Kayla Mueller

In the few years since graduating from university, Kayla Mueller had come a long way from her American home in Arizona. The 26-year-old had moved to a Turkish town on the Syrian border, and was doing everything to help civilians whose lives had been destroyed in the neighbouring country's war.

 

She had a generous and adventurous spirit. Since graduating from Northern Arizona University in 2009 she had backpacked in different parts of the world. She had spent time in Egypt and volunteered in Africa.   

She is a sweet and gentle girl. She laughed easily and was extremely caring for others. The name she chose for her blog, 'imbued with hope' was perfectly fitting to her character.
She began volunteering with every aid agency she could. In the space of a few short months, her enthusiasm and talent had gotten her access to some of the most respected aid agencies, including the Danish Refugee Council.

She was always looking to do more. She was working with a local Turkish NGO to create a community centre in Kilis, a town on the Syrian border home to one of Turkey's biggest refugee camps.

Say a prayer for her. Just a thought. 

BadAss...

Horner [15 years old] is the first person in history to be charged with  ‘swatting‘, a trend in which a person anonymously files a false police report, such as a murder or bomb threat, in hopes of provoking the police to raid an individual’s home or business. Prosecutors in the case proved that Horner called in multiple false threats against rival online gamers, resulting in SWAT team raids of their residence.

Defense lawyers told the courtroom that Horner, who goes by the gamertag BadAssDwg69, was upset after being repeatedly beaten by a fellow gamer at Battlefield 4. After obtaining the rival gamers information, prosecutors say Horner called police and reported a murder/hostage situation at the home. SWAT team then raided the house, shooting and critically injuring the “Livestreamer’s” father in the process.

Horner was charged as an adult. Horner’s guilty charge stems from two counts of domestic terrorism, related to his manipulation of an enforcement response, and injuries to innocents resulting from those actions.  He was sentenced to 25 years to life in federal prison.

Shameless Brian

  

Brian Williams had been telling a story that wasn't true, and the episode evolved over the years, with his personal involvement gradually growing more perilous. In a 2003 was described as "a close call in the skies over Iraq," Mr. Williams said, "the Chinook ahead of us was almost blown out of the sky."

In 2013, He told David Letterman that he had actually been on the helicopter that got shot down, adding that a crew member had been injured and received a medal. "We figured out how to land safely, we landed very quickly and hard. We were stuck, four birds in the desert and we were north out ahead of the other Americans."
On the "Nightly News" recently, he described "a terrible moment a dozen years back during the invasion of Iraq when the helicopter we were traveling in was forced down after being hit by an R.P.G.,"

The current controversy erupted after he spoke about it on air during a tribute to a retired soldier. Some veterans took to Facebook to complain.
A host of military veterans and pundits came forward on television and social media, challenging Mr. Williams's assertion that he had simply made a mistake when he spoke, on several occasions, about having been in a United States military helicopter forced down by enemy fire in Iraq in 2003. 

In fact, some of the soldiers present in Iraq that day had been quietly fuming about Mr. Williams's reporting for years, and had even tried to alert the news media to it earlier. Joe Summerlin, who was on the helicopter that was forced down, said in an interview that he and some of his fellow crew watched Mr. Williams's initial story and were angered by his characterization of the events.
                
Mr. Williams apologized and said that he had been on a different helicopter, behind the one that had sustained fire, and that he had inadvertently "conflated" the two. 
 On CNN's "New Day," Chris Cuomo said that attributing the lie to "the fog of war" wasn't acceptable and the Internet would "eat him alive." Rem Rieder, a USA Today media columnist, wrote, "It's hard to see how Williams gets past this, and how he survives as the face of NBC News."

Those who faked the story and created the Fiction must be immediately removed.    Just a thought

Your money-Pfizer !

Pfizer has agreed to buy Hospira, the top provider of injectable drugs, for $15.2 billion, in a move to expand its global product portfolio.  Pfizer said the acquisition [for $90 a share $65 yesterday] will provide a growing revenue stream for its global established pharmaceutical business.

Hospira is a top provider of sterile injectable drugs, including those used for acute care and cancer treatment infusion technologies and biosimilars.
Pfizer CEO Ian Read said the company's global business "will benefit from a significantly enhanced product portfolio in growing markets."

The boards of both companies have unanimously approved the deal, which must be cleared by regulators and Hospira shareholders. It's expected to close in the second half of 2015.

Earlier, Pfizer abandoned its attempt to buy AstraZeneca for nearly $118 billion as a deadline approached without a last-minute change of heart by the British drugmaker.
The decision ends a month-long public fight between two of the world's biggest pharmaceutical companies that sparked political concerns on both sides of Atlantic over jobs and corporate tax maneuvers.

Pfizer got money, but no medications in Research and Development. So what to do?   All in all, there is no new medications to the market, but will cost you more since US market prices is out of control compared to Canada, England..etc

Just a thought.

Third rail- Fireball !!?

"The gates came down on top of the vehicle, which was stopped on the tracks," Aaron Donovan, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, said in a statement. "The driver got out to look at the rear of the car, then she got back in and drove forward and was struck."

Another driver stopped directly behind the SUV said he started to back up to give the vehicle's driver room but instead she pulled forward.

The fiery scene began to unfold when the Harlem Line train struck the black Mercedes-Benz SUV at the narrow, two-lane Commerce Street crossing, causing an explosion that engulfed both the car and the train.

The car was "pushed about 1,000 feet down the tracks. Some 400 feet of the electrified third rail sliced through the first car of a Metro-North train after it plowed into an SUV, burning the entire interior of the train car and killing five passengers, the head of the National Transportation Safety Board investigation confirmed this evening.
 

