Wacooo !!

Waco police, assisted by police officers from several cities were surrounding the Twin Peaks Restaurant after several people were reported shot during a rival motorcycle gang fight, Waco police Sgt. W. Patrick Swanton said.

Swanton said the fight quickly escalated from fists and feet to chains, clubs and knives, then to gunfire.

Gang members were shooting at each other and officers at the scene fired their weapons, as well, Swanton said. 
The victims were taken by ambulance to Baylor Scott and White Hillcrest Medical Center, which later was placed on lock down.

A witness who was having lunch across the parking lot said he and his family had just finished eating and walked into the parking lot when they heard several gunshots and saw wounded being taken from the fight scene.
“We crouched down in front of our pick-up truck because that was the only cover we had,” the man, said.

Waco had a population of 124,805 on 2010, making it the 22nd-most populous city in the state.

A small town with mega problems, one after the other?  Just a thought.

NAPA's Wine !!

 
The Los Carneros Water District and Napa Sanitation District held a groundbreaking ceremony for a $20 million recycled water line project. By next year, recycled water will travel in a 9-mile pipeline through this south county grape-growing region.

The water will have its origins in the city of Napa, traveling through the sewer system to the Napa Sanitation District plant south of Highway 29 and the Butler Bridge. After the city’s sewage is cleaned up, the resulting highly treated water can be used for irrigation, but not for drinking.

A decade ago, Napa Sanitation District had trouble getting rid of recycled water. Now, its recycled water is in great demand. The district is building a pipeline to bring irrigation water to the rural Coombsville area east of the city of Napa. When that project and the Carneros project are finished, the district will have increased its recycled pipe network from 11 miles to 25 miles and doubled its recycled water sales.

The sanitation district also uses its recycled water to help out in rural farm areas.
The Carneros recycled water project is a long time coming. John Stewart of the Los Carneros Water District said the idea dates to the late 1970s, when the area had cow pastures and orchards instead of vineyards.

Enjoy a glass of NAPA's wine.  Just a thought.

Money Loss.

In the history of sudden wealth loss, Li Hejun may have set a new record.
Li, who was China's richest man until this week, saw his fortune drop by as much as $15 billion in a half-hour as the stock in his company, Hanergy Thin Film Power Group, fell by nearly half. Trading in the shares was halted Wednesday.

While plenty of billionaires have seen their fortunes cut in half over time, few if any have seen $15 billion wiped out in a half-hour. Li's total fortune was around $30 billion before the stock plunged.

Prior to the drop, the company's shares had risen by more than fivefold since September, baffling analysts. Reuters reports that Hong Kong regulators are looking at alleged market manipulation with the stock.

In a similar wealth decline, Hong Kong property and electronics magnate Pan Sutong has lost more than $11 billion this week as shares of two listed companies, Goldin Financial and Goldin Property, both closed down more than 40 percent.

Pan owns around 65 percent of Goldin Property and more than 70 percent of Goldin Financial, according to filings. His fortune was listed at more than $28 billion, making him Hong Kong's second-richest man.
That means that the two men have lost more in one day that the total net worth of Carl Icahn, Steve Ballmer or Michael Dell.

Another mystery. Just a thought.

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.