I guess they don't believe in freedom of speach in Kenya.

Kenya deports US author of anti-Obama book

TOM ODULA and ELIZABETH A. KENNEDY

Originally published 02:15 p.m., October 7, 2008, updated 01:58 p.m., October 7, 2008

NAIROBI, KENYA (AP) - The American author of a controversial book accusing Barack Obama of seething with "black rage" and of being unfit for the U.S. presidency was kicked out of Kenya on Tuesday.

The deportation of Jerome Corsi came just hours before he was to launch his book in a country where the U.S. Democratic candidate for president is wildly popular.

Corsi, who wrote "The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality," was detained at immigration headquarters in Nairobi for not having a work permit before being ordered to leave Kenya, said Joseph Mumira, head of criminal investigations at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.

Corsi was scheduled to leave on an evening flight to London, Mumira said. Airport officials would not allow journalists access to Corsi at the airport and a message left on his mobile phone was not returned.

A spokesman for Obama said the campaign had no comment on the deportation.

Obama's Kenyan uncle, Said Obama, said he was unaware of Corsi's detention and had no comment. A government spokesman did not return calls for comment.

In the past, the Obama campaign has called Corsi a bigot peddling rehashed lies to hurt Obama in the U.S. presidential race against Republican Sen. John McCain. The best-selling book, released earlier in the United States, collects false rumors and distortions to portray Obama as a secret radical who cannot be trusted.

Obama's late father, whom he barely knew, was a Kenyan economist and the candidate is considered by many here as a "son of the soil." Obama's last trip to Kenya, in 2006, drew thousands of Kenyans who thronged every stop of his tour.

Ahead of the Nov. 4 election in the U.S., minibuses here are emblazoned with Obama's picture and vendors sell T-shirts bearing his image.

But Obama was born in Hawaii, where he spent most of his childhood raised by his mother, a white American from Kansas.

Corsi's book claims the Illinois senator is a dangerous, radical candidate for president and includes innuendoes and false rumors _ that he was raised a Muslim and attended a radical black church.

Obama is a Christian who attended Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, and his campaign picks apart the book's claims on the Web site FightTheSmears.com.

The campaign's rebuttal is titled "Unfit For Publication," a play on the book Corsi co-authored against 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry's military service called "Unfit For Command."

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9 Percent of Frederick Detainees Are Suspected Illegal Immigrants

POSTED: 11:52 am EDT October 7, 2008
UPDATED: 12:26 pm EDT October 7, 2008


FREDERICK, Md. -- Suspected illegal immigrants accounted for almost one in every 10 people detained by authorities in Frederick County in the past six months, the Frederick News-Post reported.

The statistics indicate the success of his agency's partnership with federal officials to enforce immigration policies, Sheriff Chuck Jenkins said.

Frederick County is the only Maryland jurisdiction participating in a program which trains local officers to check the immigration status of those they arrest. The county joined the program in February.

Nine percent of those processed at the county jail during the six months ending Sept. 26 were suspected of being illegal immigrants, Jenkins said. Fifty-one percent were arrested by Frederick police, mostly in downtown Frederick or along the section of U.S. Route 40 known as the Golden Mile, Jenkins said.

AP

Stocks, oil, gold tank on growing recession fears

Friday October 24, 11:09 am ET

By Patrick Rizzo and Ellen Simon, Associated Press Writers

Stock market rout spreads around the world as recession worries turn to dismay


NEW YORK (AP) -- Stock markets around the world plummeted Friday and oil prices plunged to their lowest in more than a year. Even gold, the traditional safe haven in times of panic, fell sharply.

The common denominator was growing fears that governments, central banks and finance ministers seem powerless to stop the deepening of a global recession that will slam corporate earnings and lead to deep job losses around the world.