It seems that the third rail caused most of the damage and the fire.  Just a thought.

Convenience...!

Lance Armstrong built a career and a lucrative cult personality out of lies, seeing the truth as something only suckers would champion. As his fame and fortune grew, so did the stakes. The few who dared question or contradict his version of reality soon felt his wrath.

Even when he finally did come clean about using performance-enhancing drugs, it was more about self-preservation than true remorse. His legacy was in shambles and his seven Tour de France titles had been stripped, and he was now a pariah when only a few years earlier he'd been hailed as a hero.

Just last week, Armstrong admitted that for as "brutal" as his fall from grace has been these last few years, he'd do it all over again. Armstrong once again tried to excuse the lies and the deceptions, saying he was only trying to keep pace with the rest of the peloton.

He pointed to the benefits that came from his lies: the spike in business for his sponsors, the growth of cycling, the increased donations and awareness for cancer patients.  [An interview with the BBC.]


As if that makes it OK to bend and twist the truth until it's no longer recognizable. To blur the line between right and wrong until you wonder where it was or why the distinction ever mattered in the first place. But in his world, the truth is a matter of convenience.

On a hit-and-run in Aspen, Colo. where legal penalties are minor, he and girlfriend both agreed to pin the blame on her for hitting two cars after a night of partying.


Too bad he kept most of his money. Just a thought.

Herbal... new Info.

GNC, Target, Walmart and Walgreen sold supplements that either couldn't be verified to contain the labeled substance or that contained ingredients not listed on the label, Schneiderman's office said.

The supplements, including echinacea, ginseng, St. John's wort, garlic, ginkgo biloba and saw palmetto, were contaminated with substances including rice, beans, pine, citrus, asparagus, primrose, wheat, houseplant and wild carrot. In many cases, unlisted contaminants were the only plant material found in the product samples.

"This investigation makes one thing abundantly clear: The old adage 'buyer beware' may be especially true for consumers of herbal supplements," Schneiderman said.

He asked the companies to provide detailed information on production, processing, testing and quality control for herbal supplements sold at their stores.

The investigation looked at six herbal supplements sold at stores across the state. Testing was performed by an expert in DNA barcoding technology. The DNA tests were performed on three to four samples of each of the supplements purchased. Each sample was tested five times.

A 2012 paper published in the Journal of the American Medical Association warned that this lack of regulation of the supplement industry could lead to “adverse events.” In the past five years, tainted supplements have been associated with kidney failure, hepatitis and other problems.

Is it contaminated, adulterated or just fake items all together? you be the judge.

 Just a thought.

Ruin Your Life....



Aaron Hernandez is an American football tight end held without bail following his indictment on murder charges. He was drafted by the New England Patriots in 2010, and once had a $40 million contract.


He played college football for the University of Florida, where he was a member of a BCS National Championship team and was recognized as an All-American. 

On August 22, 2013, He was indicted by a grand jury for the murder of Odin Lloyd, a semi-pro football player. Hernandez has maintained his innocence. His co-defendants have also pleaded not guilty.

Hernandez also pleaded not guilty to two additional murder charges.  Police say he fired a handgun into a car, gunning down two strangers, in July 2012 after one of the two accidentally spilled a drink on him.

Charges were brought against Hernandez in the double homicide only after evidence discovered during the Lloyd investigation led police to the now-fallen football star.

Hard to believe.           Just a thought.

We, the Corporations .. ?

The political network overseen by Charles and David  Koch plans to spend close to $900 million on the 2016 campaign, an unparalleled effort to shape a presidential election that is already on track to be the most expensive in history.

Hundreds of conservative donors recruited by the Kochs gathered over the weekend for three days of issue seminars, strategy sessions and mingling with rising elected officials. 

 

The Koch family of industrialists and businesspeople is most notable for its control of Koch Industries, the second largest privately owned company in the United States (with 2013 revenues of $115 billion). The family business was started by Fred C. Koch, who developed a new cracking method for the refinement of heavy oil into gasoline. Fred's four sons litigated against each other over their interests in the business during the 1980s and 1990s. Charles and David still with Koch Industries.  

The Kochs are our homegrown oligarchs; they've cornered the market on Republican politics and are nakedly attempting to "buy" Congress and the White House. Their political network helped finance the Tea Party and powers today's GOP. 

Under the nearly five-decade reign of CEO Charles Koch, the company has paid out record civil and criminal environmental penalties. And in 1999, a jury handed down to Koch's pipeline company what was then the largest wrongful-death judgment of its type in U.S. history, resulting from the explosion of a defective pipeline that incinerated a pair of Texas teenagers.

Money and more money, to watch for.  Just a thought.

Fast Food

Around 4:30 p.m. Friday, Janelle Jones, of Rochester, had ordered a drink and a sandwich at the drive-through of  North Main St. restaurant. She was driving home when she discovered that the sandwich bag was actually full of cash, and there was no food inside.

At home, the couple inspected the bag and found the cash, most of which was inside two bank deposit bags. There was also a loose $100 bill.

Matthew admitted, “We are not perfect human beings,” and said the couple had considered the possibility of keeping the money, adding they could have certainly used the cash. But he said he and his wife are Jehovah's Witnesses, and that “Jehovah sees everything.”

When they returned the money about an hour later, the employees of the store were extremely thankful, he said. “It felt a lot better than keeping it,” said Matthew Jones.
Store employees at Rochester's Burger King confirmed the incident but chose not to comment on the story.

“One person said 'they were going to get fired' 
“A manager told me they would give me five free meals,” Janelle added. “The manager said he talked to the corporate office and they said to tell me 'thank you.'”

The hesitation to return the money is a concern.
Just a thought.