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Vieques Residents Sue U.S., Saying Military Made Them Sick
Abbie Boudreau and Scott Bronstein write on CNN.com:
Vieques, Puerto Rico (CNN) — Nearly 40 years ago, Hermogenes Marrero was a teenage U.S. Marine, stationed as a security guard on the tiny American island of Vieques, off the coast of Puerto Rico.
Marrero says he’s been sick ever since. At age 57, the former Marine sergeant is nearly blind, needs an oxygen tank, has Lou Gehrig’s disease and crippling back problems, and sometimes needs a wheelchair.
“I’d go out to the firing range, and sometimes I’d start bleeding automatically from my nose,” he said in an interview to air on Monday night’s “Campbell Brown.”
“I said, ‘My God, why am I bleeding?’ So then I’d leave the range, and it stops. I come back, and maybe I’m vomiting now. I used to get diarrhea,…
Mom Defends Soldier Accused of Having Child Porn
Via Chicago Breaking News Center:
An Illinois National Guard soldier in Afghanistan has been charged by the U.S. Army with possessing child pornography over pictures of a young relative his mother says she sent him.
Terri Miller of Galesburg says she sent her son, Specialist Billy Miller, pictures of the little girl to help him get over his homesickness.
The pictures show the child in a swimsuit playing a wading pool and sitting on a truck. In one, the girl is wearing a swim suit and part of her buttocks are exposed.
The Army says Miller will stay in Afghanistan until his court martial. His unit came home last August. Miller faces jail time, if convicted.
Terri Miller says the pictures are innocent.
For $65, Tourists Get Peek at Los Angeles Gangland
SFGate reports:
Only miles from the scenic vistas and celebrity mansions that draw sightseers from around the globe — but a world away from the glitz and glamour — a bus tour is rolling through the dark side of the city’s gang turf.
Passengers paying $65 a head Saturday signed waivers acknowledging they could be crime victims and put their fate in the hands of tattooed ex-gang members who say they have negotiated a cease-fire among rivals in the most violent gangland in America.
Catholic Group Supports Senate on Abortion Aid
DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK writes on the New York Times:
In an apparent split with Roman Catholic bishops over the abortion-financing provisions of the proposed health care overhaul, the nation’s Catholic hospitals have signaled that they back the Senate’s compromise on the issue, raising hopes of breaking an impasse in Congress and stirring controversy within the church.
The Senate bill, approved Thursday morning, allows any state to bar the use of federal subsidies for insurance plans that cover abortion and requires insurers in other states to divide subsidy money into separate accounts so that only dollars from private premiums would be used to pay for abortions.
Just days before the bill passed, the Catholic Health Association, which represents hundreds of Catholic hospitals across the country, said in a statement that it was “encouraged” and…
Lawmaker Urges NATO to Consider Arms for Georgia
DESMOND BUTLER writes in the Associated Press:
A senior Republican senator is urging the Obama administration and European allies to consider rearming Georgia, an action that would inevitably upset Russia.
The recommendation comes from Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar, a lawmaker who has long cultivated cooperation with Russia. Lugar has been a key ally for President Barack Obama on his pursuit of an arms control deal with Russia…
Read More on the Associated Press
Wal-Mart Gouging The Troops On Shipping To APO/FPO Addresses
Posted by AWG on Resistnet:
Wal-Mart is charging extra on shipment to APO/FPO addresses… Amazon is not, Target is not so why is Wal-Mart? So as I’ve said for years Wal-Mart only rolls back the prices after they’ve rolled them up. So after they catch a little crap about charging more for shipments to the troops don’t be surprised if they reduce those rates and then pat themselves on the back claiming they care about the troops and they’ve rolled back the shipping prices to prove it…. scumbags…
[continues at Resistnet]
Ohio Has New Method Of Lethal Injection
LUCASVILLE, Ohio — State prison authorities are preparing to use a new method of lethal injection to execute a convicted killer next week.The change will make Ohio the only state in the nation to use the new method.
On Monday, reporters and photographers, including News Center 7, were allowed inside the Death House at Lucasville Correctional Facility, where the death penalty will be carried out. Prison officials readily admitted that Ohio will be the first state to use this lethal injection method for executions. They said it is both humane and effective.
Since the state began using the death penalty again in 1999, officials used a series of three drugs to execute inmates. First, to sedate and then to stop the heart and lungs.
Now, authorities are switching to a new…
Arrests Made in Peruvian Ring That Sold Human Fat
On CNN:
Peruvian authorities say they have arrested four members of a gang that specialized in selling to European labs fat obtained from dead humans.
Officials are investigating the disappearance of at last 60 people they believe were killed by gang members in two mountainous states in central Peru, lead prosecutor Jorge Sanz Quiroz said Friday.
The four suspects have been charged with murder in the September slaying of a Peruvian man, the prosecutor said.
“They killed to obtain human fat because there were European laboratories that would pay them,” Sanz Quiroz said.
The suspects told authorities they were paid $15,000 for a liter (about 1 quart) of human fat.
Read more: CNN
USDA: Number of Americans Going Hungry Increases
By HENRY C. JACKSON, Associated Press via Google News:
More than one in seven American households struggled to put enough food on the table in 2008, the highest rate since the Agriculture Department began tracking food security levels in 1995.
That’s about 49 million people, or 14.6 percent of U.S. households. The numbers are a significant increase from 2007, when 11.1 percent of U.S. households suffered from what USDA classifies as “food insecurity” — not having enough food for an active, healthy lifestyle.
Researchers blamed the increase in hunger on a lack of money and other resources.
Read more: Associated Press via Google News
Obama Secrecy Watch: Don’t Trench on My ‘Executive Prerogatives’
Newsweek reports in its Declassified blog:
As we previously noted, our colleague Weston Kosova gave the Obama administration some much-needed grief on Friday for refusing a federal judge’s recent order to turn over documents showing how big telecommunications firms lobbied to get immunity for their participation in President Bush’s warrantless wiretapping program.
But that is actually only one of many examples of how Obama appointees are standing up for Bush-era secrecy.
In just the last few days, virtually unnoticed by most of the news media, administration officials have:
* Rejected a new Freedom of Information request for White House visitor logs (despite their announced intention to start making such documents public).
* Appealed, yet again, to invoke “state secrets” to block a lawsuit that might shed light on the CIA’s extraordinary rendition of terror suspects to…
Wal-Mart Starts Selling Caskets, Urns Online
USA Today reports:
MILWAUKEE — The world’s largest retailer wants to keep its customers even after they die.
Wal-Mart has started selling caskets on its website at prices that undercut many funeral homes, long the major seller of caskets.
The move follows a similar one by discount rival Costco, which also sells caskets on its site.
Karzai’s Brother Is Said To Be On CIA Payroll
The New York Times reports:
KABUL, Afghanistan – Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of the Afghan president and a suspected player in the country’s booming illegal opium trade, gets regular payments from the Central Intelligence Agency, and has for much of the past eight years, according to current and former American officials.
The agency pays Mr. Karzai for a variety of services, including helping to recruit an Afghan paramilitary force that operates at the C.I.A.’s direction in and around the southern city of Kandahar, Mr. Karzai’s home…
LAPD’s Creepy Orwellian Anti-terrorism Ad (video)
Ever get the feeling you’re being watched?
Check out the Los Angeles Police Department’s creepy new public service announcement for its city-wide anti-terrorism iWatch program. The civilian program was launched earlier this month and is endorsed by 63 police chiefs around the country.
The ad features wide-eyed, blink-free residents reciting Orwellian mantras and looking as if they’re about to crawl out of your television like that girl in “The Ring.”
