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steve2470
steve2470's Journal
steve2470's Journal
November 25, 2014
Ferguson Prosecutor Robert McCulloch Gives Bizarre Press Conference
(yes that is the original headline)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/24/bob-mcculloch-ferguson_n_6215986.html
St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch announced on Monday night that Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson would not be indicted for the death of 18-year-old Michael Brown in a press conference that many found baffling, unwieldy and inflammatory.
McCulloch said the grand jury "gave up their lives" while deliberating.
The prosecutor also repeatedly lashed out at the media, blaming the internet and "the 24-hour news cycle" for the unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, where Brown was shot and killed in August. He continued talking for several minutes before revealing the much-anticipated grand jury decision.
“The most significant challenge encountered in this investigation has been the 24-hour news cycle and its insatiable appetite for something, for anything to talk about, following closely behind with the non-stop rumors on social media,” he said.
more at link
November 24, 2014
Turn on the heat, turn off the heat. Turn on the AC, turn off the AC. Rinse, repeat a dozen times before March.
eta: Already 86.5 F at a station near Miami.
http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=25.81410599,-80.38485718&sp=KFLDORAL2
85 F today for Orlando ? typical see-saw temps....
http://www.wunderground.com/q/zmw:32801.1.99999Turn on the heat, turn off the heat. Turn on the AC, turn off the AC. Rinse, repeat a dozen times before March.
eta: Already 86.5 F at a station near Miami.
http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=25.81410599,-80.38485718&sp=KFLDORAL2
November 22, 2014
from this link: http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/immigration/immigration-action
Short background video on the President's speech last night.
*****Barack Obama Group******"FIXING THE SYSTEM President Obama is Taking Action on Immigration"
America’s immigration system is broken. The President is taking executive action to fix what he can to help build a system that lives up to our heritage as a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants.
from this link: http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/immigration/immigration-action
Short background video on the President's speech last night.
November 21, 2014
Much more at link.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archie_Karas#The_Run
I'm not a gambler and never been to Vegas, so I'll leave it to others to comment on this.
$50 into more than $40 million in Las Vegas, "The Run"
http://www.las-vegastravelguide.com/archie-karas-50-40-million-zero-las-vegas/This is a story only possible in Las Vegas.
Archie Karas is a Greek-American gambler, high roller, poker player, and pool shark famous for the largest and longest documented winning streak in gambling history simply known as The Run.
The run started when he turned $50 in December 1992 into more than $40 million by the beginning of 1995, only to lose it all later that year.
He is considered by many to be the greatest gambler of all time and has often been compared to Nick the Greek, another high stakes gambler.
Archie Karas is a Greek-American gambler, high roller, poker player, and pool shark famous for the largest and longest documented winning streak in gambling history simply known as The Run.
The run started when he turned $50 in December 1992 into more than $40 million by the beginning of 1995, only to lose it all later that year.
He is considered by many to be the greatest gambler of all time and has often been compared to Nick the Greek, another high stakes gambler.
Much more at link.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archie_Karas#The_Run
I'm not a gambler and never been to Vegas, so I'll leave it to others to comment on this.
November 21, 2014
http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=28.70264435,-81.33798218&sp=KFLLONGW9
(yes I'm sure the temperature gauge/software/hardware is wildly broken)
-26 F in Longwood, FL ! New ice age cometh !
http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=28.70264435,-81.33798218&sp=KFLLONGW9
(yes I'm sure the temperature gauge/software/hardware is wildly broken)
November 21, 2014
A law that protects returning veterans from having their homes foreclosed for a year after they leave the service expires at the end of the year and U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Orlando, has introduced legislation to make the benefit permanent.
Grayson this week introduced two resolutions, H.R. 5730 and 5731, with variations of the same idea, hoping that one of them would be acceptable on a large enough bipartisan basis to pass by the end of the year and take affect when the old law expires Dec. 31.
Approval would need a suspension of the rules, which would require 2/3s approval. The timetable is fairly tight. The measure would have to be marked up by the House Veterans Affairs Committee at its only remaining meeting in this session, and then be approved on the House floor, sent to the Senate, and approved there before Congress adjourns before Christmas.
