[NJ] A New Jersey man who managed a grocery store is going to prison for 37 months for stealing more than $2.5 million through a food stamps scheme.
Alexander Vargas, 35, of Camden pleaded guilty to purchasing Supplemental Nutrition and Assistance Program benefits for approximately 50 cents on the dollar at the store he managed in the city in 2012.
Authorities say Vargas exchanged food stamp benefits for cash at Eddies Grocery.
A judge also ordered Vargas to pay nearly $2.8 million in restitution.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/07/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
I'm surprised he didn't get the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts. He would have been among the pantheon of greats such as the ONE, Al/Gore, Arafat, etc...
[An Nahar] Two pairs of 3,300-year-old trousers found in China's far western Xinjiang region may be the world's oldest, state-media reported Friday.
Archeologists in May found animal-fur menswear on the bodies of two mummies, identified as male shamans in their 40s, the state-run China Daily cited scientists as saying.
An international team is working together to repair and preserve the two pairs -- which are the oldest yet discovered with a clear resemblance to modern trousers, the report said.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
06/07/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
The "kind of trousers that only had two legs" is the source of the English expression "a pair of pants" applied to what is actually a single garment. Modern Chinese doesn't use this.
#4
I'm going to tell my wife about this. She thinks she needs a new wardrobe every season. To think, I she might get another 3,299 years out of them. Second thoughts, that's an awful long time..
It is easy to see where they are coming from. In every other part of the world when you see civilians in the streets armed with rifles it usually means something has broken in the civil order. And it is strange to see people walk into a restaurant with an AR strapped to their backs.
But as John Ekdahl of Ace O'Spades has noted, there are times when it is necessary in order to secure the firearm from theft while in the automobile, you should carry it inside to safeguard it.
Here is what I do: The rifle stays in the vehicle. If I know I will be hungry either to or from the rifle range, I either eat there and then or I wait until I get back. If I need to use the restroom on the road to or from the range, I either hold it until I get home or I use the restroom before I leave for the range.
I never leave the rifle even if it's inside a vehicle trunk alone, not even for two minutes. It's a sh*tty world out there, what with our militarized cops and crazy people who mean harm to anyone they come into contact with. I learned the hard way about securing firearms.
As I noted last week, antigun people love mass shootings because they can use the dead to advance their agenda of firearms theft from those who did nothing to commit those crimes. This week, there were two, one in New Brunswick, Canada, and one in Seattle. At the moment media in both places are carrying the antigunners' water by not releasing data on the firearms used or the circumstances that led to the shootings, things we want to know.
Concerning the mass shooting in Santa Barbara, California, it was rumored that Elliot Rodger was on Xanax. He was on chemicals, which is a factor in a lot of crime in Oklahoma, and likely elsewhere. It is a screwed up mental health system that doctors prescribe medicine that is at least a factor in this shooting, but the antigunning fascists want to taint everyone who has a mental problem. It's the method of isolating those who don't vote as a block, like small business owners and the like. When you stir up enough hate often subsequent laws will not only affect them but a larger group of people.
Last week all of Rantburg's TWIG report was lost without any backups. I apologize for the technical glitch, but by the time I found out about it, I had a planned previous engagement, and I decided not to rebuild the report.
Because of the glitch, the week to week data for this week is skewed, and in those areas of ammunition where it was necessary, two week data comparisons were noted.
As an aside, last week was the first week in which every category of firearms and ammunition we track declined in price. This week continues the same general trend with prices for used firearms, especially rifles continue a downward trend. It should be noted that prices for used AR-15s are now about half what they were in early 2013, while used AR-10s are 75 percent of what they were.
Prices for pistol and rifle ammunition were mixed.
Prices for both used rifles and used pistols were mostly lower.
