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HERMANN MISSOURI OKTOBERFEST 2010
HERMANN MISSOURI OKTOBERFEST 2010 - CLICK ON PHOTO FOR THIS YEARS SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
Kurt Nimmo Infowars.com
May 5, 2011
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As noted yesterday, the government is exploiting the Osama death fantasy as an excuse to expand the police state grid in the United States and acclimate the populace to the presence of militarized cops and unconstitutional random searches in mass transit hubs. Now the feds warn al-Qaeda may strike the rail sector. “An advisory has been sent to law enforcement officials asking them to be vigilant about train security based on information uncovered at Osama bin Laden’s compound after his death,” reports NBC New York.
The feds have yet to definitively prove that Osama was killed in Pakistan. Despite this fact, the corporate media is reporting the government claim as fact.
“According to NBC News, U.S. officials say they have not found reference to specific plots. Instead, they say they’ve found what they call ‘aspirational’ items — events al-Qaida operatives were interested in trying to make happen,” NBC continues. “There was nothing specific to New York.”
Such claims are now common and invariably lead to the state dispatching cops with automatic weapons and bomb-sniffing dogs to airports and train stations. It is now normal for the TSA to conduct warrantless searches at bus stations in lieu of specific threats.
“We have no information of any imminent terrorist threat to the U.S. rail sector, but wanted to make our partners aware of the alleged plotting,” Department of Homeland Security spokesman Matt Chandler said in a statement.”We want to stress that this alleged al-Qaida plotting is based on initial reporting, which is often misleading or inaccurate and subject to change.”
Material supposedly gleaned from Osama’s house in Pakistan reveals “an operation against trains at an unspecified location in the United States on the 10th anniversary” of the 9/11 attacks. The advisory claims al-Qaeda planned “to tip a train by tampering with the rails so that the train would fall off the track at either a valley or on a bridge.”
According to the government, additional material mentions a desire to target major mass-transit hubs, an interest long familiar to law enforcement because trains were targeted in Spain, the U.K. and India. NBC reports that al-Qaeda was responsible for attacks in Madrid, London, and Mumbai, although evidence of al-Qaeda involvement is far less than conclusive.
Rep. Steve King of New York, who has made a cottage industry out of holding hearings warning of the domestic threat of radical Muslims and al-Qaeda, said “there was information found in the last several days — I don’t know where it’s come from — but that al-Qaeda was considering having an attack on mass transit or trains before the 10th anniversary of September 11th.”
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Former Monsanto Exec. Appointed to the Head of the F.D.A.!, Michael R. Taylor, was appointed Deputy Commissioner for Foods at the FDA.
Taylor is a former top executive (VP Public Policy), attorney and lobbyist with Monsanto and has had prior positions with law firms, the USDA and the FDA.
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A few hours ago, the Food and Drug Administration declared it no longer needs credible evidence to seize food that may be contaminated. Ignoring the Fourth Amendment entirely, the FDA claims that based on mere suspicion that a food product has been contaminated or mislabeled, and that serious illness or death will result, it can hold the food for 30 days while it then looks for evidence. It claims this power under the Food Safety Modernization Act, which President Monsanto, I mean, Obama, signed in January.
On May 4th, the FDA stated:
Previously, the FDA’s ability to detain food products applied only when the agency had credible evidence that a food product presented was contaminated or mislabeled in a way that presented a threat of serious adverse health consequences or death to humans or animals.
Beginning July, the FDA will be able to detain food products that it has reason to believe are adulterated or misbranded for up to 30 days, if needed, to ensure they are kept out of the marketplace. The products will be kept out of the marketplace while the agency determines whether an enforcement action such as seizure or federal injunction against distribution of the product in commerce, is necessary.
Credible evidence no longer applies, it seems. The Fourth Amendment states:
“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
FDA thinks it can engage in search and seizure willy nilly. They’ve already been doing this, of course — but only at natural food facilities. Factory farms like DeCosta Eggs can sicken thousands of people over a period of years, without ever being shut down or having its product seized or destroyed. But, if you raise natural foods without pasteurizing them or adulterating them with drugs and genetically modified ingredients, even though no one becomes ill from your product, then be assured, the FDA will seize your products, your computers, your paperwork, and shut you down.
Most recently, the FDA shut down Pennsylvania farmer Dan Algyer, though no one became ill from his natural milk. Morningland Cheese and Estrella Family Creamery are but two more in a long line of victims of the corporate war on natural food, though their products sickened no one. And most of the nation knows of the armed raid on Rawesome Foods last year. (Also see David Gumpert’s book, The Raw Milk Revolution: Behind America’s Emerging Battle Over Food Rights.)
