#3
Capsu78#2 Sounds to me like the civil lawsuit should be filed against the Third Reich for their little social engineering project. What am I missing?
answer:
"we are asking for financial damages," said Randi Hagen Spydevold, a lawyer for the group."
#4
eLarson, the article states that the Abba singer's mom was one of the Norwegian women forced to carry a German child. When the war ended, the mother (and child) were expelled to Sweden. THEN she became a Swedish superstar...
#5
The problem is that these offspring of the mating of Nazis to blond Norwegian girls were tormented and discriminated against because of those who fathered them, to the point of being institutionalized for the majority of their lives with mental defectives or the insane... and while the worst of the abuses have stopped, Norwegians still shun them. It's not that one member of a silly band is annoyed at having to grow up the next country over.
The rats invading Cambridge arent just snacking on leftover trash anymore. The massive rodents have started chewing up the engine wires inside residents cars near Central Square.
Beth Thomas, who lives in the Area 4 neighborhood, was on her way to the grocery store with her 5-year-old son last October when her car wouldnt start. She called a tow company to haul her 1999 Chrysler Concord to a mechanic, who noticed the check oil and check engine dashboard alerts kept lighting up when he hit the brakes.
At first we thought it just needed a tune-up, said Bill Doherty, manager of Aamco Transmissions in Allston.
When Doherty opened the hood of the car, he found an empty rats nest on top of the engine. Nutshell casings that the rodents had been munching were scattered nearby.
When we moved the nest to see what was going on, we could see that it was chewing through the wires, said Doherty.
Doherty said he sees cars with rodent nests on engines and inside air filters come into his shop every couple of months. He said rats seek the tops of car engines to keep warm during cold weather.
Thomas has spent about $500 in car repairs since October, and blames her continuing car troubles on the rats fall feast.
About three weeks ago, she called a tow company after her car wouldnt start again. The tow truck driver nervously checked under her car hood, recounting that a rat had recently jumped out at him after he opened the hood for another car owner in East Cambridge, according to Thomas.
Now Thomas fears that the rats that run rampant near her home will bite her son or other kids in the neighborhood.
We cant even go outside and take the kids to the park because there are rats, said Thomas, who lives at Newtowne Court public housing. Im tired of having to stay in my house and not being able to go outside with my son because Im afraid of the rats.
Thomas, who has been out of work since 2002 on disability, said she has no other option but to continue parking in the handicapped spot near her apartment, amid the rats.
Neighbors blame ongoing developments in the area, including new construction at nearby MIT, for the rat infestation.
The rats are everywhere they really are because of the construction in the area, said Ethel Delgado, president of the tenant council for Newtowne Court and neighboring Washington Elms.
Delgado said the Cambridge Housing Authority has diligently worked to improve the rat problem, exterminating regularly.
Unfortunately, whatever theyre doing is not enough, said Delgado.
Greg Russ, executive director of the CHA, said the housing authority has been aggressively exterminating since the summer and hasnt had any rat sighting reports in two weeks. Russ encouraged public housing tenants to building managers if they see rats.
Were not happy with the rats either. Its pretty much an ongoing struggle. Theyre tough to get rid of, said Russ, noting rats intelligence and endurance.
John Fallon, a high-ranking official at the citys inspectional services department, said the city dedicates one health inspector to investigating rat burrows and ordering extermination for rats on private property. The citys public works department picking up where ISD leaves off works to eliminate rats on city streets and enforce trash laws.
Lisa Peterson, the citys public works commissioner, said she could not recall if city inspectors had ever investigated or fined the CHA for trash violations at Newtowne Court, but said the city works with the housing authority to improve trash storage.
City Councilor Anthony Galluccio recently asked the citys lawyers to resurrect a home-rule petition that would punish landlords who dont pay their fines for breaking the citys trash laws. The move is aimed at getting residents to store garbage in tightly sealed bins and reduce the citys rat population.
City officials have been receiving increasing reports of rats. In 2004, officials received 112 calls for rat sightings. During the first seven months of 2005, the latest data available, officials received 90 calls almost as many calls received altogether in 2004.
Fallon said he now receives about five calls reporting rats each week. In addition to extermination, city officials also rely on the winter chill to thin out the rat population.
But Cambridges hardy brood of rats doesnt seem to be affected by the cold weather. Thomas said she saw rats running down Main Street from her kitchen window during the recent Valentines Day snowstorm.
Thomas, sitting in her neatly kept kitchen, argued against the perception that public housing residents dont care about keeping their surroundings nice. She said CHA and the city need to work more closely together to look at the rat problem in the entire neighborhood.
None of these rats say, Im from the city or Im from private property. These rats dont have nametags, said Thomas.
Delgado said city councilors rarely pay attention to the problems within her development unless its election time, and complained that the complex isnt supplied with enough bins to keep recyclables in sealed containers.
