OTHER LINKS:
PREVIOUS STORY:
http://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/local/Irene-Fraud-Connecticut-DSNAP-Prout-Hearing-136402368.html
http://www.myfoxboston.com/dpp/news/local/mass-dentist-accused-of-shoddy-work-pleads-guilty-20120124
Conn. officers deny allegations of Hispanic abuse:
http://news.yahoo.com/conn-officers-deny-allegations-hispanic-abuse-225627251.html
http://www.caller.com/news/2012/jan/18/premont-isd-cancels-sports-to-save-money-focus/?print=1
LINK TO PREMONT I.S.D.
8:31 a.m. Sunday, January 22, 2012
Oprah confident Obama will win re-election
The Associated Press
JAIPUR, India — Oprah Winfrey says she is confident that President Barack Obama will win another four-year term in this year's U.S. election.
Winfrey praised Obama's handling of the presidency. She said his next four years would be even more successful, with people able to get back to work.
Winfrey backed Obama during the 2008 presidential campaign in her first-ever political endorsement.
She was among the biggest crowd pullers at the annual Jaipur Literary Festival, which brings together top writers, poets and critics and around 50,000 literary fans from around the world.
Winfrey has been in India for a week filming programs for her new TV network.
GRAPHIC VIDEO
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/23/rare-transplant-man-with-two-hearts_n_827326.html
Five myths about Barack Obama
Jonathan Alter
Washington Post
January 20, 2012
1. Obama is a socialist.
This myth began with a 2008 campaign stop in Ohio, when then-Sen. Obama was caught on tape telling Joe Wurzelbacher (“Joe the Plumber”) that we needed to “spread the wealth around.” Sen. John McCain said that “sounded a lot like socialism” and cited the quote often during the campaign.
Conservatives have echoed the charge throughout Obama’s presidency. Writing in Commentary magazine in 2010, Jonah Goldberg accused him of aiming to “nationalize” two auto companies, stage a “partial government takeover” of health care and seize “managerial control” of Wall Street.
But none of this is true. By temporarily putting major banks under government control, the TARP bailout contained socialist elements — but that didn’t make Obama any more of a socialist than then-President George W. Bush and Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, who launched the rescue. Obama rejected nationalizing banks and made clear that he had no interest in running the auto companies receiving TARP money.
The president’s health-care reform law keeps insurance in private hands, adopts the “individual mandate” concept from the conservative Heritage Foundation and is modeled in part on former governor Mitt Romney’s Massachusetts reform — not exactly a “Bolshevik plot,” as Obama put it. Finally, the Dodd-Frank reform bill, which Obama signed into law in 2010, regulates Wall Street but hardly controls it.
2. Obama is a tool of Wall Street.
It’s true that the president bailed out banks and let their executives resume making millions without using the leverage he had in early 2009 to restructure financial institutions and hold them accountable for wrecking the economy. He also hired Clinton-era retreads such as Timothy Geithner and Larry Summers, despite their roles in the 1990s deregulatory policiesthat helped create the crisis.
However, there’s no evidence that the president did these things because he was beholden to Wall Street. Obama genuinely believed that closing banks would worsen the crisis and cost as much as $1 trillion in further bailouts. Time has proved Geithner’s “stress tests” to be smart policy; they stabilized banks and allowed almost all of the TARP money to be repaid. In the meantime, Obama fought for a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, pushed the “Buffett rule” to prevent fund managers and other top earners from paying lower tax rates than ordinary Americans, and backed a 5 percent tax surcharge on millionaires.
In his reelection bid, Obama is not nearly as dependent on Wall Street money as past Democratic and Republican nominees. He has raised about $30 million from 100 Wall Street bundlers, but the bulk of his campaign money has come from more than 1 million contributors averaging less than $100 each.
3. Obama is an effective public speaker.
Obama’s lofty speeches during the 2008 campaign led even his detractors to admit that he is a gifted orator. Some critics try to minimize his skill by saying he relies on a teleprompter — a ridiculous charge considering that he often writes big chunks of his speeches and often speaks off-the-cuff.
That said, there are few examples of Obama’s speeches actually moving popular opinion. That’s because he speaks in impressive paragraphs, not memorable sentences. He is allergic to sound bites, and that keeps him from effectively framing his goals and achievements.
The roots of this allergy may lie in his famous Philadelphia speech on race in 2008, which followed the revelations of incendiary comments by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. The speech lacked memorable lines, but it was a big hit. I believe it convinced Obama that the public could absorb complex ideas without bumper sticker lines. He was wrong.