Pistol Ammo
.45 Caliber, 230 grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (4 weeks)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Munire USA, Tulammo, steel cased, .30 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1,000 rounds: Munire USA, Tulammo, steel cased, .29 per round (-.01 from 2 weeks ago)
.40 Caliber Smith & Wesson, 180 grain, From Last Week: +.02 Each
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Munire USA, Ultramax, CNL, reloaded, .28 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: LAX Ammunition, Store Brand, reloaded, .25 per round (-.01 From 2 Weeks Ago)
9mm Parabellum, 115 grain From Last Week: Unchanged (2 Weeks)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Able's, Brown Bear, FMJ, .22 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: Bulk Ammo, Tulammo, steel cased, FMJ, .22 per round (From 2 Weeks Ago: +.01 Each)
.357 Magnum, 158 grain, From Last Week: +.01 Each
Cheapest, 50 rounds: LAX Ammunition, CCI Blazer, JHP, .42 per round
Cheapest Bulk: 250 Rounds: LAX Ammunition, CCI Blazer, JHP, .36 per round
Rifle Ammunition
.223 Caliber/5.56mm 55 grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (2 weeks)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: OD Green Supply, Tulammo, steel cased, .25 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1,000 rounds: Random Discounted ARs, Tulammo, steel cased, .24 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged)
.308 NATO 145 grain, From Last Week: +.10 (!)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Able's, Wolf Polyformance, steel cased, .57 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: Random Discounted ARs, Wolf Polyformance, steel cased, .52 per round
7.62x39 AK 123 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Munire USA, Wolf, steel case, .20 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1,000 rounds: Bulk Ammo, Wolf, steel case, .21 per round (Unchanged from 2 Weeks Ago (Eight Weeks))
.22 LR 40 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Ammunition Supply Company, Remington Thunderbolt, RNL, .08 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 325 rounds: South Georgia Outdoors, Federal Automatch, RNL, .11 per round
Guns for Private Sale
Rifles
.223/5.56mm (AR Pattern Semiautomatic) Average Price: $645 Last Week Avg: $626 (+)
California (199): Mixed Build: $600
Texas (307): Smith & Wesson M&P15: $675
Pennsylvania (160): Smith & Wesson M&P15: $650
Virgina (208): Bushmaster (Carbon Fiber Lower): $600
Florida (408): Mixed Build: $699
.308 NATO (AR-10 Pattern Semiautomatic) Average Price: $1,190 Last Week Avg: $1,300(-)
California (49): DPMS: $1,300
Texas (61): Smith & Wesson M&P 10: $1,225 (Same Gun, Lower price)
Pennsylvania (29): DPMS Oracle: $875 (!)
Virginia (42): DPMS LR-308: $1,400
Florida (90): DPMS: $1,150
7.62x39mm (AK Pattern Semiautomatic) Average Price: $585 Last Week Avg: $615 (-)
California (46): Saiga: $525 (!)
Texas (56): WASR: $650
Pennsylvania (57): Saiga: $500 (Same Gun)
Virginia (67): IO: $650
Florida (121): CAI VZ2008: $599 (Same Gun)
7.62x54mm (Dragunov Pattern Semiautomatic) Average Price: $1,100 Last Week Avg: $1,134 (-)
California (0): None Available
Texas (0): None Available
Pennsylvania (2): Romak PSL: $1,400 (Same Gun)
Virginia (0): None Available
Florida(6): Romak PSL: $800 (!)
Pistols
.45 caliber ACP (M1911 Pattern Semiautomatic Pistol) Average Price: $424 Last Week Avg: $498 (-)
California (150): Rock Island Armory M1911A1: $400
Texas (217): Metro Arms Commander 1911: $450
Pennsylvania (186): Auto Ordnance: $450
Virginia (164): American Tactical Imports: $400
Florida (376): Auto Ordnance 1911: $420
9mm Beretta 92FS or other Semiautomatic Average Price: $449 Last Week Avg: $453 (-)
California (144): Glock 19: $450
Texas (330): Glock 17: $470
Pennsylvania (197): Sig Sauer P250C: $400
Virginia (246): Glock 17: $475
Florida (483): Glock 26: $450
.40 caliber S&W (Glock and other semiautomatic) Average Price: $415 Last Week Avg: $425 (-)
California (96): Glock 22: $450
Texas (145): Smith & Wesson M&P 40C: $425
Pennsylvania (122): Glock 22: $400
Virginia (122): Smith & Wesson SW99: $400
Florida (193):Glock 27: $400
LONDON (AP) -- An 89-year old World War II veteran who was reported missing from a nursing home in England has been found in Normandy after traveling to attend D-Day commemorations, police said Friday.