The Dow Jones industrial average dropped more than 330 points in morning trading. Before the open of New York trading, Dow futures had dropped 550 points, triggering a temporary trading halt in stock futures contracts in an effort to slow the decline. If the Dow drops 1,100 points before 2 p.m. the New York Stock Exchange would be forced to use "circuit breakers" that could lead to temporarily shutting the market, something it hasn't done since 1997.

"This is beyond volatile: It is chaotic," Carl Weinberg, chief economist at High Frequency Economics wrote in note to clients. "This is the kind of day when the central banks step into the market with an 'unexpected' interest rate move to calm things down."

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is monitoring the markets and staying in close touch with market participants, a spokeswoman said.

Oil fell sharply and traded near $63 a barrel amid weakening global demand for crude -- despite a decision by the OPEC cartel to cut production quotas by 1.5 million barrels a day from next month.

The dollar plunged below 93 yen, a 13-year low. Gold fell as low as $681 an ounce, its lowest since January last year.

It was already a black Friday overseas. Japan's Nikkei stock average dropped 9.6 percent. Germany's benchmark DAX index plunged as much as 10.8 percent, France's CAC40 slid 10 percent and Britain's FTSE 100 shed 8.7 percent.

"We are getting used to wild swings in the markets, but today's moves verge on the bizarre," said Julian Jessop, chief international economist at Capital Economics.

The only good news was the 5.5 percent increase in September existing home sales. Median home prices, however, dropped to $191,600, down 9 percent from a year ago.

The U.K.'s third quarter gross domestic product fell 0.5 percent, with the steepest decrease in 18 years putting the country on the brink of recession. Shares of Japan's Sony sank more than 14 percent when it slashed its earnings forecast for the fiscal year. In Germany, Daimler's stock dropped 11.4 percent in morning trading; it reported lower third-quarter earnings and abandoned its 2008 profit and revenue guidance.

Emerging market economies and currencies are coming under extreme pressure. Investors are pulling money out of countries in Eastern Europe, Latin America and Asia on fears vulnerable countries will not only be hit hard by the financial crisis but may also default on debt.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index fell 8.3 percent and markets in India, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines were also down sharply.

Brazilian stocks slumped for the fourth straight day, with the Ibovespa index down 3.9 percent in midday trading. Mexico's benchmark index was down 6 percent.

"Periods of panic punctuated by occasional calm appears to be the manner of things for now," said Daragh Maher, a strategist at Calyon Corporate and Investment Bank in London.

Investors around the world seemingly have become more convinced the global economy is on the brink of a long and painful recession, if it's not already in one.

Over the past few weeks, governments have taken unprecedented steps to thaw frozen credit markets and avert the downturn. But while there are signs that credit markets are beginning to thaw -- rates banks charge each other for short-term loans have been falling in recent days -- the outlook from companies reporting earnings are almost universally cautious about their prospects going forward.

That means companies will be reluctant to buy new equipment or hire new workers. U.S. unemployment claims, already well into recession territory, are rising even faster than expected. Economists warn the worst is yet to come.

On Thursday, the government said new applications for unemployment insurance rose 15,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 478,000, above analysts' estimates of 470,000. Jobless claims above 400,000 are considered a sign of recession.

Goldman Sachs, Chrysler and Xerox all announced they were cutting workers by the thousands, adding to the woes of an economy beset by tighter credit and wobbly banks. Chrysler said it would cut about 5,000 salaried workers, one quarter of the company's 18,500-person white collar work force.

PNC Financial Services said it is acquiring National City bank for $5.8 billion and planned to receive $7.7 billion in capital from the federal government as part of its $700 billion financial rescue plan.

The White House, in unusually stark language, acknowledged Thursday the economy is going through what spokeswoman Dana Perino called a "rough ride."

"We expect our GDP (gross domestic product) number next week not to be a good one and the next quarter to be tough as well," Perino said.

The Commerce Department will release its first estimate of third-quarter economic performance Oct. 30, and Wall Street analysts project it will show the economy contracted by 0.5 percent, according to Thomson/IFR.

