Hat tip Instapundit. As he says, crime control, not gun control ...
They strode into the restaurant supply store in Harlem shortly after 3 p.m. on Thursday, four young men intent on robbery, one with a Glock 9-millimeter pistol, the police said. The place may have looked like an easy mark, a high-cash business with an owner in his 70s, known as a gentle, soft-spoken man.
But Charles Augusto Jr., the 72-year-old proprietor of the Kaplan Brothers Blue Flame Corporation, at 523 West 125th Street, near Amsterdam Avenue, had been robbed several times before, despite the fact that his shop is around the corner from the 26th Precinct station house on West 126th Street.
There were no customers in the store, only Mr. Augusto and two employees, a man and a woman. The police said the invaders announced a holdup, approached the two employees and tried to place plastic handcuffs on them. The male employee, a 35-year-old known in the community as J. B., struggled with the gunman, who then hit him on the head with the pistol.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/14/2009 10:19 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Two bad guys dead, two wounded. Not bad for a man in his 70's.
Posted by: Mike ||
08/14/2009 11:02 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Woodrow Call: For all you know it invites people to rob us.
Gus McCrae: Well the first man comes along that can read Latin is welcome to rob us, far as I'm concerned. I'd like a chance t' shoot at a educated man once in my life.
#5
"Some" of the community was against the robbers, but another part of the community is composed of robbers & other would-be thugs. I would not want to be in the proprietor's position or location now. But at least having a shotgun without a permit in NYC is not a capital offense, yet.
"How the hell are you going to rob someone in broad daylight?" said Sarah Martin, president of the General Grant Residents Association. Do it at night when nobody's watching dammit!
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - A 34-year-old man is in custody after authorities say he gave a teller his account number and showed her his picture ID before robbing an Anchorage bank.
The FBI says Jarell Paul Arnold of Anchorage is being held on federal bank robbery charges. The FBI alleges Arnold walked into an Alaska USA Federal Credit Union branch Friday and inquired about the balance on his account. The teller asked for his name, account number and ID. I needed to know how much money I needed to steal.
Authorities say he complied, and then handed over a receipt with a note on the back that said he had a gun and demanded money. Wait a minute! I don't know how that got on there!
The FBI says he got away with about $600. Authorities arrested Arnold on Monday. A message left after business hours Wednesday with Arnold's public defender, Michael Dieni, was not immediately returned.
Court records say Arnold was sentenced to 57 months in prison for bank robbery in 2004.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
08/14/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Court records say Arnold was sentenced to 57 months in prison for bank robbery in 2004
Wow. That didn't take long. Must have been missing his buddies and found a way back in.
#2
Is it just me, or is the quality of idiots going downhill lately?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/14/2009 14:40 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Cry for help more likely than not.
A cousin of a friend of mine robbed his own bank. Bank where they knew him by name. His father was a cop or sheriff so he knew the guys that showed up to arrest him. Nobody knew, until then, that he'd developed a drug problem. Now drugs might simply have made him dumb as a post, but I tend to think he was seeking help and couldn't ask his father for whatever reason.
News that the Eagles had signed quarterback Michael Vick, a convicted animal abuser, was met with swift outrage last night by members of Philadelphia's animal-welfare community. Many said they were concerned that the move would cast a pall over a state in which animal advocates - led by Gov. Rendell, who has three rescue dogs - have fought to improve conditions for dogs, particularly those who suffer in substandard commercial kennels.
"Over the last three years, Pennsylvania has made historic strides in bringing attention to the abuse and neglect that so many dogs suffer in this state and throughout the country," said Tom Hickey of Drexel Hill, a member of the governor's Dog Law Advisory Board. "For the Philadelphia Eagles, knowing the heinous crimes committed by this man, to sign him is unconscionable."
The initial reaction, which included the launching of a Twitter feed called "Boycott the Eagles," is a likely indication of the angry response to come. Yeah, that's gonna go over well..