Bernard Jordan was last seen at The Pines home in Hove, southern England, on Thursday morning. Staff called police when he did not return that evening. Sussex Police said Friday that another veteran later called to say he and Jordan were at a hotel in Ouistreham, France. Officers also spoke to Jordan and determined he was fine.
The force said Jordan left the home wearing his service medals and joined a group of veterans heading to France by bus.
Chief Superintendent Nev Kemp tweeted: "Veteran reported missing by care home who said he can't go to Normandy for D-Day remembrance. We've found him there!" A generation of determined men that no obstacle could stop at, even 70 years later. God bless the Greatest Generation. The Nazis couldn't stop him, Nurse Ratchet certainly won't...
Posted by: chris ||
06/07/2014 5:58 Comments ||
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#2
Successful exfiltration of the rear echelon staging area. For Bernard Jordan it was his Day of Days.
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.
- Henry V, Shakespeare.
[An Nahar] Spain's government Friday approved a draft law easing the path to citizenship for the descendants of Jews expelled in 1492.
Spain already grants citizenship to proven Sephardic Jews, the descendants of the Jewish people who were expelled in 1492 in a period of Roman Catholic zeal under the reign of Isabella and Ferdinand.
But the new legislation, yet to be approved by parliament, would allow all proven Sephardic Jews to gain Spanish citizenship without being obliged to give up their original nationality.
Until now, Spain has only allowed dual nationality for Sephardic Jews from a handful of countries, mostly in Latin America.
"The law will allow dual nationality," Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria told a news conference after a weekly cabinet meeting.
Justice Minister Alberto Ruiz Gallardon, who presented an earlier draft of the law in February, has said Spain wants to repair a "historical mistake" with the legislation.
Though estimates vary, historians believe at least 200,000 Jews lived in Spain before the expulsion.
Many who refused to convert to Christianity or leave were burned at the stake.
Up to 3.5 million people around the world are thought to have Sephardic -- Hebrew for "Spanish" -- Jewish ancestry.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/07/2014 00:00 ||
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"Bring us your money, your drive, your knowledge of how to make a successful economy..." And yes, to right a historic wrong, albeit half a millennium later. There's a Spanish village that recently voted to change their name back from something like Jews' Death Hill to Jews' Hill. And Spaniards are realizing that their family's odd traditions point to being secret Marranos -- converted to Christianity under compulsion in 1492 rather than leave, but in their hearts and actions were still Jewish until the reason for candles on Friday night and and a familial allergy to pork were forgotten. Some of them are formally converting back to the faith of their distant ancestors... though none thus far seem to be using it as a reason to emigrate to Israel.
It's interesting: several of the converts in my Reform Jewish congregation claim to have discovered Jewish ancestors as well, often after going through the multi-year process. Which only goes to show that the paranoid antisemites are right: we are everywhere, even -- if all unconscious of it -- in your church and your ashram.
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/07/2014 9:33 Comments ||
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#5
...that was the original plan to finance the war to expel the Moors. Then the expulsion of the people who financed it all cleared out that (Kingdom) National Debt with a few spare coins for Mr.Columbus.
#7
According to author Steve Berry, Columbus and his translator on board the trip to the New World were Jewish, as well as many of the crew. The one freedom afforded them was to set sail on the dangerous mission and many stayed in the islands and Latin America as merchants. Columbus is also said to have gold on Jamaica, never found. This could prove interesting with new DNA advances.
[An Nahar] A Ukrainian police officer was killed and two others injured Friday when snuffies near the separatist stronghold of Slavyansk launched a mortar attack on a checkpoint, officials said.
The krazed killers, who had taken up position in a church, opened fire on Ukrainian forces, deputy interior minister Serhiy Yarovy said in a statement.
"One police officer was killed, while two seriously injured have been hospitalized," he said.
Ukrainian forces have been carrying out a military operation in the east of the country since April 13 to quell a pro-Russian rebellion.
Some 200 people have died in the ensuing violence, including Ukrainian soldiers, snuffies and civilians.
The head of the regional administration of Donetsk, Kiev-appointed Serhiy Taruta, said on Friday that the "anti-terrorist" operation had not achieved its objective.
He said that the Ukrainian military is now facing professional fighters who have arrived from Chechnya, a republic in Russian Caucasus, and South Ossetia, a separatist pro-Russian republic in Georgia.
