Cabbie, keep the meter running -- this robbery will be quick.
A Florida woman has been accused of making her taxi driver wait for her outside a convenience store while she went inside to coerce the cashier into emptying the register, The News-Press reported.
Cynthia Sheik took a cab to a Race Track store in Port Charlotte, Fla., and asked her driver to wait for her outside, according to deputies. "I'll be back in a flash, with tons of cash."
But while she was busy demanding cash inside, the cabbie started worrying she was beating her fare and summoned a nearby police officer, according to The News-Press.
Sheik made it out of the store with $320 -- but not before triggering the alarm, and not before the clerk ran out to tell the cop Sheik had demanded that they give her all the money, cops said. "Thanks for waiting. You can expect a heavy tip."
"We'll pay your fare, lady. You're under arrest."
"****."
Sheik was given matching bracelets and read her rights.
(CBSMiami) -- A 400-pound woman decided to strip down to her birthday suit while she sat on a bus bench in Fort Lauderdale on Wednesday afternoon.
Patricia McCollum was arrested and charged with exposure of sexual organs in public and was initially held on a $100 bond, according to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
The 52-year-old, who is currently homeless, was sitting buck naked on a bus bench at 3900 N. Ocean Blvd. She claims she was only trying to put on a different outfit.
"That's why I was changing my clothes on the bus bench. I don't have anywhere else to stay but bus benches," McCollum said during a first appearance court hearing Thursday.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/22/2012 00:49 ||
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#2
School bus monitor position now available. Must be willing to ignore undiciplined taunting youth (who should now be forced to use their leather Cadillacs to and from school), feckless parents, and a powerless school administration. Excellent retirement benefits.
Klik
Labour knew that immigrants were flooding into Britain in far higher numbers than anticipated by 2005, former home office minister John Denham admitted today.
Mr Denham, who is now permanent private secretary to Ed Miliband, the Labour Leader, said it was clear seven years ago that estimates for migrants were 'vastly wrong.'
The Labour MP for Southampton said: "We were advised about 15,000 and about that came to Southampton alone in the first 18 months."
Asked when he was first aware of the problem he added: "I think for me in really 2005. It was then it became clear that the estimates we relied on were vastly wrong. What we are acknowledging today is that far more people came in far more quickly than people anticipated."
The last Labour government oversaw a liberal immigration policy that led to the arrival of hundreds of thousands of workers from eastern Europe. In 2004 when the European Union expanded to take in Poland and other eastern states, the UK decided not to impose any restrictions on the arrival of citizens from those countries.
But Mr Denham refused to say there were too many immigrants coming to Britain.
The former chair of the Home Affairs Select Committe replied: "That's not the issue we've been talking about today. I think there is a debate and a discussion still to be had about the numbers overall that you have in a country."
Today Mr Miliband will admit in a speech that Labour got it wrong on immigration. The Labour leader will say that while middle-class households benefited from mass immigration to Britain their working class counterparts suffered.
Mr Miliband will admit that the influx of cheap workers had been good for the middle classes who wanted a new conservatory but bad for the British labourers who built them.
Thereby confirming that Labour is really the party of the privileged and the upper middle class.
In no small part because virtually the entire US media share the same ideologies as the BBC and the Guardian. At least the British MSM has some non-leftist voices.
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
06/22/2012 9:42 Comments ||
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#4
"If the people won't elect us, elect a new people."
Despite the incentives to buy now -- namely that average rates on a 30-year mortgages are now 3.7% -- sales of single-family existing homes slipped 1.5% in May from a month earlier, according to data released today by the National Association of Realtors. Experts say the drop, which came during the historically busy spring season, suggests the housing market has a way to go to recover. If anything, the ranks of American homeowners are dwindling. The homeownership rate in the U.S. fell slightly from 66% to 65% during the first quarter of 2012 -- the lowest in 15 years, according to the latest data by the U.S. Census. (It peaked at just over 69% in 2004.)
Posted by: Fred ||
06/22/2012 00:48 ||
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#1
(It peaked at just over 69% in 2004.)
I thought the peak in ownership was just before the crash, no?
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/22/2012 5:40 Comments ||
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#2
The one thing I like about things slowing up is the urban sprawl has stopped. They always took prime productive farmland and cut down all the trees. Unique wildlife gone also. I'm old so I can see the before and after. Hiking and paddling areas harder to reach and many areas charge fees.
Not to mention weekend kids party trash. I suspect people are moving into group homes. Forget childcare it's too expensive for most young people. So extended families is the best choice with limited resources. Like it was in the depression times.
Germany's constitutional court has delayed the creation of a new 500bn eurozone bail-out fund as Angela Merkel faces a series of legal challenges to measures seen as critical for saving the EU's single currency.
The legal block is embarrassing for the German Chancellor who expended large amounts of political capital in concessions to get the Social Democrat and Greene opposition to support the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) so it could enter into force on 1 July.