We still reside in Cambridge and we should be treated like everyone else, said Delgado. Its not like we the residents arent trying. We just cant do it ourselves.
#1
I don't have a subaru anymore, but had one of the best mechanics when I did have one. A few years back I had a problem with mice getting into the heater vents, and it made me worry about the Hantavirus, breathing in all of the smell from the nests and poop and just everything. My mechanic came up with a metal screen that he started installing on the Subaru's that prevented access into this area by the mice.
The guys in the shop were telling me about how a mouse ran out from under the car while he was laying down on the ground working on the car, and this big muscled guy jumped up and freaked out about this little mouse running over him. I think it startled the bejesus out of him.
Posted by: Jan ||
03/10/2007 21:37 Comments ||
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#2
Look into getting a couple of "Maine Coon Cats" they're a match for any size rat.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/10/2007 23:29 Comments ||
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Christians from around Australia have converged on Canberra to pray for rain and the drought to end. More than 1,000 believers began praying yesterday and a further 1,500 people are expected to join them today.
National coordinator of the Australian Prayer Network Brian Pickering says they have been praying for several months in the lead up to this weekend and are encouraged by predictions that near normal rain patterns may soon return. "We're not claiming its our prayer that will break the drought, God will break the drought when he chooses to do so," he said. "We're just playing our small part in that process."
France's centrist "Third Man" François Bayrou is now only a single point behind Socialist Party candidate Ségolène Royal, an opinion poll shows.
The poll, carried out for Le Parisien and published in free daily Metro, indicates that in the first round of voting due April 22, Bayrou would come third, with 24 percent of the vote (up 7 points). Centre-right candidate Nicolas Sarkozy would be first with 26 (-4 percent) and Socialist Royal 25 (-3 percent).
Bayrou is predicted to win a run-off between either candidate.
If Bayrou makes it to the second round, he looks like a sure bet for the presidency. Polls show he would beat Sarkozy or Royal by nearly ten points.
Should the contest come down to Royal versus Sarkozy, the interior minister would retain a comfortable lead of: 53 percent to Royal's 47.
The surge of support for Bayrou has both candidates worried. Royal told supporters at a campaign visit yesterday that an alternative to the left or right is "an illusion" - though Socialist senator Jean-Luc Mélenchon has warned that there is a very real danger that the left could be excluded from the second round.
"It's an emergency," he wrote on his blog.
For his part, Sarkozy announced an "anti-Bayrou" strategy yesterday by "unveiling" the latest prominent figure to join his campaign, Simone Veil. Holocaust survivor Veil is one of France's most popular figures in public life, and is quite a catch for Sarkozy. Veil is a former government minister of the UDF, the party Bayrou leads, and represented the party at EU level.
Sarkozy was hoping for a straight fight against the Royal; her recent self-outing as a more or less unreconstructed socialist afforded him the opportunity to present himself as a modernist, even while playing down his reformist posturing. For her part, Royal hoped to be the "anyone but Sarko" candidate.
Now there appears to be an alternative.
Many on the left still hope for anyone but Sarkozy, and if Royal's poll ratings continue their slow decline, might switch to a winner.
There was already gossip among senior socialists of rumours of a "beheading strategy" aimed at Royal is she looked unable to win. While this may have been more wishful thinking on behalf of the "elephants" she defeated in the party polls, Bayrou is believed to have made overtures to Socialist Party figures with promises of "coalition for France" ministries should he win.
A lot can happen between now and April 22. Next week, following exposés of Sarkozy and Royal's property dealings, investigative newspaper Le Canard Enchainée turns its sights on Bayrou. Less scandal is expected, but the newspaper won't be the only one eager to find out more about the latest contender.
And on Sunday night, President Jacques Chirac makes an announcement on television. It's widely expected he will declare he will not run in this year's campaign, but he might have a trick or two up his sleeve. He's known to loathe Sarkozy and would dearly love to scupper the interior minister's chances of winning France's ultimate prize... but how to do that between now and April?
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush on Friday named seven more members to the commission investigating the treatment of wounded veterans. Bush has ordered a comprehensive review of conditions at military and veterans hospitals, which have been overwhelmed by injured troops from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The review comes after disclosures of shoddy outpatient health care at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.
The seven new members join the commission's co-chairs, former Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kan., and former Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala. They are:
Marc Giammatteo, a former U.S. Army captain whose leg was severely injured during an attack in Iraq. He has undergone more than 30 surgeries at Walter Reed.
Jose Ramos, a student at George Mason University. While in the Navy, he treated soldiers injured in Iraq. In 2004, during his second tour of duty in Iraq, he lost an arm in combat.
Tammy Edwards, a research assistant at the Geneva Foundation. In 2005, her husband, a U.S. Army staff sergeant, was severely burned in Iraq when a 500-pound bomb exploded under his vehicle.
Kenneth Fisher, chairman of the Fisher House Foundation, a nonprofit that builds "comfort homes" for families of hospitalized veterans.