Many economists expect the decline to continue into the current quarter and the first three months of 2009, if not longer. The classic definition of a recession is at least two consecutive quarters of negative growth.

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, testifying before a House committee, said he could not see "how we can avoid a significant rise in layoffs and unemployment."

The apparently universal gloomy outlook was feeding the selling.

The Standard & Poor's 500 was down 33.29, or 3.6 percent, to 874.82. Sam Stovall, S&P's chief investment strategist, put a 700 target on the index, saying S&P's equity analysts expect operating results for the 500 large companies to decline 10 percent in 2008.

Associated Press writers Stevenson Jacobs in New York, Louis Watt and Carlo Piovano in London and Martin Crutsinger, Christopher S. Rugaber and Marcy Gordon in Washington contributed to this report.

Source

When will this end?

WASHINGTON – Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens was convicted of seven corruption charges Monday in a trial that threatened to end the 40-year career of Alaska's political patriarch in disgrace.

The verdict, coming barely a week before Election Day, increased Stevens' difficulty in winning what already was a difficult race against Democratic challenger Mark Begich. Democrats hope to seize the once reliably Republican seat as part of their bid for a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate.

Stevens, 84, was convicted of all the felony charges he faced of lying about free home renovations and other gifts from a wealthy oil contractor. Jurors began deliberating last week.

The senator showed no emotion as the jury foreman said "guilty" seven times. After the verdicts, Stevens sat in his chair and stared at the ceiling as attorney Brendan Sullivan put his arm around him.

Stevens faces up to five years in prison on each count when he is sentenced, but under federal guidelines he is likely to receive much less prison time, if any. The judge originally scheduled sentencing for Jan. 26 but then changed his mind and did not immediately set a date.

The monthlong trial revealed that employees for VECO Corp., an oil services company, transformed Stevens' modest mountain cabin into a modern, two-story home with wraparound porches, a sauna and a wine cellar.

The Senate's longest-serving Republican, Stevens said he had no idea he was getting freebies. He said he paid $160,000 for the project and believed that covered everything.

He had asked for an unusually speedy trial, hoping he'd be exonerated in time to return to Alaska and win re-election. He kept his campaign going and gave no indication that he had a contingency plan in case of conviction.

Despite being a convicted felon, he is not required to drop out of the race or resign from the Senate. If he wins re-election, he can continue to hold his seat because there is no rule barring felons from serving in Congress. The Senate could vote to expel him on a two-thirds vote.

"Put this down: That will never happen "” ever, OK?" Stevens said in the weeks leading up to his trial. "I am not stepping down. I'm going to run through, and I'm going to win this election."

Democrats have invested heavily in the race, running television advertisements starring fictional FBI agents and featuring excerpts from wiretaps.

Stevens' conviction hinged on the testimony of Bill Allen, the senator's longtime drinking and fishing buddy. Allen, the founder of VECO, testified that he never billed his friend for the work on the house and that Stevens knew he was getting a special deal.

Stevens spent three days on the witness stand, vehemently denying that allegation. He said his wife, Catherine, paid every bill they received.

Living in Washington, thousands of miles away, made it impossible to monitor the project every day, he said. Stevens relied on Allen to oversee the renovations, he said, and his friend deceived him by not forwarding all the bills.

Stevens is a legendary figure in Alaska, where he has wielded political influence since before statehood. His knack for steering billions of dollars in federal money to his home state has drawn praise from his constituents and consternation from budget hawks.

There was no immediate word on Stevens' campaign plans. His spokesman, Aaron Saunders, did not immediately return a message seeking comment on whether Stevens would stay in the race.

In Alaska, the Democratic Party issued a statement calling for Stevens to resign immediately. "He knew what he was doing was wrong," the party said. "But he did it anyway and lied to Alaskans about it."