4. Obama’s stimulus failed.
This has become a GOP talking point, repeated by everyone from John Boehner to Karl Rove to Romney. It isn’t true.
Objecting to various provisions of the stimulus or believing that it worsened the deficit isn’t the same as deeming it a failure. When the Obama administration was little more than a year old, three of the best-known economic research firms — IHS Global Insight, Macroeconomic Advisers and Moody’s Economy — all said the stimulus, which almost every Republican in Congress opposed, would create more than 2.5 million jobs. Last August, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that the stimulus package created between 1.4 and 4 million jobs. Even Mark Zandi, one of McCain’s economic advisers in 2008, has called the stimulus “a significant benefit to the economy’s performance.”
Many on the left have complained that the $787 billion stimulus was too small. This may be true in economic terms, but it is an unfair shot at Obama. Congressional Democrats made it clear that this amount was the most that could win approval.
5. Obama is a weak leader.
When stumping for Romney, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has a familiar theme: “We need a leader who will lead us to the moment . . . not to be cautious and safe and sit back and wait for someone else to do the hard work,” as he said in December. Then he attacks Obama for health-care reform and for not endorsing the work of the Simpson-Bowles fiscal commission.
Huh? Saying the Affordable Care Act reflects a lack of leadership is like saying the Iraq war shows that Bush wasn’t a leader. Leading in the wrong direction should not be confused with not leading. In truth, Obama has often been a bold president, rolling the dice on health care and launching the attack on Osama bin Laden’s compound, in both cases over the objections of some advisers. He didn’t back Simpson-Bowles — for political reasons — but neither did Romney or other Republicans who reject the commission’s proposed tax increases. Are they weak leaders, too?
Some critics have suggested that, even among White House aides, there is a longing for the approach of the Clinton years. Yet, when I spoke to senior officials who worked for both presidents, they said much the same thing: Clinton was more creative, but Obama is more decisive in a crisis.
St. Joe woman charged with stealing Girl Scout Cookie money
St. JOSPEH | A 23-year-old woman was charged with felony stealing for allegedly helping herself to Girl Scout Cookie money.
The state charged Stephanie Morris with felony stealing Thursday in a case in which $3,522 was missing from Girl Scout Troop No. 8705 bank account and cookie money. Morris was the local troop leader.
“It's disappointing that we had to file a criminal complaint,” said Gina Garvin, a spokeswoman for the Girl Scouts of Northeast Kansas and Northwest Missouri.
The checks and balances in the Girl Scout Cookie program helped to bring the problem to the forefront, Garvin said.
A probable cause statement filed by a St. Joseph Police Department detective said Morris reported a burglar broke into her apartment and stole $900 worth of Girl Scout Cookie money.
This resulted in a police investigation that found the Troop No. 8705 bank account was emptied between Nov. 14 and Dec. 14. The court document indicated that the defendant confessed that she raises a niece and fell behind in paying bills.
Buchanan County Associate Circuit Judge Ron Taylor will arraign the defendant Tuesday and has set bond at $10,000.
WARNING
"MAY BE OFFENSIVE TO SOME!!!"
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/utah-testicle-attacker-busted-761234
http://hotair.com/archives/2012/01/18/obamas-first-campaign-ad-the-billionaires-are-coming-after-me/
Snowmobile stealing parolee arrested hiding under a bed in northern Kent County, police say
Published: Wednesday, January 18, 2012, 7:35 PM
Updated: Wednesday, January 18, 2012, 7:39 PM
Spoors, 21, is charged with stealing a snowmobile, breaking and entering a building in Cedar Springs and being a habitual offender after a long day on the run.
Howard City Police first responded Monday morning to Village Trails mobile home park after a man reported someone had tried unsuccessfully to hotwire and steal his Ski Doo snowmobile from a trailer in his yard.
The man’s vehicle had also been broken into and a helmet and gloves were missing, presumably stolen, police said.
Officers tracked footprints in the snow and eventually found a badly damaged snowmobile abandoned on the nearby White Pine Trail. Authorities determined the sled was stolen from a resident in Cedar Springs.
Through security camera footage from a nearby business and witness accounts, police identified two suspects and determined the pair rode a stolen snowmobile from Cedar Springs to Howard City, where it broke down. They then unsuccessfully attempted to steal another to flee the area.
Cedar Springs police arrested another person Monday, but withheld that suspect’s name pending arraignment.
Kent County sheriff’s deputies and Howard City police found the second suspect, Spoors, hiding under a bed inside a Cedar Springs residence the same night.
