Phony Cancer Charities

 

 A federal lawsuit filed against four phony cancer charities and their operators with strong roots in East Tennessee, who allegedly scammed more than $187 million from consumers throughout the country.

The joint complaint alleges that the defendants—including Cancer Fund of America, Children’s Cancer Fund of America, Cancer Support Services and The Breast Cancer Society portrayed themselves to donors as legitimate charities with substantial nationwide programs whose primary purposes were to provide direct support to cancer patients, children with cancer, and breast cancer patients in the United States.

In fact, the overwhelming majority of consumers’ contributions benefitted only the perpetrators, their families and friends, and professional fundraisers, who often received 85% or more of every donation, according to the federal lawsuit.

Consumers’ donations were wasted and misused, cancer victims were not helped, and the representations that defendants were legitimate charities were false.  Among other things, defendants or their telemarketers often told donors that their contributions would be used to provide pain medication to children suffering from cancer, transport cancer patients to chemotherapy appointments, and/or pay for hospice care for cancer patients.  

Careful with your donation.      Just a thought.

Worked in Concert...

An Egyptian judge referred ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi for trial on a third set of criminal charges by indicting him and 129 others for breaking out of prison during Egypt’s 2011 revolt.
Morsi and fellow inmates from his Muslim Brotherhood group worked in concert with hundreds of militants from Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah to escape from the Wadi el-Natroun prison north of Cairo, murdering and abducting policemen and “threatening the unity of the country.”

In that referral, the prison operation is listed as part of a larger, years-long conspiracy with Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps to sow chaos and propel the Muslim Brotherhood to power in Egypt.

According to the prosecutor general, Hamas and Hezbollah, assisted by Iran, helped train Muslim Brotherhood operatives in Gaza as long ago as 2005. In return, Morsi allegedly leaked state secrets to the Revolutionary Guard once he assumed the presidency.

Morsi and other high-ranking Muslim Brotherhood leaders are also on trial for incitement to murder opposition protesters during his year in office. Morsi appeared in court Nov. 4 to face that charge for the first time.

The court sentenced ousted president Mohamed Morsi to death.

Wanted

Image is not related

The Chinese government released a list of its leading 100 fugitives accused of economic crimes including 40 people believed to be hiding in the United States.
Yu Zhendong, accused of embezzling $485 million from a state-owned bank, was returned by the United States authorities to China.

Wei Chen, known in China as He Yejun, is wanted on allegations of misappropriating funds before moving to the United States in the late 1990s.
This newest phase of the campaign was rolled out with the publication in Chinese news media of a collection of Interpol alerts that also included one for Yang Xiuzhu, a former deputy mayor of Wenzhou. Ms. Yang previously owned a five-story building on West 29th Street in Manhattan.
The United States was identified as the leading destination by the Chinese authorities. US does not have extradition treaties with China.
 
Ding Xueliang, a politics expert at Hong Kong University, said Beijing preferred not to publicly identify some suspects for fear of leaking party secrets. "The biggest targets are not on this list," he said. "

680 fugitives suspected of economic crimes were repatriated from 69 countries and regions [Fox Hunt] according to the state news agency Xinhua.

GodSpeed.  Just a thought.

Fitch...

How the court decides the case.......

The case rests on Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which makes it illegal to "fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual ... because of such individual's race, color, religion, sex, or national origin."

Abercrombie famously employs a "Look Policy" that lays out in exacting detail what its "sales models" can wear when they're helping customers or folding clothes on the sales floor. Back in 2008, Samantha Elauf, who was 17 at the time, went in for a sales model position in one location in Oklahoma.

The assistant manager gave her solid marks on the three "competencies" required for the job of model at one of the stores: "outgoing and promotes diversity," "sophistication and aspiration" and "appearance and sense of style. But she never got a call. She had her own outfit.

• Heathe Cooke, the assistant store manager who interviewed Elauf, said  "I think it says in the handbook you can't wear hats. 

 Many have the same Look Policy and that is the case.   Just a thought.

Drones

In natural and manmade disasters, UAS can be positioned to survey damage, locate stranded and injured victims, and assess ongoing threats without risking the safety of rescue teams and first-responders.

UAS can be used to search for lost children, provide tactical surveillance and suspect tracking, assist in accident investigations, and monitor large crowds.

Inspecting the underside of a bridge or the top of a skyscraper, not to mention the costs and risks. With UAS, scaffolding, cranes, or harnesses are not required. Just deploy the system to assess the structure's condition remotely.

Using a crop management system to observe, measure, and respond to variability in individual plants, farmers can target areas requiring attention. By pinpointing these areas, farmers can provide care only where needed—improving yield, conserving resources, and avoiding waste.