Stevens is the fifth senator convicted of criminal charges. The last previous one was Republican David Durenberger of Minnesota, who was indicted in 1993 on charges of conspiring to make fraudulent claims for Senate reimbursement of $3,825 in lodging expenses. He later pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges and was sentenced to one year of probation and a $1,000 fine.

The jurors left the court without comment.

Said U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan: "The jurors have unanimously told me that no one has any desire to speak to any member of the media. They have asked to go home and they are en route home."

The jurors had been shuttled to and from the proceedings each day by court officials.

UnFbelievable! WHY is an 8 year old firing live weapons at a gun show???? I bet the parents wished they never had gone to that show now.

Boy, 8, accidentally kills self at gun show
Child was firing an Uzi submachine gun under adult supervision at fair

WESTFIELD, Mass. - An 8-year-old boy died after accidentally shooting himself in the head while firing an Uzi submachine gun under adult supervision at a gun fair.

The boy lost control of the weapon while firing it Sunday at the Machine Gun Shoot and Firearms Expo at the Westfield Sportsman's Club, police Lt. Lawrence Vallierpratte said.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27399337/

BBC news 22.00 ET

Strong earthquake hits Pakistan

A earthquake of magnitude 6.2 has hit Balochistan province in south-western Pakistan, with at least 31 people reported dead.

It struck 70km (45 miles) north of Quetta at 0409 local time (2309GMT Tuesday) at a depth of 10km, the US Geological Survey said.

Dilawar Khan, mayor of the town of Ziarat, said two areas in his district had been "badly hit".

Deaths have also been reported in Pishin district.

Local officials quoted by Reuters news agency said that 40 people had received treatment for minor injuries, mostly caused when mud walls collapsed or in the ensuing panic.

Mr Khan said that 14 people had been killed in one area of Ziarat, and 11 in another, with five deaths reported in Pishin.

"There were two tremors, the second one was serious and people rushed out of their houses," said Amjad Hussain, a resident of Quetta.

Quetta itself suffered almost complete destruction with the dead of about 30,000 in an earthquake in 1935.

Source

Damascus, 30 Oct. (AKI) - Thousands of people took to the streets of the Syrian capital, Damascus, on Thursday to protest against an alleged air raid by the US on a village near the Iraqi border at the weekend. Riot police were deployed near the US Embassy as students, unions, religious and civic leaders protested, Syria's state news agency SANA said.

The US Embassy closed the embassy until further notice because of the strong reaction to the raid that killed eight people on Sunday.

A top Syrian militant, Budran Hisham also known as Abu Ghadiya died in the alleged US raid on a village near the Iraqi border that killed at least eight people.

US officials said he was a suspected Al-Qaeda leader responsible for a series of attacks and murders in Iraq, including the killings of 12 Iraqi policemen in May.

However, SANA reported on Thursday that the alleged raid claimed the lives of "eight defenceless civilians....which targeted peaceful building workers in a farm in Abu Kamal."

"The protesters called on the international community to put an end to this reckless American arrogance, appealing to the active, peace-loving forces and the international organisations to condemn this act of terrorism and take needed procedures to put on trial the aggressors who show disregard to the international laws, norms and charters," said SANA.

Syria's Foreign Minister, Walid Muallem, on Monday accused the United States of "criminal terrorist aggression" in Sunday's alleged air strike, and said it had breached international law.

Because of the strike Syria has ordered the closure of an American school by 6 November and an American cultural centre immediately.

The White House has neither confirmed nor denied Sunday's incident.

Rome, 30 Oct. (AKI) - There are now four million legal immigrants living in Italy - twice the number recorded in 2000 - and immigration is becoming a "structural" phenomenon, according to a new report by two Catholic charities. The report was presented in Rome on Thursday by Catholic charities Caritas and Fondazione Migrantes.

Italy's immigrant population is growing at an annual rate of at least 350,000 people a year, and is playing an indispensable role in the Italian economy. But speakers at the conference said the country needs to do far more to welcome and integrate immigrants.