C. Martin Harris, a physician who has served on other government and private commissions that have examined health care problems.
Edward Eckenhoff, a leader in rehabilitation medicine and president of the National Rehabilitation Hospital.
Gail Wilensky, an economist and senior fellow at Project HOPE, an international health education foundation.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/10/2007 11:08 ||
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Link ||
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#1
This sounds like a working panel, with serious depth of personal experience to tackle the problem.
#2
TW - I hope you're right, but I don't have very high hopes. I've been involved with the VA since I retired, and it's ALWAYS been frustrating. There are three main problems: not enough money, too many bureaucrats, and decaying "temporary" facilities that have been in existence since World War II. There needs to be a major overhaul, but I doubt this panel, or any other, will do what's really necessary. I'll be writing about this in my own blog a bit later.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/10/2007 13:47 Comments ||
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#3
Having trained in three different VA hospitals, my solution would be a bit radical:
close them.
Oh, keep a few of the most modern ones as a back-up to the military medical system.
But vets with service-connected disabilities would get the equivalent of a platinum American Express card for the health care they need, good at any hospital or doctor's office in the country. They get the care, Uncle Sam gets (and pays) the bill.
Vets with non-service connected disabilities would get medical care with means-testing and eligibility criteria that allow them to get care as good as they get at the VA today.
Shutter the VA hospitals. We didn't promise vets a VA hospital system, we promised them health care. That's what we should deliver.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/10/2007 14:03 Comments ||
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#4
SW nails it, however, no government program has been closed since the WPA...and I'm not sure they don't still have an office somewhere. Where did George dig up former 'face of America teammate' Shalala?
#5
It's not funny any more. Here we have a short discussion on the panel makeup, and Steve White levels a conclusion which anybody with a brain would consider the only resolution. However, Bush and the politbureau will play politics and the ever popular funding shell game over this till he hands the red phone over to Rudy.
Hey Bushy, instead of picking a panel, pick your nose. I can't wait till this jerk is history.
The removal of Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhary on Friday received mixed reactions in his home province of Balochistan. Justice Iftikhar was the first person from Balochistan to hold this office.
It is a very sad development and a brutal assault on the judiciary. But the judiciary itself is equally responsible. Had it not accepted dictations from the military from day one, it would not have had to face this day, Tariq Mahmood, former Balochistan High Court judge, told Daily Times.
Sucks to be ruled by overlords, doesn't it.
Mahmood, who resigned as a high court judge in protest against Musharrafs Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO), said the until the judiciary asserted its independence, we will see such dark days again and again.
Tahir Mohammad Khan, a Supreme Court advocate, said the allegations against the chief justice should have been investigated before he was removed. The unsubstantiated allegations against the CJP have hugely damaged the credibility of the judiciary. But the president has also acted very irresponsibly. If the allegations are false then it (the suspension) is very unreasonable. The Supreme Judicial Council should have been asked to conduct a probe and then it should have recommended punitive measures against the CJP, said Khan.
Amanullah Kanrani, vice chairman of the Balochistan Bar Council, said Fridays events were the expected culmination of the military-judiciary nexus.
The CJP was bound to meet such a humiliating fate given the fact that he agreed to act under a president who violated the Constitution. If the former CJP did not protest against the violation of the Constitution by Musharraf, why should one protest against his dismissal? The people of Balochistan are not bothered about this move, he said.
Hadi Shakil, president of the Balochistan High Court Association, said the decision was politically motivated. Given that general elections are expected this year, the president wanted to bring the judiciary under his full control. A message has been conveyed to all the judges of the Supreme Court and the high courts that they should blindly support each step taken by the military regime. Otherwise, they will meet the same fate as the CJP, he said.
Senator Kamran Murtaza, a member of the Bar Council, said it was a day of mourning for the lawyers in Pakistan. It is an unimaginable attack on the judiciary. The president has crossed all limits, he said, adding that Justice Iftikhar was being punished for his ruling against the government in the Pakistan Steel Mills case.
Advocate Kachkol Baloch, Balochistans leader of the opposition, said that even a Punjabi Baloch was no longer acceptable to the rulers in Islamabad. The government does not trust anyone from Balochistan and it views every Baloch suspiciously. The military has hijacked every state institution. For how long will we tolerate this?
Posted by: John Frum ||
03/10/2007 05:56 ||
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For more than three decades, Damayanti Vijay Tambay has been longing, and perhaps dreading, to undertake this journey from India. At the end of her planned trip to Pakistan next month, she hopes to find her husband, Flight Lieutenant Vijay Vasant Tambay -- dead or alive.
Tambay went missing in December, 1971 after he took off on a fighter aircraft at the height of a war between South Asian rivals India and Pakistan.
India says 54 soldiers and officers are believed missing from that war. Pakistan denies it has any prisoners of war.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: John Frum ||
03/10/2007 05:27 ||
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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.
