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| The General News Forum :: Ask us a Question! |
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General News :: This Forum addresses all those issues in the news that are not covered by another Forum category. This is the place to post links to news stories, and participate in discussions around interesting newspaper articles, Internet news or TV reportage. Members are invited to ask questions, and solicit opinions concerning noteworthy stories. Polls may be created to determine the convictions of other members over a particular issue.
So if you have a news item or question that you want to share, and it doesn't seem to be appropriate for any other category in the Forums, you a have found the right place! Ask us a Question!
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| Bush Fails to Win Saudi Help on Gas Prices |
Posted by edgarblythe on May, 16. :: 0 Comments
Bush fails to win Saudi help on gas prices
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia May 16, 2008, 09:10 pm ET · President Bush failed to win the help he sought from Saudi Arabia to relieve skyrocketing American gas prices Friday, a setback for the former Texas oilman who took office predicting he would jawbone oil-producing nations to help the U.S.
(I recall Bush running for pres the first time. He said, "I'd just tell them to turn on the spigot." At least he didn't throw up all over them at the dinner table.) - edgarblythe
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| I mean really!? |
Posted by Paaskynen on May, 16. :: 9 Comments
A seven-year-old boy is taken from his parents, has his stomach pumped and is placed in care, because his dad mistook something called Mike's Hard Lemonade for a soft drink and gave it to him. I can understand the mistake, for I could easily have made the same mistake (Apparently, the professor asked for a lemonade. Is it even written on the label that the above drink icontains alcohol? I have never heard of the brand.). I cannot understand the reasoning of the other people involved.
The story
The bottle:
The sign at the ball park didn't even say "hard" lemonade. The image link didn't work.
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| Woman Indicted in MySpace Suicide Case |
Posted by edgarblythe on May, 15. :: 2 Comments
By LINDA DEUTSCH
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — A federal grand jury today indicted a Missouri woman for her alleged role in perpetrating a hoax on the online social network MySpace against a 13-year-old neighbor who committed suicide.
Lori Drew of suburban St. Louis allegedly helped create a false-identity MySpace account to contact Megan Meier, who thought she was chatting with a 16-year-old boy named Josh Evans. Josh didn't exist.
Megan hanged herself at home in October 2006 after receiving cruel messages, including one stating the world would be better off without her.
Salvador Hernandez, assistant agent in charge of the Los Angeles FBI office, called the case heart-rending.
"The Internet is a world unto itself. People must know how far they can go before they must stop. They exploited a young girl's weaknesses," Hernandez said. "Whether the defendant could have foreseen the results, she's responsible for her actions."
Drew was charged with one count of conspiracy and three counts of accessing protected computers without authorization to get information used to inflict emotional distress on the girl.
Drew has denied creating the account or sending messages to Megan.
U.S. Attorney Thomas P. O'Brien said this was the first time the federal statute on accessing protected computers has been used in a social-networking case. It has been used in the past to address hacking.
"This was a tragedy that did not have to happen," O'Brien said.
Both the girl and MySpace are named as victims in the case, he said.
MySpace is a subsidiary of Beverly Hills-based Fox Interactive Media Inc., which is owned by News Corp. The indictment noted that MySpace computer servers are located in Los Angeles County.
Due to juvenile privacy rules, the U.S. attorney's office said, the indictment refers to the girl as M.T.M.
FBI agents in St. Louis and Los Angeles investigated the case, Hernandez said.
Each of the four counts carries a maximum possible penalty of five years in prison.
Drew will be arraigned in St. Louis and then moved to Los Angeles for trial.
The indictment says MySpace members agree to abide by terms of service that include, among other things, not promoting information they know to be false or misleading; soliciting personal information from anyone under age 18 and not using information gathered from the Web site to "harass, abuse or harm other people."
Drew and others who were not named conspired to violate the service terms from about September 2006 to mid-October that year, according to the indictment. It alleges they registered as a MySpace member under a phony name and used the account to obtain information on the girl.
Drew and her coconspirators "used the information obtained over the MySpace computer system to torment, harass, humiliate, and embarrass the juvenile MySpace member," the indictment charged.
After the girl killed herself, Drew and the others deleted the information for the account, the indictment said.
Last month, an employee of Drew, 19-year-old Ashley Grills, told ABC's "Good Morning America" she created the false MySpace profile but Drew wrote some of the messages to Megan.
Grills said Drew suggested talking to Megan via the Internet to find out what Megan was saying about Drew's daughter, who was a former friend.
Grills also said she wrote the message to Megan about the world being a better place without her. The message was supposed to end the online relationship with "Josh" because Grills felt the joke had gone too far.
"I was trying to get her angry so she would leave him alone and I could get rid of the whole MySpace," Grills told the morning show.
Megan's death was investigated by Missouri authorities, but no state charges were filed because no laws appeared to apply to the case.
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| Caterer confronted intruder with gun, and faces charges |
Posted by Linkat on May, 15. :: 11 Comments
When David Crest heard noise in his dark kitchen area, he suspected he was being burglarized again, and crept toward the noise. He grabbed the Mossberg 500 12-gauge shotgun he had kept by his side.
"Freeze," he screamed. Crest believed he had finally caught the culprit who had taken thousands of dollars in meats, alcohol, and equipment from the shop. But when he flicked on the lights, still aiming his shotgun, and saw the intruder, he felt betrayed like never before: It was, his head chef.
I am not a vigilante type, but being charged because you pull out a gun when some one tries to rob you is a bit much. Shouldn’t you be able to defend your property?
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2008/05/15/was_it_self_defense_or_firearms_offense/
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| Florida Teacher Fired for "Wizardry" |
Posted by Phoenix32890 on May, 15. :: 9 Comments
I thought that I had heard it all about the stupidity that floats about in the Sunshine State. But this one takes the cake. Apparently, a middle school substitute teacher performed a magic trick involving a disappearing toothpick.
One kid told his parents, who took umbrage at their little darling being exposed to the dark arts. Next thing, the teacher was fired, for "wizardry".
I had better hide my broom, before someone accuses me of being a
witch! 
| Quote: |
The telephone call that spelled the end of Jim Piculas’ career as a substitute teacher in Pasco County came on a January day about a week after he performed the disappearing-toothpick trick for a group of rapt middle school students.
Pat Sinclair, who oversees substitute teachers in the Pasco County School District, was on the phone. She told Piculas there had been a complaint about his performance at Rushe Middle School in Land O’ Lakes.
He asked what she meant. “She said, ‘You’ve been accused of wizardry,’” Piculas said. |
http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15503.html
I think that A2K chould start a Forum, "Florida Stupidities". I think that I could fill that forum all by myself.
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