Piergiorgio Saviola from the Fondazione Migrantes drew parallels between current immigration to Italy and the mass emigration of Italians especially after World War II, when over 300,000 people annually left the country to escape poverty and encountered "contempt and humiliation" in their adopted countries.

"We should draw on our 150-year-long experience of being immigrants and respect foreigners," said Saviola.

Franco Pitau, who co-ordinated the 2008 report, said that the current rate of immigration was "becoming structural".

Over half of legal immigrants - or 56 percent - live in the industrial northern regions of Lombardy, Veneto, Piemonte and Emiglia Romagna, 12.1 percent in the central Lazio region surrounding the capital, Rome, and 8 percent in Tuscany, according to the report.

"Immigration is a national matter of fact, affecting the wealthy Lombardy region and the poor region of Sardinia," Pittau noted, adding that Romanians form the largest immigrant group (close to 900,000), followed by Albanians (436,300) and Morocco (398,500).

Many legal immigrants are working as domestic assistants, in the building sectors, in factories and in agriculture. But increasing numbers are working in the transport sector, in bars, hotels and offices in "a sign of the need for immigrant manpower," noted Pittau.

Immigrants have a much higher rate of employment (73 percent) than Italians (61 percent), and contribute 9 percent of Italy's gross domestic product. Contrary to popular misconceptions, immigrants pay their way, contributing in 2007 over 3.7 billion euros in taxes, said Pittau.

"Immigrants are contributing to Italians' pensions and Italy's future is unthinkable without them," said Pittau.

Italy's national statistics institute, ISTAT, has forecast that by 2050, immigrants will make up 18 percent of Italy's population, compared with 6.7 percent currently and there will be 22 million pensioners.

"Yet in Italy, there is so much fear of foreigners, something unjustified when you think how immigrants are contributing to the country's wealth," he said.

Instead of branding immigrants as responsible for rising crime in Italy, individual criminals and the criminal organisations operating in the country need to be identified, he argued.

From 2001-2005, the proportion of crimes committed by immigrants (both legal and illegal) rose from 17.4 percent to 23.7 percent, while the number of legal immigrants in Italy increased from 1.33 million to 2.6 million, according to the report.

Giuseppe Merisi, Bishop of Lodi and President of Caritas Italiana praised the rigourous gathering of statistics on immigration "as a safeguard against factiousness".

"We should not deny the risks to security, but nor should we exaggerate these," he said. "Italy can do more to welcome and integrate immigrants."

Pittau called for concrete measures to aid immigrants, including the streamlining of visas and permits of stay application procedures, as well as those enabling immigrants to bring members of their families to join them in Italy

Despite the global economic downturn affecting Italy and other countries, Italy's integration fund is a mere 5.1 million euros, compared with 300 million euros in Spain and 750 million euros in Germany, Pittau noted.

Integration has reached its best level so far in Italy, said Labour Minister, Maurizio Sacconi. But he warned that economic recession could place under severe strain the country's "multi-ethnic society" and generate "a growing risk of intolerance" towards immigrants.

While the government will endeavour to bolster economic output and growth, Italy could see long-term unemployment that may jeopardise work prospects for immigrants and affect "the most vulnerable groups", he said.

"Italy needs realistic, more effective immigration policies that involve training and selection in countries of origin and transparent immigration channels," he said.

Sacconi said that he would take into account the worsening economic outlook when deciding how many immigrants to admit to Italy for the period 2007-2009.

Over 700,000 applications were made in 2007, he noted. "We cannot waste scarce resources, and must concentrate these on the acquisition of the Italian language, on housing and on regular employment," he concluded

2007
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Digg Facebook Newsvine del.icio.us Reddit StumbleUpon Technorati Yahoo! Bookmarks Print By JIM ABRAMS, Associated Press Writer Jim Abrams, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 12 mins ago
Featured Topics: John McCain Barack Obama WASHINGTON – The government sent out more than $1 billion in fraudulent refunds last year and offered this explanation Thursday for the bad checks in the mail: The Internal Revenue Service has too few resources to pursue every tax fraud case.

