough draft before the masterpiece.     

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HOW  I  LEARNED  TO  MIND  MY  OWN  BUSINESS!

I was walking past the mental hospital the other day,
And all the patients were shouting, ‘13….13….13.’

The fence was too high to see over, but I saw a
Little gap in the planks, so I looked through to see
What was going on…..

Some idiot poked me in the eye with a stick!

Then they all started shouting ‘14….14….14′…

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