RandySF
RandySF's Journal6,000 Venomous Brown Recluse Spiders Infest Missouri Couple's Home
A Missouri couple is facing a web of legal troubles after their home was infested with an estimated 6,000 venomous spiders.
The Torsts bought their Weldon Spring country club home, which overlooks a golf course, in October of 2007. But they haven't been able to live in the house for years because of the massive infestation of brown recluse spiders.
According to KMOV, the home has become known to locals as "the spider house." Earlier this week, an exterminator's brightly colored tarp tented the house as it was pumped full of pesticide. For the Torsts, the creepy, crawly ordeal has been anything but a day at the circus.
In 2008, the Torsts sued the home's former owners for failing to disclose that the house was essentially a fancy cave for spiders to breed in. A biologist consulted in the suit said the estimated number of spiders on the property was very conservative, since the numbers were drawn in the winter, when the arachnids are less active.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/10/brown-recluse-spider-infestation-missouri_n_5965116.html
What local races are you watching.
The east side of San Francisco is the battleground for two Democratic candidates for the State Assembly (in CA, the top two primary vote getters face off regardless of party). Identity politics is alive and well as Board of Supervisors President David Chiu focuses on Chinatown and South-of-Mason neighborhoods and David Campos works the Mission Excelsior. Rumors abound of a too-close-to-call race but I think Chiu ultimately has the upper hand. What local or neighborhood races are you focusing on?
Is The Florida Gov. Race Slipping Away From Rick Scott?
Three recent polls have suggested that the Florida gubernatorial race seems to be moving away from Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) and toward former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (D).
The most recent poll, from the University of North Florida, shows Crist leading Scott 43 percent to 38 percent with Libertarian candidate Adrian Wyllie getting 10 percent among likely voters. That poll follows a Survey USA poll that showed Crist ahead of Scott 44 percent to 42 percent with Wyllie at 6 percent among likely voters. And that poll came after another Survey USA poll also showed Crist leading the race 46 percent to 40 percent with Wyllie getting 8 percent support.
Those three polls are a shift from earlier four polls — two from Survey USA, one from Quinnipiac University and one from the Florida Chamber of Commerce — showing Scott leading Crist.
It's also a shift from mid September when the TPM Polltracker average showed Scott leading Crist. Currently the TPM Polltracker average gives Crist a 3.5 point lead over Scott.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/polltracker/three-polls-charlie-crist-leading-rick-scott
HUFFPOLLSTER: Florida Polls Show Small Gain For Charlie Crist
Florida polling shows a small shift toward the Democrat. Most midterm voters have already made up their minds. And Dana Milbank is more certain than he should be about the problems with election forecasts. This is HuffPollster for Friday, October 10, 2014.
FLORIDA GOVERNOR: CRIST GAINS - Mark Caputo: "A University of North Florida poll of statewide likely voters shows Charlie Crist leading Gov. Rick Scott 43-38 percent -- marking the fourth survey this week that has the Democrat pulling slightly ahead. Crist's advantage (as with polls from 0ptimus, Public Policy Polling and SurveyUSA) is within the poll's error margin. So the race could be called a tie. But Crist's lead is almost outside that margin. And, as stated before: it ain't the topline, it's the trend. The trend is with Crist right now." The HuffPost Pollster tracking model, based on all public polls, shows a similar result. It shows a Scott advantage of just over two percentage points during the summer narrowing to dead even in recent weeks.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/10/charlie-crist-polls_n_5964472.html?utm_hp_ref=politics
Coakley up by five points in Globe poll
he governor’s race remains in flux with less than four weeks until the election, a new Globe poll has found.
Democratic Attorney General Martha Coakley holds a five-point lead over Republican Charlie Baker, 39 percent to 34 percent, a significant shift from last week’s poll, when Baker held a three-point edge. That indicates a slowdown in any momentum Baker might have garnered since the Sept. 9 party primaries.