The ESM is urgently needed to fight European debt contagion over the summer and is Germany's preferred option for a bailout of Spanish banks because it is more secure for lenders than the existing, smaller eurozone fund, the EFSF.
Germany's parliament will ratify the ESM and the fiscal pact on 29 June after Chancellor Merkel was forced to offer the opposition new spending on growth and her full backing for a eurozone financial transaction tax in return for its support.
But in a humiliating setback on Thursday, judges in the Bundesverfassungsgericht, the country's constitutional court ruled that they would need "at least three weeks" to consider the "complex" ESM's legality after the vote and before it was signed Joachim Gauck, the German President.
"We assume that the president will, as he has done before, comply with this request, and that the court will therefore have enough time to conduct an examination," said a spokesman for the court, which is based in Karlsruhe.
#1
It's "embarassing" and "humiliating" when the supreme court of a sovereign federal republic bitterly clings to the rule of law, in defiance of the inevitable forward march of history? Nope, move along, no ideological bias here.
Turkish media said the plane, an F-4 jet, crashed in Syria or Syrian territorial waters.
The two crew-members were found alive, CNN Turk and the Hurriyet daily said.
Earlier, eyewitnesses in the northern Syrian town of Latakia told BBC Arabic that Syrian air defences shot down an unidentified aircraft near the town of Ras al-Baseet. Navigation error? Attempted defection? Anti-Kurd action? Technically Turkey is our NATO ally... Filing as non-WoT, but that could change.
#3
Probably quick to fire thinking it was US. The fact that they actually may have shot it down should have told them it wasn't American (or Israeli)...
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
06/22/2012 12:54 Comments ||
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#4
The fact that they could see it tells them it wasn't Israeli...
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/22/2012 12:56 Comments ||
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#5
Turkey is still playing with 30+ year old F-4's and inshallah maintenance? Fun stuff.
#8
KFI commute radio just a half hour ago said the pilots were NOT recovered. Interesting....
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/22/2012 20:31 Comments ||
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#9
VARIOUS = ...
> Syria claims the Turkish plane was shot down inside Syrian territorial waters.
> DEFENCENET [Greece] = Turkish AF F-4E 2020 or RF-4 shot down by S-300 ADS, POSSIBLY RUSSIAN MANNED/CONTROLLED?, wid permission of the Syrian Govt. Turkish AF was allowed by Syria to conduct SAR for its then-missing Pilots.
> Despite Net Artics to the contrary, there are conflicting claims by both SYRIAN MEDIA + TURKEY that Syria has NOT apologized to Turkey for the incident???
> SPECULATION/SCUTTLEBUTT THAT THE TURKISH PLANE MAY HAD ACTUALLY BEEN SHOT DOWN BY A NAVAL VESSEL [Russian?], NOT SYRIAN SHORE-BASED AD ARTY, which could explain Erdogan's seemingly tight-lipped or panicky? behavior???
#10
Joe that's some interesting stuff.
I wonder if this is in any way related to the fighter bomber that defected to Turkey the other day. (tit for tat?)
Posted by: Water Modem ||
06/22/2012 21:49 Comments ||
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Y'know, maybe Erdogan shouldn't have spent the last decade or so slowly dismantling his military leadership and pissing off Turkey's two primary allies.
[Dawn] The adversarial style of women Punjab Assembly members went a step ahead on Thursday as members of either side traded blows and fisticuffs with each other.
Violence broke out when Pakistain Mohammedan League-Q politicians protested ban on their colleague, Seemal Kamran, from attending the session. They gathered in front of Speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal's rostrum and interrupted the proceedings, when he began proceedings for the approval of the Punjab Finance Bill 2012.
Opposition members of the Pakistain People's Party also joined the protest and began chanting 'Lathi goli ki sarkar nahi chale gi'. The fierce protest forced the assembly staff to leave their chairs. Later, these moveable chairs were used as weapons by the members who hurled them at each other.
A PML-N politician also slapped a PML-Q member. PPP's Amjad Meo and Sheikh Mumtaz exchanged the fisticuffs for a while.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/22/2012 00:42 ||
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[Dawn] Pakistain Mohammedan League- Nawaz (PML-N) Chief Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... said on Thursday that Yousuf Raza Gilani ... Pakistain's erstwhile current prime minister, whose occasional feats of mental gymnastics can be awe-inspiring ... 's sacrifice was not for any noble cause but it was to cover up six billion rupees corruption money illegally deposited in the foreign banks, DawnNews reported.
The PML-N chief was speaking to the media representatives in Lahore.
Referring to the recent disqualification of Yousuf Raza Gilani from the premier's office by the Supreme Court, Sharif said that the impression that Gilani has given sacrifice for the rule of law was wrong.
Criticising the present government for its incompetency, Sharif said "on one hand there are people who are disturbed by load-shedding on the other hand there is corruption of the government, bad economy of the country and Pakistain's isolation in the world.