"Michael Vick is coming to a city with some of the strongest and most outspoken animal advocates," said Bill Smith, founder of Main Line Animal Rescue in Chester Springs. "In a city where thousands of pit bulls are destroyed every year because we don't have the resources to rehabilitate them, it's shameful that we are willing to rehabilitate Michael Vick." In the coming matchup between outraged animal activists protesting at the stadium and drunken Eagles fans trying to get in, I'm taking Philly fan and the points.
#1
I don't think you need to be an animal rights wacko to find Michael Vick repulsive--I think you need only be a human being.
Posted by: Mike ||
08/14/2009 10:41 Comments ||
Top||
#2
#1 I don't think you need to be an animal rights wacko to find Michael Vick repulsive--I think you need only be a human being.
Posted by: Mike 2009-08-14 10:41
#3
Well coming up with the position that one can not reform and must be hounded for the rest of their lives for stupid acts, let's make sure that the principle is applied to animal rights activist who engage in criminal and terrorist acts, as well as those who make excuses for their actions or obstruct law enforcement in tracking them down.
#4
Or just for being a plain old terrorist, like Bill Ayers.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
08/14/2009 12:20 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Uh uh shaggy, this could really open up their offense. Other team runs a Red Dog defense bring in vick. Also available for pooch kicks late in the game.
#6
Hmmm a skilled position player for professional sports team that once ran an interstate gambling racket? Wonder if the Philly Bookmakers cheered? Oh thats right its all about the puppies.
#7
Yeesh. I live in Virginia, and this was considered the lead news story last night. (Not the lead sports story, the lead news story.)
What this inquiring mind wants to know is, can't I get away from this crap anywhere?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/14/2009 13:25 Comments ||
Top||
#8
Who said he couldn't be "reformed"? I simply object to giving millions of dollars to an immoral savage. He's NOT the only black man who can throw a football. Find somebody else.
#11
The Iggles go 3 and 13, and a PETA-led boycott will be the least of their worries ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/14/2009 16:25 Comments ||
Top||
#12
As is often the case, Badanov nails it. The sports experts have endlessly discussed which teams would be best for Vick -- including my beloved Pats. But as QBs go, Vick is just a bad QB: Cordell Stewart with a mean streak.
Mike nails it on the bigger picture. Even though I hate pitbulls and their owners, I can't see executing them for underperformance (under the same reasoning why is Vick allowed to resume his career?).
A step backward for both the Eagles and for Western Civ.
Posted by: regular joe ||
08/14/2009 16:30 Comments ||
Top||
#13
I look forward to hearing that the Eagles tank and that Vick gets demoted to stadium sweeper.
"We, acting by command of and on behalf of the Emperor of Japan, the Japanese Government and the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters, hereby accept the provisions in the declaration issued by the heads of the Governments of the United States, China, and Great Britain 26 July 1945 at Potsdam, and subsequently to by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, which four powers are hereafter referred to as the Allied Powers.
"We hereby proclaim the unconditional surrender to the Allied Powers of the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters and of all Japanese Armed Forces and all Armed Forces under Japanese control wherever situated...."
--Executed by Japanese foreign minister Mamoru Shigemitsu aboard USS Missouri at 9:04 a.m. on 14 August 1945
Posted by: Mike ||
08/14/2009 08:16 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
[Al Arabiya Latest] An Egyptian man has been charged with illegally circumcising a young girl on Thursday, making him the first person to face the law since Cairo criminalized the controversial practice of female genital mutilation, or FGM. Wow. That was quick. It's only been -- what? 6000? 7000 years?
No doubt had a trained doctor, or a trained butcher, done the job, she would not have ended up in the hospital, and no charges would need have been filed.
FGM in Arab and African societies is usually done by a woman. Perhaps the arrest is because a man was involving himself in the trimming of the femalian parts ...
Ahmed Gad al-Karim, 69, was charged with inflicting injury on an 11-year-old girl after a local hospital notified the police when the young girl was brought in suffering from heavy bleeding following a circumcision.