Authorities say Spoors, who days before being arrested allegedly cut off his electronic monitor from the state Department of Corrections, was released from prison in May after serving a sentence for receiving and concealing stolen property.
Spoors, of Cedar Springs, was arraigned in Kent County this week on the larceny and breaking and entering charges. Prosecutors in Montcalm County are seeking warrants on additional charges.
Police said they recovered stolen property from both Howard City and Cedar Springs
WARNING
GRAPHIC!!!
WARNING
MAYBE OFFENSIVE TO SOME!!!
http://www.smh.com.au/world/husband-opens-fire-after-wife-given-tea-and-toast-instead-of-orange-police-20120111-1pu0n.html
http://www.wvec.com/my-city/chesapeake/Few-clues-in-Rogers-club-shooting--136949348.html
FAMILY OF ROBBERY SUSPECT SPEAKS:
http://www.fox43tv.com/dpps/news/local/suspect-killed-in-bar-shooting-idd_4034347
LINK TO PHOTO WITH NECKBRACE:
http://www.kctv5.com/story/16457180/house-speaker-sends-email-calling-first-lady-
Apology follows email referring to Michelle Obama as ‘Mrs. YoMama’
Pastor and female church member arrested for stealing $30,000 from church
A Fayetteville church pastor accused of running off to Pennsylvania with a female church member and $30,000 of the church’s money has been arrested and returned to the Fayette County Jail — minus the money.
Kenneth Robinson, 44, senior pastor of the Flint Ridge Baptist Church on Old Road off Ga. Highway 85 North, has been charged with two counts of forgery in the first degree and one count of theft by taking, according to Investigator Brent Rowan of the Fayette County Sheriff’s Department.
Also arrested and charged with two counts of being party to the crime of theft by taking was Alexis Dodson, 35, of Fayetteville, Rowan said. Dodson was a member of the church Robinson pastored, Rowan said.
“This case involves Robinson stealing approximately $30,000 from a north Fayette church where he was employed as the senior pastor,” Rowan said.
“Robinson fraudulently put the stolen money on two money orders made out to Dodson. After stealing the money from the north Fayette church, both Robinson and Dodson fled to Pennsylvania where they were then arrested by the United States Marshall’s Service” on New Year’s Day, Rowan said.
The pair were not cooperating with investigators, Rowan said, and none of the church’s money has been recovered.
Motorist who passed out in drive-through `just wanted another McDonald's sandwich'
Walter R. Dixon (Chicago Police)
5:55 p.m. CST, January 2, 2012
A man was arrested after he and another man passed out in their SUV while waiting in the drive-through lanes of the Rock ‘N Roll McDonald’s in the River North neighborhood early Sunday, officials said.
But instead of getting another burger, police served Walter R. Dixon with DUI charges and doled out a side order of driving on a revoked license, police said.
In addition, Dixon, 30, was also cited with illegal transportation of alcohol and obstructing identification, after initially giving police a bogus name, police said. Police News Affairs Officer Darryl Baety said Dixon lives in Memphis, Tenn.
About 6 a.m. New Year's Day police were called to the restaurant at 600 N. Clark St. after Dixon and another man fell asleep in a black Volvo SUV in the drive-through lane of the restaurant, according to a police report.
When Near North District officers arrived, they found the men fast asleep with the vehicle's key in the ignition, its engine running and the SUV in drive. Dixon’s foot was resting heavily on the brake pedal.
Officers awakened the somnulant Dixon and ordered him to put the vehicle in park and hand over the keys.
When they asked Dixon if he needed any medical attention or an ambulance, he said no, he “just wanted another McDonald’s sandwich,’’ the report said.
The 29-year-old front seat passenger remained asleep.
Dixon could not provide any identification and officers noticed his speech was slurred. His breath had a very strong odor of alcohol, police said.
The officer asked Dixon if he’d been drinking and Dixon admitted he’d had several glasses of wine, the report said. But on the floor of the SUV officers found an open bottle of tequila with liquor still in it.
While outside the SUV, Dixon staggered and the other man finally woke up and was also ordered to get out and then declined medical attention. Dixon intially gave police a false name and home address that turned out to be that of a registered sex offender from Memphis, Tenn.
Dixon was arrested after he took a Breathalyzer test and police found his blood-alcohol content was measured at .207, the report said. The legal limit is .08.
The vehicle was impounded and his passenger caught a taxi back to his Blue Island home where he lives with his parents, the report said.
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