The swing in Coakley’s favor comes on the heels of her vigorous response to an outside group’s television ad depicting her as insufficiently protecting children in her role as the state’s top law enforcement officer. Coakley strongly denounced the ad, and her campaign deployed high-level surrogates, including Governor Deval Patrick, to join the chorus.
But the poll also shows that neither Coakley nor Baker has closed the sale, even among voters who call themselves supporters. With less than a month until the election, that leaves plenty of room for either candidate to pull ahead.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/politics/2014/10/09/governor-race-remains-tight/3B3uF1NGNteU8ZsntcVjZP/story.html
GOP Candidate: I'm actually winning if you don't count single moms.
The Republican challenger to Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) on Thursday blamed his double-digit lag in the polls on single women and mothers who vote Democratic because they are "wed" to the social safety net and "need benefits to survive."
Jeff Bell told the Asbury Park Press that it's that government-dependent female demographic, not his socially conservative views on issues like abortion and access to contraception, that is weighing him down.
"I've done a lot of thinking about this and looked at a lot of different polls, I think it has more to do with the rise in single women," he explained. "Single mothers particularly are automatically Democratic because of the benefits. They need benefits to survive, and so that kind of weds them to the Democratic Party."
"But single women who have never married and don't have children are also that way," he added. "If you take married women, they aren't that different from married men. So it's really a problem with the decline in marriage rates. The Democrats do benefit from that."
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/jeff-bell-single-mothers
Latest Iowa absentee ballot numbers (as of October 9)
More than 278,000 Iowans have already requested absentee ballots this year, roughly one-quarter as many as voted in the 2010 midterm election. As of yesterday, more than 119,000 Iowans had returned absentee ballots to their county auditors, roughly one-third as many as the total number of absentee voters from 2010.
Follow me after the jump for the latest tables showing absentee ballots requested and returned in all four Congressional districts are after the jump. The data come from the Iowa Secretary of State's Office. Click here for previous tables going back to September 22.
Iowans who have voted early by mail can use the "track your absentee ballot" page of the Secretary of State's website to confirm that your ballot reached your county auditor. Most years I have found it easier to vote early in person right at the auditor's office. That way, you know your ballot has been received.
Following the instructions for absentee voting is critically important. Ballots will not be counted if the voter has not sealed the secrecy envelope, or has not signed the affidavit envelope. If you requested an absentee ballot but can't find it, or made a mistake while filling it out, contact your county auditor for help. The easiest solution is to visit the county auditor's office, fill out a form to void the ballot first sent to you, and vote early in person right there.
http://www.bleedingheartland.com/diary/7165/latest-iowa-absentee-ballot-numbers-as-of-october-9
Latest Iowa absentee ballot numbers (as of October 8)
Iowans continue to vote early at a pace well ahead of any previous midterm election. Follow me after the jump for the latest tables showing absentee ballots requested and returned in all four Congressional districts are after the jump. The data come from the Iowa Secretary of State's Office. Click here for previous tables, which make it easier to spot trends in the numbers.
Democrats lead in early voting in the first, second, and third Congressional districts, while Republicans have requested and returned more ballots in the fourth district, where the GOP has a large voter registration advantage.
http://www.bleedingheartland.com/diary/7163/latest-iowa-absentee-ballot-numbers-as-of-october-8
Mom is gone.
Mom is gone. She very quietly shut down and slipped away today. False hope is the cruelest thing life can ever send you. She seemed to have been getting better and I thought we were going to beat this, but she didn't. At the very least my wife and son and I got to say "I love you" on the phone. I'll be the first to admit that I am a coward and I'm glad she left before I got Back East to see her at her worst. My last memory will always be giving her a hug before going to the airport and saying "see you at Christmas". I saw her standing, smiling, hugging her grandson, saying to .me "you're a good father".The woman she always was until just before the end. Soon we'll say my final goodbyes and be the man she always believed I can be. Goodbye mom.
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Gender: MaleHometown: Detroit Area, MI
Home country: USA
Current location: San Francisco, CA
Member since: Wed Oct 29, 2008, 02:53 PM
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