" The government wants to protect Egyptian children and give them a healthy environment "
Prosecutor general
The Upper Egyptian governorate of Minya, 600 kilometers south of Cairo, was told that the girl's mother gave Karim 150 Egyptian Pounds ($ 27) to circumcise her daughter, who remains in critical condition.
Karim said he performed the operation at the girl's house and said he had used a scalpel.
That makes it ok, you see.
According to the World Health Organization and estimated 100 to 140 million females worldwide currently live with the consequences of FGM, which is internationally recognized as a human rights violation.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/14/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
[Bangla Daily Star] Police yesterday arrested three suspects for their involvement in the gang rape of a 14-year-old schoolgirl in Faridpur but the FIR named accused are still at large.
The arrestees are Shourov, an alleged miscreant with knowledge on Internet browsing, Masud and Tushar's brother-in-law Tohu Kazi alias Tohurul. Police said they would be taken on remand for interrogation.
Locals alleged that though the incident took place on July 9 and the news spread as the rapists took footage of their savagery, uploaded it on Internet and printed CDs, police said they were totally unaware of the incident.
The locals also said when a case was filed with the Faridpur Women and Children Repression Prevention Court on August 11, the rapists were still in their localities and Faridpur town.
"Had police launched a massive dragnet, they could have arrested the two FIR named accused Tushar Khan and Kalam Khan," said a local schoolteacher.
The victim's family members and the locals said after the incident came to limelight, an arbitration was arranged in the locality where Tushar's father tried to settle the matter by giving Tk 5 lakh to the victim's family.
However, with all these developments police only moved to arrest the accused after the court had sent the case for investigation.
Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Charbhadrashan Police Station Ariful Haque said he joined the police station a few days ago and was making an all-out effort to arrest the accused.
Meanwhile, police picked up a number of computer and CD shop owners on Wednesday. They were later released.
The victim's mother alleged that police took her husband to locate the residences of the accused during the raid on Tuesday. After the raid police confined him in the police station till 3:00pm the next day without any food. As a result he fell unconscious as he returned home.
She also alleged that while interrogating her husband police held her mother responsible as the victim was coming from her grandmother's house. "Police even threatened to fire my mother from her job at Charbhadrashan Health Complex," said victim's mother.
While tears rolled down her cheeks she said, "Though my daughter was raped, police tried to put the blame on us." She alleged that the police are talking the words of the accused.
She, however, could name the police officer who interrogated her husband. She said her husband, who at the moment went to visit her ailing daughter, could provide more details of the cop.
Asked, the OC denied the allegation of such racking interrogation.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/14/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#6
Building self esteem. Earnt esteem, after acting so independently, but faux esteem silliness, for the certificate, which the lad has not bothered to frame and hang on the wall. My mother used to run similar exercises for her trainable mentally retarded students, when she was the program designer for the sheltered work shop. I think she aimed that one at those with a mental age of 11-12 years.
[Iran Press TV Latest] Argentina has ordered the expulsion of the Honduran ambassador because of her support for a coup that ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya.
"At the request of the constitutional President of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya the Argentine foreign ministry ordered the cessation of functions of the Honduran Ambassador to Buenos Aires, Carmen Eleonora Ortez Williams", the ministry announced in a statement on Thursday.
Ortez voiced support for the interim leader Roberto Micheletti, who is not recognized by the international community, the Foreign Ministry statement added.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/14/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
Colombia has rushed fuel supplies to areas on the Venezuelan border facing fuel shortages due to a Venezuelan energy squeeze, ordered by Caracas to punish Bogota for its military cooperation with the United States. It's the Chicago Way, so to speak.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez ordered suspension of a Venezuelan subsidy that allowed Colombians to buy fuel at half the normal price. He said he could not allow Colombian President Alvaro Uribe any concessions while Uribe favored a U.S. military presence in the country. The gift approach to diplomacy didn't work, so the hard sell comes next.
Uribe says the additional U.S. troops provided under a new accord are needed to give momentum to a joint Colombian-U.S. operation from the air and ground to fight drug traffickers targeting North America.