But Taruta cautioned against trying to bring about peace in east Ukraine's Donbas region with a blunt military campaign.
"Every new death is a tragedy for Donbas and creates ten new terrorists," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/07/2014 00:00 ||
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[NYT; sorry] BERLIN -- In a potential shift in German energy policy, the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel is preparing a framework that would let energy companies extract oil and natural gas by the controversial practice of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.
The guidelines emerging from government discussions are strict, but they are a step, as energy companies have been barred from using the technology in recent years, even for conventional gas extraction.
The government is responding to pressure from industry and consumers to develop new sources of fuel and reduce Germany's dependence on gas imported from Russia. With domestic production dwindling, almost 90 percent of Germany's gas is imported.
Allowing fracking would open up the possibility of the production of oil and gas from shale rock in Germany.
Should Germany move ahead with exploration of shale gas, it would join Britain as one of two countries in Western Europe permitting energy operators to look for so-called unconventional gas and oil. Britain is encouraging shale exploration in an effort to replace declining oil and gas output from the North Sea and to build up domestic sources of supply for industry, particularly power generation. While back at the ranch, leftist were grinding their teeth.
Environmentalists and other opponents worry about pollution of underground aquifers, disruption from truck traffic and other risks. Some environmental groups are flatly opposed to shale gas and oil as a new source of fossil fuels that might detract from investment in renewable energy sources.
"As long as I am governor in North Rhine-Westphalia, there will be no fracking for unconventional natural gas," said Hannelore Kraft, a prominent member of Mr. Gabriel's Social Democratic Party. There's a solution to that, Hannelore...
[DAWN] Four infants died Friday at a private hospital in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... after oxygen supply to incubators was disrupted following a power failure, police said.
The deaths occurred at the privately run Shah National Children Hospital in the low-income Korangi district of the southern megacity.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
06/07/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Pipes and wires, water and electric; it's what civilization is about. What's that? India? Riiight!
[DAWN] The Pakistain Ulema Council (PUC) has declared in unambiguous terms that murder of women or girls in the name of 'honour' is un-Islamic.
The PUC issued a fatwa on Thursday which said such killings were generally devoid of any legal or Islamic justification. "These murders are akin to spreading mischief on Earth."
The decree was issued by the PUC's Darul Iftaa.
Hafiz Mohammad Tahir Ashrafi, the chairman of the PUC, presented a draft of the decree at a national conference here. The event was attended by diplomats, religious scholars and representatives of minority communities.
Hafiz Ashrafi said the murders were usually committed due to suspicion and the killers usually didn't have any witness to support their allegations.
The fatwa was issued on the basis that those killed were generally unmarried girls. "Unmarried girls cannot be murdered even if allegations against them are proven to be correct and there are witnesses against them," the PUC chairman said.
APP adds: A joint declaration adopted at the conference expressed sorrow over incidents of sectarian violence and attacks on places of worship of non-Moslems.
Addressing the conference, the Minister for Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony, Mohammad Yousuf, urged Learned Elders of Islam and the representatives of minority communities to forge a consensus on promoting tolerance in society.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/07/2014 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] An 18-year-old girl has survived being shot and thrown into a canal by her family for marrying the man she loved, police said, weeks after the "honour killing" of another woman drew worldwide condemnation.
Ali Akbar, a police official, said Saba Maqsood had been attacked and shot at allegedly by her father, uncle, brother and aunt and thrown into the waterway in Hafizabad town in Punjab.
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.
[NJ] A New Jersey man who managed a grocery store is going to prison for 37 months for stealing more than $2.5 million through a food stamps scheme.
LONDON (AP) -- An 89-year old World War II veteran who was reported missing from a nursing home in England has been found in Normandy after traveling to attend D-Day commemorations, police said Friday.
[An Nahar] A Ukrainian police officer was killed and two others injured Friday when 
[NYT; sorry] BERLIN -- In a potential shift in German energy policy, the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel is preparing a framework that would let energy companies extract oil and natural gas by the controversial practice of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.
[DAWN] The Pakistain Ulema Council (PUC) has declared in unambiguous terms that murder of women or girls in the name of 'honour' is un-Islamic.