Advising the media-representatives, the PML-N chief said that media should unveil those elements which are obstructing the solutions to common man's problems.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/22/2012 00:40 ||
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#1
$10,000?
Posted by: chris ||
06/22/2012 11:29 Comments ||
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The speaker of Iraqs parliament declared on Thursday that lawmakers are prepared to oust the nations prime minister if he refuses to share authority with his political opponents and break a deadlock that has all but paralyzed the government.
The threat by the speaker, Osama al-Nujaifi, a leader in the Iraqiya political coalition, counters a claim last week by Iraqs president that there is not enough support in parliament to call a vote to push Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki from power. Speaking to reporters Thursday, al-Nujaifi said he personally believes al-Maliki should step down from the job that he barely won after national elections in 2010 failed to produce a clear winner.
Since then and particularly after US troops left Iraq last December critics have accused al-Maliki of sidelining his political opponents and violating agreements to share power within a unity government.
The political deadlock has all but brought Iraqs government to a standstill so far this year. Bickering between the government in Baghdad and the self-rule Kurdish region in Iraqs north threatens to stunt vital foreign investment in the countrys lucrative oil industry. Political lethargy, combined with red tape, has delayed improvements in many areas, including the nations electricity system, job creation and rooting out government corruption.
This is a dangerous matter that if continued would lead to catastrophic consequences, al-Nujaifi said as parliament prepared to return to work after a six-week recess.
He said al-Maliki would be summoned for questioning in front of parliament within days. And if there is a parliament majority that is not convinced with the results of the questioning, then the no-confidence vote will take place, al-Nujaifi said. He called the process an attempt to put the country on the right track again.
Last week, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, said a preliminary count of lawmakers who want al-Maliki to step down fell four short of the 164 votes needed to force the issue. Al-Nujaifi denied that, saying that while a few lawmakers backed off, the number is still enough.
Responding, the prime ministers media adviser, Ali al-Moussawi, said al-Maliki will answer parliaments questions and respects his opponents rights to call for the no-confidence vote. But we are confident that they will fail to secure the needed 164 votes, al-Moussawi said Thursday.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/22/2012 00:00 ||
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A Syrian man infiltrated Israel via the northern Golan Heights and was caught near the border after touching the fence. IDF forces turned him over for questioning with security forces.
Sources in the defense establishment said this is not the first time this year that a Syrian citizen tries to infiltrate Israel via the Golan Heights.
Defense officials recently estimated that festivities in Syria could spill over to the border area and conjectured that Syrians may seek refuge in Israel.
The estimate was partly based on the violent protests on Nakba and Naksa days which saw Syrian and Lebanese citizens killed by IDF after breaching the border.
#3
When I first saw the headline, I thought I was time traveling: Read it as XB-47. Jeeze.....
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
06/22/2012 15:08 Comments ||
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#4
We'll still manned AC for a while yet, as neither the USDOD nor mainstream America nor the US Econ nor even the Fed is ready for tote Unmanned-Space Techs.
Our Allies' SpaceProgs are problematic, the EU is the only OWG "Union" actually formally set up but is in various deep crises, + Bammer Solar keeps going bankrupt.
#5
Maybe, but it's going to be a while before they have the situational awareness to fight.
I'm not so sure. Anyone who has played a flight sim knows about the problem of situational awareness given the limited inputs. The other aspect, for a real pilot, is the difficulty of paying attention to everything at. Machines are great at doing everything at once (or at least faking it) and can deal with a lot more inputs than humans.
Consider the Google self-driving car. It goes on a mission from A to B, all the while maintaining awareness and spatial relationships with other traffic and politely yielding to pedestrians. Change the optimization goals of its algorithms (and provide some better weapons) and suddenly it is hunting other vehicles and mowing down pedestrians with mechanical glee.
I'm not suggesting there are no technical challenges to unmanned air combat, but I bet it happens sooner than we think. One of the modern trends in artificial intelligence is machine learning - training programs how to solve problems that are to hard to program. I bet someone is doing this right now with air combat maneuvering. "Would you like to play a game?"
#6
OTOH CHINESE MILITARY FORUM > US PENTAGON'S BEST-KEPT SECRET - F-35 IS PROGRESSING NICELY.
> Flight tests are ahead of schedule.
> Costs per Unit-Programme going steadily downward.
> Mullah bullah Internat States becom interested in Procurement + Tech-Sharing.
Iff the F-35 = new heavyweight "F-15", F-22 Raptor = new "F-16/18", as per HI-LO SUPER-PLANE MIX???
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Cabbie, keep the meter running -- this robbery will be quick.
(CBSMiami) -- A 400-pound woman decided to strip down to her birthday suit while she sat on a bus bench in Fort Lauderdale on Wednesday afternoon.
The adversarial style of women Punjab Assembly members went a step ahead on Thursday as members of either side traded blows and fisticuffs with each other.
Nawaz Sharif