The military campaign suffered a setback when Ecuador asked the United States to cease anti-narcotic interdiction flights and other operations from its territory.
Colombian Minister of Mines Hernan Martinez said the government would send at least 2 million gallons of gasoline to stock up on supplies in the border region, which until Sunday bought Venezuelan fuel at subsidized prices. He said Colombia would also explore other avenues for fuel imports to replace Venezuelan supplies, now set to be available at double the price because of the withdrawal of the subsidies.
Colombia has also set in motion contingency plans to increase domestic production at the refineries in Cartagena and Barrancabermeja.
Martinez urged consumers to be patient and warned consumers they faced higher prices.
Industry sources said Colombia would also need to watch for additional fuel smuggling from Venezuela, where fuel retails at some of the lowest prices in the world. Instead of trinkets, it's fuel.
For some time now, cheap fuel has been a temptation for smugglers to take truckloads across Venezuela's borders for profit. Venezuela claims it loses about $1 billion a year in illegal trafficking in fuel across its borders.
It was not clear if the suspension of Venezuelan subsidies for fuel sold to Colombia also spells the end of a 2008 agreement that governed those sales. Under that accord, Venezuela has been selling 50,000 to 200,000 barrels of subsidized gasoline monthly to Colombia.
A key reason for the subsidy deal was Venezuelan worries over fuel smuggling. Caracas hoped the cheap fuel deal with Colombia would eliminate fuel smugglers, some of them said to be powerful cartels, dangerous and ruthless like organized drug smuggling groups.
Analysts said that despite the measure Venezuela could lose out if it prolonged the ban on subsidized fuel for Colombia. Its retaliatory measures against Colombia have won Venezuela new support among Latin American countries eager for its business. But Colombia is a large supplier of food, textiles and other consumer items to the country, and recent measures by Caracas may be short-lived, analysts said. Trade between the two countries reached $7 billion in 2008, and Venezuelan consumers are used to Colombian produce and consumer items.
Colombia's government so far has avoided tit-for-tat measures against Venezuela. But analysts said Colombia could, if pushed, hit back by cutting back on its supplies of electricity and gas to Venezuela.
Posted by: Alaska Paul in Hooper Bay, AK ||
08/14/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
subsidized fuel is stealing from venezuelans to buy patronage from columbian border residents. seems to be a lot of that going around lately. is anyone else in favor of creating an organization of food exporting countries?
#2
...The problem with ski jumps is although they work quite nicely in getting birds airborne without a catapult, it cuts down on deck space. That's why these huge Soviet Russian CVs only carry about a third of the air wing that US CVs do. And you can't launch an AEW bird (like our E2) from a ski jump - that's CTOL all the way. And since modern CVs are just about unsurvivable and unusable without some kind of AEW, the Chinese and Soviet Russian ships aren't really that helpful.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
08/14/2009 9:25 Comments ||
Top||
#3
You knew this was coming.
Posted by: Mike ||
08/14/2009 11:02 Comments ||
Top||
An accountant and former chief financial officer at Hadassah who lost all of her personal savings in Bernard Madoff's massive fraud revealed that she and the disgraced financier previously had an affair, Bloomberg News reported.
The financial news agency reported that Sheryl Weinstein, 60, is publishing the account of her ties to Madoff in a book titled "Madoff's Other Secret: Love, Money, Bernie, and Me," on August 25.
Weinstein was in the New York courtroom on June 29, when Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison for operating the massive Ponzi scheme that defrauded and bankrupted dozens of investors.
According to Bloomberg, Weinstein told the judge that she and Madoff met 21 years ago when she was chief financial officer at Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America.
"I now view that day as perhaps the unluckiest day of my life because of the many events set into motion that would eventually have the most profound and devastating effect on me, my husband, my child, my parents, my in-laws and all of those who depended on us," Weinstein said at the New York hearing, according to the report.
In addition to disclosing the affair, Weinstein's book will include photographs and intimate descriptions of Madoff, Bloomberg reported, noting that the publisher said the book, which was ghostwritten, will run about 200 pages.