Prior to 2009, veterans had a three-month window after they left the military, during which banks could not foreclose on their homes. The idea was to give them time to find civilian jobs and get settled into civilian life. In 2009, during the great recession, that protection was extended to nine months. Last year, it was extended to 12 months, but that law included a sunset clause.
Grayson: Protect vets from foreclosure
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/politics/political-pulse/os-grayson-seeks-to-protect-veterans-from-foreclosure-20141120-post.htmlA law that protects returning veterans from having their homes foreclosed for a year after they leave the service expires at the end of the year and U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Orlando, has introduced legislation to make the benefit permanent.
Grayson this week introduced two resolutions, H.R. 5730 and 5731, with variations of the same idea, hoping that one of them would be acceptable on a large enough bipartisan basis to pass by the end of the year and take affect when the old law expires Dec. 31.
Approval would need a suspension of the rules, which would require 2/3s approval. The timetable is fairly tight. The measure would have to be marked up by the House Veterans Affairs Committee at its only remaining meeting in this session, and then be approved on the House floor, sent to the Senate, and approved there before Congress adjourns before Christmas.
Prior to 2009, veterans had a three-month window after they left the military, during which banks could not foreclose on their homes. The idea was to give them time to find civilian jobs and get settled into civilian life. In 2009, during the great recession, that protection was extended to nine months. Last year, it was extended to 12 months, but that law included a sunset clause.
November 19, 2014
The security failures that recently let a man with a small knife in his pocket jump the perimeter fence and make it "practically unencumbered" deep into the White House were "devastating," and now the U.S. Secret Service may make the fence taller, the new head of the agency said today in his first appearance before lawmakers at the helm.
"Without question, the agency has been severely damaged in recent years by failures," dating back to the Cartagena, Colombia, prostitution scandal in 2012, Acting Director Joseph Clancy told a hearing of the House Judiciary Committee.
"The range of shortcomings” is “what hits the hardest," he said.
The chairman of the committee, Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., said a recently completed internal Department of Homeland Security review of the September intrusion "uncovered a laundry list of errors," from communications systems that didn't work to a canine officer who was on a personal cell phone call -- without his radio earpiece in his ear or his tactical radio -- and realized too late what was happening in front of him.
***BOG post****'Devastating' Failures Lead Secret Service to Consider Raising White House Fence
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/devastating-failures-lead-secret-service-raising-white-house/story?id=27029124The security failures that recently let a man with a small knife in his pocket jump the perimeter fence and make it "practically unencumbered" deep into the White House were "devastating," and now the U.S. Secret Service may make the fence taller, the new head of the agency said today in his first appearance before lawmakers at the helm.
"Without question, the agency has been severely damaged in recent years by failures," dating back to the Cartagena, Colombia, prostitution scandal in 2012, Acting Director Joseph Clancy told a hearing of the House Judiciary Committee.
"The range of shortcomings” is “what hits the hardest," he said.
The chairman of the committee, Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., said a recently completed internal Department of Homeland Security review of the September intrusion "uncovered a laundry list of errors," from communications systems that didn't work to a canine officer who was on a personal cell phone call -- without his radio earpiece in his ear or his tactical radio -- and realized too late what was happening in front of him.
November 19, 2014
Winter has definitely arrived several weeks too early ! Stay warm, northern DU'ers and north Florida DU'ers too !
17 F in North Florida right now ! Wow....
http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=30.81325912,-86.29782867&sp=KFLDEFUN1Winter has definitely arrived several weeks too early ! Stay warm, northern DU'ers and north Florida DU'ers too !
November 19, 2014
WASHINGTON -- Rand Paul, a leader of the libertarian wing of the Republican Party, helped kill a bill meant to rein in the National Security Agency. Huh?
The USA Freedom Act, sponsored by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), received 58 votes on Tuesday night -- two short of cloture, the magic number in the Senate that allows a bill to proceed to an actual roll call.
The 40 Republicans and one Democrat who voted against cloture mostly did so because they thought the bill went too far. Paul also voted against NSA reform -- because, he said, it didn't go far enough.