IRS investigators never even looked at an estimated $742 million in fraudulent refunds, according to a report by the Treasury Department office that monitors the agency. When they did identify an additional $264 million in bad refunds, it was too late to stop them from being issued.

The report noted that the IRS must divide its limited resources among numerous areas of compliance. "However, this is a significant revenue loss to the federal government and that must be addressed," said J. Russell George, the Treasury's inspector general for tax administration.

The number of improper refunds filed appears to be growing rapidly, the report said. "The problem is becoming unmanageable, and the IRS cannot afford to continue handling it in the same manner as in the past," according to the report. It urged the tax agency to make the refund screening program "” known as the Questionable Refund Program "” a priority.

The IRS has estimated that the tax gap "” the difference between taxes owed and taxes actually paid "” at about $290 billion a year. Of that, about 57 percent comes from individuals understating incomes or overstating deductions and exemptions.

IRS spokesman Terry Lemons said the agency has made significant improvements over the past two years. "We stop the vast majority of fraudulent refunds and we prosecute people who try to cheat the system," Lemons said.

George's report recommended the IRS divert resources to go after such fraud cases. But Lemons said that could hurt other operations and mean fewer dollars from enforcement activities.

Lemons said the agency issued more than $470 billion in refunds in 2006 and 2007.

The report said the IRS fraud detection centers stopped more than $1.2 billion in fraudulent refunds in 2007, compared with $412 million in 2005, the last year the detection system fully functioned.

Because the system picks up only those refunds with higher dollar values, about 500,000 potentially fraudulent refunds did not enter the centers' screening process. Had those refunds been included, the centers would have identified an additional $742 million in fraud, the report estimated.

In 2006, because of a technical problem in the fraud detection system, the IRS succeeded in identifying and stopping only $189 million in fraudulent refunds while paying out an estimated $894 million, the report said.

The Treasury's inspector general, in a separate report Thursday, lauded the IRS for what it said was a "generally successful" 2008 filing season during which returns and refunds were processed in a timely fashion.

This report said the IRS did a good job in overcoming several obstacles, including changes involving the alternative minimum tax. The agency was also responsible for sending out checks to more than 130 million people as part of the economic aid plan signed into law in February.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/ptech/10/31/sony.laptop.recall.ap/index.html

updated 9:27 a.m. EDT, Fri October 31, 2008

Companies recall 100,000 laptop battery packs made by Sony Story Highlights

U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission reported 40 overheating incidents

Voluntary recall applies to certain Sony 2.15Ah lithium-ion cell batteries

Company says no reports filed for batteries made after 2006


SEATTLE, Washington (AP) -- Computer makers are recalling 100,000 laptop battery packs made by Sony Corp. after 40 reports of overheating, according to a U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission notice Thursday.

Sony also recalled nearly 10 million of a different model of battery in 2006 and 2007.

The voluntary recall applies to certain Sony 2.15Ah lithium-ion cell batteries made in Japan and sold around the world in laptops made by Hewlett-Packard Co., Dell Inc. and Toshiba Corp.

Some incidents involved smoke or flames, according to Sony. Twenty-one of the reports claimed minor property damage, and small burns were reported in four cases.

Sony blamed two factors for the defects: adjustments on its manufacturing line from October 2004 to June 2005, which may have affected the quality of cells in certain production lots; and a possible flaw in the metal foil for electrodes.

The company said no reports have been filed for batteries made after 2006, and noted that the recalled units are a small fraction of the more than 260 million it has shipped over six years.

This also pales in comparison to the recall of nearly 10 million of a different model of Sony batteries in 2006 and 2007, which affected almost every major PC manufacturer, including Dell Inc. and Apple Inc.

In this batch of problematic laptops, the bulk of the 35,000 affected computers in the U.S. were sold by HP between December 2004 and June 2006, according to the safety commission, including HP Pavilion, HP Compaq and Compaq Presario models.