Hadassah, which also lost millions in Madoff's scheme, in December lowered estimates of its losses. Hadassah initially said it had $90 million placed with Madoff, but clarified in a Dec. 29 letter that two thirds of that amount - $60 million - constituted the huge, but probably imaginary, profits that Madoff reported to the organization over two decades.
The group's principal investment with Madoff, it said, totaled only $33 million. Another $7 million in Madoff funds, possibly real, possibly fraudulent, were donated by a French backer in 1988.
AP: WASHINGTON -- Retail sales disappointed in July and the number of newly laid-off workers filing claims for unemployment benefits rose unexpectedly last week. The latest government reports reinforced concerns about how quickly consumers will be able to contribute to a broad economic recovery. Wait, didn't the government and Bambi say things were on the rebound?
"There is really no positive spin to put on these numbers," Jennifer Lee, an economist with BMO Capital Markets, wrote in a research note. "The U.S. consumer remains very weak. The jobs situation, while slowly improving, is still dismal." Hey! Let's raise taxes! That will help!
The Commerce Department said Thursday that retail sales fell 0.1 percent last month. Economists had expected a gain of 0.7 percent. Dumbasses Continued on Page 49
#2
Bank moves against commercial estate firms, have been delayed in deference to recovery efforts. The failure puts these interests in foreclosure gunsights. The current market for commercial property is worse than that for real estate. Homes are being bought "low" for speculative purpose alone; the big property market follows the growth or decline in private mortgages. Confidence in growth is fading. And, in that context, BHO has chosen to alienate health care providers. So much for being the great unifier.
#4
Experts saw this crisis coming long ago. The WSJ had written editorials about it for years. But no one knew when it would come. So the question should be why it occurred on the 15th of September in an election year. A coincidence? I'm not sure but I am sure I won't live long enough to learn the truth. But it seems to me it shouldn't surprise anyone when things like this happen after you give 10% of your GDP to your biggest enemy in cash.
#5
Barry urged the Euros to provide "bailouts" at the recent G summits. Appears they wisely refused to follow his feckless lead and are their economies are now showing strong signs of recovery.
#6
It just reminds me of what an old finance professor told me when I was an arrogant young college puke: If you are an economist, you can be wrong your entire career and still get a Nobel Prize.
#7
Experts saw this crisis coming long ago. The WSJ had written editorials about it for years. People like Nouriel Roubini & J. K. Galbraith Jr did see it coming, but they & their like were considered the lunatic fringe and were not taken seriously. The "experts" like Allan Greenspan, Ben Bernanke, & Tim Geithner were out to lunch, so to speak, on the crisis. 28 March 2007: "the impact on the broader economy and financial markets of the problems in the subprime markets seems likely to be contained," Bernanke said in prepared testimony to Congress' Joint Economic Committee. Whatever the WSJ had to say prior to the blowup was like the Delphic oracle, so vague as to be misleading.
I'm no expert, & in fact lost a chunk of my retirement funds in the dot com crash of 2000. But I learned from that. By August 2007 it was obvious to me we were in big trouble, and I sold any investment I had related to housing & the stock market, & went into treasuries & CD's. The more obvious crisis in 9/2008 awoke some of the sleepers.
Then there's the MSM bias towards cheerleading. Any development for the worse is 'unexpected,' and any day's increase in the Dow means the recession is over. It ain't over by a long shot.
#8
To follow on AH9418s comment. To a large extent economic activity is driven by 'sentiment'. Which means perceptions of what will happen in the future. If you think you will keep your job, you will buy a new car. If a company thinks demand for its products will increase, it will invest in new plant.
What governments are doing is talking up sentiment.
Otherwise, as I said the other day, we are about June 1930 on the Great Depression timeline.
#9
we are about June 1930 on the Great Depression timeline That would make it another 2 years, 9 months until there are runs on the banks & a national bank holiday. if history repeats itself, which I hope won't happen.