Aerial photography for a news broadcast or a blockbuster film can be efficiently, economically, and safely captured.

Large area screening, remote problems, costly inspection of landmarks, and time management for workers can all be altered by drones. More done with less cost.

Just a thought.

Bears- Part 2

A trip to Yellowstone National Park took a terrifying turn for tourists who were chased by a family of black bears. A black bear and her three cubs surprised the tourists when they appeared on a bridge lined with sightseers earlier this week, sending them running.

In a video released by Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks, sightseers run as the mother bear, seemingly equally terrified and confused, charges one family as they scramble to get to their car.

"A mama bear with cubs is not something you want to get near to at all. The warm weather of spring brings out more tourists - and more bears.  

"These bears do wake up in warmer weather," Hanna said. "They're thirsty and hungry and they come out. This is their time of year."
 

According to wildlife experts, the best defense against a bear is to keep your distance.

Yellowstone National Park regulations require visitors to "stay at least 100 yards away from bears."
 

"It's a beautiful animal we can all enjoy." Hanna said. "It's their home. Treat them with respect and film them at a a distance, that's all."

Just a scary thought.

Huanglongbing

One of America's most popular food staples is at war against an insect smaller than an apple seed that is spreading an incurable disease.  The nation's orange industry has taken a more than $4 billion hit as dead trees and useless crops recently sent orange harvests to their lowest in two decades. 
                
The disease is called huanglongbing, also known as citrus greening. Producing oranges too bitter for juice and too misshapen and discolored for fresh fruit, the bacteria leaves farmers little choice but to destroy every one of their sick trees.
The crawling culprit facilitating its spread is the Asian citrus psyllid, a plant juice-sucking bug that can easily become airborne and carry the fatal bacteria that destroys oranges, limes, lemons and grapefruits.

Of greatest concern to the government are a group of non-native ants, beetles, moths and flies, and one giant slug. 

Forest resources in the North Atlantic states are under siege. The Asian longhorn beetle is menacing "recreation and forest resources valued at billions of dollars" and has the potential to destroy "millions of acres of America's treasured hardwoods," according to the APHIS.

Just a thought.

Pigs.... huh?

Undercover video by Mercy for Animals captured workers at a now-closed New Mexico dairy whipping, kicking and punching cows. Four men were charged with misdemeanor animal cruelty in that case.

Seaboard Farms has more than 300 pig farms in Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas and Colorado. It has fired five workers and two supervisors following an internal investigation at the Colorado facility near the Nebraska border, spokesman David Eaheart said. Authorities said no criminal charges will be filed, more training and education to be provided to the staff.

In a statement, the company said the abuse, which happened while the pigs were being loaded onto trucks, is "unacceptable and inexcusable" and violates its standards. It said all farm managers will be shown the video to send a message that such handling of animals is not acceptable.

Don't live like a pig, but if you are, you still have rights. Just a thought.

Dig up...Vodka

A New Hampshire woman who told police she dug up her father's grave in search of his "real will" but found only vodka and cigarettes, and no will.

She been sentenced to 1 ½ to three years in prison. She said she dug up the grave "with respect" and her father "would be okay with it."

The 53-year-old Nash was one of four accused in the plan to open Eddie Nash's vault in Colebrook, then rifle through his casket last May in a scene a prosecutor compared to an Edgar Allan Poe story. 

Police said Nash felt she was shorted in her share of the inheritance after her father died in 2004.

The Caledonian Record reports Judge Peter Bornstein noted the smashed concrete vault that housed the coffin of Eddie Nash and the disturbed body found the next morning.

"The patrolman said the gravesite of Eddie Nash did not look right," Bornstein said. "That is the understatement of the century." The remains have since been re-interred at the cemetery.

When 4 people put their heads together, disconnected, they come up with problems. Happens all over.   Just a thought.

Mother Fracker...

Einhorn, founder and president of Greenlight Capital, kicked off the speech by arguing that a handful of leading American oil companies that rely heavily on fracking were “poised for a fall”—even if the price of crude rebounds from its current depressed prices.

“We object to oil fracking because the investment can contaminate portfolio returns,” Einhorn said during his presentation.

Of those short positions, Einhorn described Pioneer Natural Resources PXD as the “mother fracker,” saying its oil production and reserves have not kept up with the company’s increased spending on drilling and developing wells.

“It’s well loved, well located and well run,” Einhorn said as he introduced the company. Still, he added, “A business that burns cash and doesn’t grow isn’t worth anything,” he said. “That’s like using $50 bills to counterfeit $20s.”

Shares of Pioneer Natural Resources dropped immediately as Einhorn detailed his position; more than 3% during.

So rethink your position.    Just a thought.