Some Dell Latitude and Inspiron models shipped between November 2004 and November 2005 are also covered by the recall, as well as some Toshiba Satellite and Tecra laptops sold from April 2005 to October 2005.

An additional 65,000 of the flawed batteries were sold outside the U.S. The PCs and separate batteries were sold directly by the computer manufacturers, electronics stores and online retailers worldwide, not by Sony.

Sony said its own Vaio laptops don't use the battery in question. Last month, however, the company recalled 440,000 Vaio notebooks worldwide because of a wiring flaw that can cause overheating.

The safety commission said PC users should remove laptop batteries immediately and contact the manufacturer to request a replacement. Details, including laptop model numbers and contact information for Dell, HP and Toshiba, have been posted on the commission's Web site.

Shares of Sony rose $1.52, or 7.2 percent, to close at $22.65 Thursday amid broader market gains.

Looks like ICE/USCIS are begining to go after USCs involved in the illegal immigrant workplace:

Former manager of largest U.S. kosher plant arrested

(CNN) -- The former manager of the largest U.S. kosher meatpacking plant was arrested Thursday on federal conspiracy charges of harboring illegal immigrants and aiding and abetting aggravated identity theft, federal officials said.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/10/30/kosher.plant.arrest/index.html

quote:

Originally posted by Brit4064:
Looks like ICE/USCIS are begining to go after USCs involved in the illegal immigrant workplace:

Former manager of largest U.S. kosher plant arrested

(CNN) -- The former manager of the largest U.S. kosher meatpacking plant was arrested Thursday on federal conspiracy charges of harboring illegal immigrants and aiding and abetting aggravated identity theft, federal officials said.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/10/30/kosher.plant.arrest/index.html

300 illegal workers.. Shameful
Hmmm.. Looks like they had no choice. Seems as though he over did it with using child labor under 16.

Send the message uscis.

Phillies won World Series, but loose respect in on air rhetoric. A thump on the head to this guy. He knew he was not in a bar, children were listening. Note... not one seems to be appalled


listen and view here

Utley had TV, radio cursing
By Gail Shister



It was hardly on the scale of a wardrobe malfunction, but Chase Utley's dropping of the F-bomb on live TV and radio yesterday caused a stir among some Philadelphians.
After proclaiming "World champions!" at the Phillies' celebration at Citizens Bank Park, the smiling second baseman leaned into the microphone and inserted a familiar two-syllable profanity between "world" and "champions."

The crowd loved it, erupting into cheers for several minutes. Local TV and radio stations covering the event live, however, were less amused.

Utley's utterance was heard on all of them, and the Federal Communications Commission doesn't take kindly to cursing.

Anchors from NBC10, 6ABC and Fox29 issued on-air apologies almost immediately. CBS3's came later. Despite having used a tape delay of several seconds, the word made it onto their air.

"The technician hit the button, but missed by a hair," a station spokeswoman said. "We apologize to our viewers that this aired despite our precautions." Sister station KYW Newsradio also apologized to its listeners.

Afterward, Utley said he hadn't planned to let loose with the profanity. "I was told I had to talk 10 minutes before I talked. Short and to the point."

Fans at Citizens Bank Park generally were unfazed.

"They hear worse stuff in school," said Ivette Centeno, 44, of Northeast Philadelphia, there with her two children and two grandchildren. "As a parent, we can explain that it was just excitement, and that we don't want them to say that."

Malik Muhammad, 29, of West Philadelphia, there with his daughter, Tia, 6, and Tia's mother, Tamika Taylor, 28, called the remark "surprising, but I can't say it disturbed us."

"It's understandable. It's an emotional time for him and for the city. We cheered him. We understood. . . . That's how much love we have for this team."

Perhaps the day's best line came from Steve Reinhardt, 17, an 11th grader from Atco, Camden County, at Citizens Bank Park with his brother, Dane, 12, and their father, Ray, 44, a printer.