#11
I am learning recipes for radish greens and dandelions, and learning to tell edible plants from such delights as water hemlock. Should you need a good resource for meat, dig up a 1975 copy of The Joy of Cooking, which has a lot of the 1931 recipes for squirrel, wild rabbit, and muskrat.
I'm only half facetious.
Posted by: mom, who needs a cold beer ||
08/14/2009 17:44 Comments ||
Top||
#12
When the new edition of Joy of Cooking came out some years ago, I bought it but kept my old copy too. I've been glad I did many times. (And not just for the muskrat, either.)
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/14/2009 18:18 Comments ||
Top||
#13
Bloomberg today had this ominous article:More than 150 publicly traded U.S. lenders own nonperforming loans that equal 5 percent or more of their holdings, a level that former regulators say can wipe out a banks equity and threaten its survival. The number of banks exceeding the threshold more than doubled in the year through June, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, as real estate and credit-card defaults surged...Excluding the stress-test list, banks with nonperformers above 5 percent had combined deposits of $193 billion, according to Bloomberg data. Thats almost 15 times the size of the FDICs deposit insurance fund at the end of the first quarter.
Article doesn't say enough.. what does "Power" mean? Engines?
India plans to power some parts of the Chandrayaan II--its next unmanned mission to the moon- with nuclear energy and the feasibility studies are being carried out by Indian Space Research Organization and Bhabha Atomic Research Centre.
"We are thinking of powering some parts of Chandrayaan II with nuclear power and it will power the spacecraft when it revolves around the dark side of the moon," Madhavan Nair, Chairman, ISRO, told media before accepting the degree of Doctorate of Science conferred on him at the 47th Convoction of IIT-Mumbai.
He said both ISRO and BARC are carrying out the feasibility studies on this, which will be useful for carrying out further experiments to use N-power for Chandrayaan II, he said.
Asked how safe it is to use nuclear power in the mission, he said "the safety aspects are being worked and safety is crucial when it is launched from ground level to the orbit."
"To work out the safety, we have to work on new technologies and the feasibility studies will help in developing those," Nair said.
On using N-power in the deep space probe, he said "we need nuclear power in those missions which are outside out solar systems but the challenges are very many."
Asked whether laws relating to use of space will allow use of N-power, he said "we have to take utmost care in launching from to ground to the orbit and this aspect we will work out in future."
#1
Wwehell now, YEAR 2029-2036 > why wait for the future OWG-NWO to miscalculate and cause COMET APOPHIS to crack up the MOON, when good ole' NORTH KOREA has a mighty plan to capture it and bring it close to Earth.
#4
Not by ISRO. They have only now started to design probes and the RTG to power them.
They won't be doing exotic nuke propulsion systems for some time. Right now their focus is flying their own cryo engine (LH/LOX) this year, building a larger version of that for their next launcher and designing a new core engine (RP-1/LOX) for their proposed heavy launcher.
Posted by: john frum ||
08/14/2009 11:32 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Remember that when NASA was building giant moon rockets the people now running ISRO were at this stage:
ISRO makes slow steady progress on a shoestring budget. Their current GSLV isn't the most optimum of designs but those were the engines they had at the time. Only after they proved the capability to the Indian government was additional funding for a new vehicle released. They still operate with a budget of 800 million dollars.
Posted by: john frum ||
08/14/2009 11:49 Comments ||
Top||
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.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - A 34-year-old man is in custody after authorities say he gave a teller his account number and showed her his picture ID before robbing an Anchorage bank. 
News that the Eagles had signed quarterback Michael Vick, a convicted animal abuser, was met with swift outrage last night by members of Philadelphia's animal-welfare community. Many said they were concerned that the move would cast a pall over a state in which animal advocates - led by Gov. Rendell, who has three rescue dogs - have fought to improve conditions for dogs, particularly those who suffer in substandard commercial kennels.
AP: WASHINGTON -- Retail sales disappointed in July and the number of newly laid-off workers filing claims for unemployment benefits rose unexpectedly last week. The latest government reports reinforced concerns about how quickly consumers will be able to contribute to a broad economic recovery.