Paul said he voted against the bill because it would have extended the Patriot Act provision that allows the NSA to search Americans’ phone records. He has consistently opposed the Patriot Act, passed in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Libertarian Champion Rand Paul Helped Kill NSA Reform Bill
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/18/rand-paul-nsa-reform-bill_n_6182204.htmlWASHINGTON -- Rand Paul, a leader of the libertarian wing of the Republican Party, helped kill a bill meant to rein in the National Security Agency. Huh?
The USA Freedom Act, sponsored by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), received 58 votes on Tuesday night -- two short of cloture, the magic number in the Senate that allows a bill to proceed to an actual roll call.
The 40 Republicans and one Democrat who voted against cloture mostly did so because they thought the bill went too far. Paul also voted against NSA reform -- because, he said, it didn't go far enough.
Paul said he voted against the bill because it would have extended the Patriot Act provision that allows the NSA to search Americans’ phone records. He has consistently opposed the Patriot Act, passed in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
November 19, 2014
A wicked cold blast of January-like Arctic air is smashing records as it pours southwards over the eastern two-thirds of the United States, with temperatures 15 - 35°F below average common on Tuesday morning across much of the country. Freezing temperatures pushed all the south into the Florida Panhandle, where Pensacola hit 28°F. The cold air flowing over the unfrozen waters of the Great Lakes has unleashed an epic lake effect snow storm in the lees of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, where the west-southwesterly winds of the storm have aligned with the long axis of these lakes, allowing the air to pick up large amounts of moisture.
Hardest hit: Buffalo, New York
A Lake Effect Snow Warning is in effect for Buffalo, New York, where areas just south and east of the city had received over three feet of snow by Tuesday morning. As of 10:15 am EST Tuesday, the Buffalo suburb of Lancaster on the city's east side had received an amazing four feet of snow in 24 hours, with snowfall rates of 4" per hour and occasional rumbles of thunder. With the band of heavy lake effect snow responsible not expected to move much through Tuesday night, the NWS is forecasting that Lancaster will receive a total of nearly six feet of snow before the winds shift by Wednesday morning. A state of emergency has been declared in Erie County, New York, which includes Buffalo. All travel except for emergency vehicles is banned, and a 13-mile section of the New York State Thruway (Interstate 90) was closed from the east side of Buffalo southward. To avoid traffic backups, a 37-mile stretch of the Niagara Thruway (I-90) southbound from Niagara Falls to the I-90 interchange was also shut down on Tuesday morning.
Epic November Arctic Blast Brings Record Cold, 4 Feet of Snow to Buffalo
http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=2862A wicked cold blast of January-like Arctic air is smashing records as it pours southwards over the eastern two-thirds of the United States, with temperatures 15 - 35°F below average common on Tuesday morning across much of the country. Freezing temperatures pushed all the south into the Florida Panhandle, where Pensacola hit 28°F. The cold air flowing over the unfrozen waters of the Great Lakes has unleashed an epic lake effect snow storm in the lees of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, where the west-southwesterly winds of the storm have aligned with the long axis of these lakes, allowing the air to pick up large amounts of moisture.
Hardest hit: Buffalo, New York
A Lake Effect Snow Warning is in effect for Buffalo, New York, where areas just south and east of the city had received over three feet of snow by Tuesday morning. As of 10:15 am EST Tuesday, the Buffalo suburb of Lancaster on the city's east side had received an amazing four feet of snow in 24 hours, with snowfall rates of 4" per hour and occasional rumbles of thunder. With the band of heavy lake effect snow responsible not expected to move much through Tuesday night, the NWS is forecasting that Lancaster will receive a total of nearly six feet of snow before the winds shift by Wednesday morning. A state of emergency has been declared in Erie County, New York, which includes Buffalo. All travel except for emergency vehicles is banned, and a 13-mile section of the New York State Thruway (Interstate 90) was closed from the east side of Buffalo southward. To avoid traffic backups, a 37-mile stretch of the Niagara Thruway (I-90) southbound from Niagara Falls to the I-90 interchange was also shut down on Tuesday morning.
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