"I thought it was awesome," Steve Reinhardt said. "It got the loudest applause of the day."

Just tell me, outside of the military, why does anybody NEED an AK-47 assault gun?? I think he got him with the first shot!

Trick-or-treat boy killed in US

A man who feared he was being robbed has shot dead a 12-year-old boy out trick-or-treating with his family in South Carolina, police say.

TJ Darrisaw died in hospital on Friday night having been hit several times as he stood with his brothers and father outside a house in Sumter.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7703990.stm

Intending Illegals lost at sea en route to Puerto Rico ate dead comrads to survive



[URL=http://www.breitbart.tv/?p=215253][/URL]

Cash found in Ohio house's walls becomes nightmare
By JOE MILICIA, Associated Press Writer Joe Milicia,

Associated Press Writer – Sat Nov 8, 2:55 pm ET

CLEVELAND – A contractor who found $182,000 in Depression-era currency hidden in a bathroom wall has ended up with only a few thousand dollars, but he feels some vindication.

The windfall discovery amounted to little more than grief for contractor Bob Kitts, who couldn't agree on how to split the money with homeowner Amanda Reece.

It didn't help Reece much, either. She testified in a deposition that she was considering bankruptcy and that a bank recently foreclosed on one of her properties.

And 21 descendants of Patrick Dunne "” the wealthy businessman who stashed the money that was minted in a time of bank collapses and joblessness "” will each get a mere fraction of the find.

"If these two individuals had sat down and resolved their disputes and divided the money, the heirs would have had no knowledge of it," said attorney Gid Marcinkevicius, who represents the Dunne estate. "Because they were not able to sit down and divide it in a rational way, they both lost."

Kitts was tearing the bathroom walls out of an 83-year-old home near Lake Erie in 2006 when he discovered two green metal lockboxes suspended inside a wall below the medicine chest, hanging from a wire. Inside were white envelopes with the return address for "P. Dunne News Agency."

"I ripped the corner off of one," Kitts said during a deposition in a lawsuit filed by Dunne's estate. "I saw a 50 and got a little dizzy."

He called Reece, a former high school classmate who had hired him for a remodeling project.

They counted the cash and posed for photographs, both grinning like lottery jackpot winners.

But how to share? She offered 10 percent. He wanted 40 percent. From there things went sour.

A month after The Plain Dealer reported on the case in December 2007, Dunne's estate got involved, suing for the right to the money.

By then there was little left to claim.

Reece testified in a deposition that she spent about $14,000 on a trip to Hawaii and had sold some of the rare late 1920s bills. She said about $60,000 was stolen from a shoe box in her closet but testified that she never reported the theft to police.

Kitts said Reece accused him of stealing the money and began leaving him threatening phone messages. Marcinkevicius doesn't believe the money was stolen but said he couldn't prove otherwise.

Reece's phone number has been disconnected, and her attorney Robert L***aro did not return a call seeking comment. There were no court records showing that Reece had filed for bankruptcy.

Kitts said he lost a lot of business because media reports on the case portrayed him as greedy, but he feels vindicated by the court's decision to give him a share.

"I was not the bad guy that everybody made me out to be," Kitts said. "I didn't do anything wrong."

He's often asked why he didn't keep his mouth shut and pocket the money. He says he wasn't raised that way.

"It was a neat experience, something that won't happen again," Kitts said. "In that regard, it was pretty fascinating; seeing that amount of money in front of you was breathtaking. In that regard, I don't regret it.

"The threats and all "” that's the part that makes you wish it never happened."

Unusual article Mike, enjoyed it. With the Plain Dealer newspaper mentioned it brought back memories of my Cleveland days.

thank you explora, and btw how are you? how is everything? long time no c

Your welcome, I really enjoyed that one. I'm going good and glad to see you're still around. I read your President's thread. Interesting!