In the May 2011 edition of the Minneapolis St. Paul Magazine (hat tip FTCLDF), Greg Breining summarizes the issues in MILK vs milk: Do consumers have the right to choose? Well, of course we do. Food freedom is as inalienable as the right to breathe. The freedom to eat the food with which humans evolved is requisite to our survival as individuals and as a species. Thomas Jefferson agrees: “Was the government to prescribe to us our medicine and diet, our bodies would be in such keeping as our souls are now.”
That’s often paraphrased as: “If people let the government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny.”
Another rule announced by the FDA requires importers to declare if any nation refused their food or feed product for any reason, and to give the reason. Both rules go into effect July 3, 2011.
Read the new FDA rules here. Rady Ananda specializes in Natural Resources and administers the sites,Food FreedomandCOTO Report.
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HERMANN, MO. -- Wine lovers have a great opportunity to learn more about their favorite adult beverage. Experts at Hermann’s Stone Hill Winery are offering a behind-the-scenes tour of their wine making process. Stone Hill Winery’s Grapes to Glass Tour gets more popular every year, with most tours selling out. To keep things more intimate, they only accept 40 reservations per tour. Special Events Coordinator Aimee Viehmann said, “It is very fun and educational. It takes about 2 to 2 and a half hours to do the whole thing.” Winemaker Dave Johnson is your Grapes to Glass tour guide. Since 1978, Johnson has developed a wide variety of wines that have won him numerous awards. Johnson loves to give members of his tour lots of samples of wine, cheese and crackers. He also makes sure they understand what it takes to go from grapes to glass. Johnson said, “People get a chance to see things that they normally don’t see. We’ve gone through the production area and seen the kinds of things going on that we really can’t take the bigger tours through. They also get a chance to react one on one with the winemaker.” In 1965, Jim and Betty Held bought Stone Hill Winery and began restoring its historic buildings and underground cellars. The Held Family has put Hermann on the map as a world class wine producing area. Stone Hill Winery Owner Jim Held said, “That’s a good thing. When I started out I didn’t have any equipment or much know how. We’ve come a long, long way.” Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Stone Hill Winery welcomes visitors with open arms and open bottles.
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The long-awaited opening of the Franklin County Veterans Hall of Honor museum is scheduled in mid-May. The Hall of Honor Committee announced Thursday it plans to open the museum following a dedication ceremony on May 21, Armed Forces Day.
The dedication ceremony will begin at 1:30 p.m. on the east side of the historic court house in Union. It will feature guest speaker Brigadier General David F. Irwin, the Assistant Division Commander of the 35th Infantry Division.
The Hall of Honor's virtual museum can be accessed by visiting http://www.franklinmo.net:8150/. For more information about the museum, contact County Commissioner Terry Wilson at (636) 583-6360.
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May 5, 2011
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WASHINGTON (AP) -- Only one of the five people killed in the raid that got Osama bin Laden was armed and fired any shots, a senior defense official said Thursday, acknowledging that the new account differs greatly from original administration portrayals of a chaotic, intense and prolonged firefight.
The sole shooter in the al-Qaida leader's Pakistani compound was quickly killed in the early minutes of the commando operation, before the team of Navy SEALs swept through the house and shot the others, the official said. The details have become clearer now that the assault team has been debriefed, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record.
He said the raid should be described as a precision, floor-by-floor operation to hunt and find the al-Qaida leader and his protectors, rather than as it has been portrayed by a succession of Obama administration briefers since bin Laden's death was announced Sunday night.
In another development, aviation experts said a helicopter used in the assault appeared to be a stealthier, top secret and never-before-seen version of a routinely used special ops helicopter. The helicopter made a hard landing and was destroyed by the military team at the site, leaving behind wreckage for experts to analyze.
As the SEALs moved into bin Laden's compound, they were fired on by bin Laden's courier, Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, who was in the guesthouse, the senior defense official said. The SEALs returned fire, and the courier was killed, along with a woman with him. She was hit in the crossfire, the official said.
The Americans were never fired on again as they encountered and killed a man on the first floor and then bin Laden's son on a staircase, before arriving at bin Laden's room. Officials have said bin Laden was killed after he appeared to be lunging for a weapon.
White House and Defense Department and CIA officials through the week have offered varying and foggy versions of the operation, though the dominant focus was on a firefight that officials said consumed most of the 40-minute assault:
- "There were many other people who were armed ... in the compound," White House spokesman Jay Carney said Tuesday when asked if bin Laden was armed. "We expected a great deal of resistance and were met with a great deal of resistance."
- "For most of the period there, there was a firefight," a senior defense official told Pentagon reporters in a briefing Monday.
- And though officials later revised these words, White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan originally said bin Laden, too, took part in the shootout. Later the administration said bin Laden wasn't armed but that there were guns in the room.
NBC News, which was first to report that four of the five people killed were unarmed, said the majority of the operation was spent gathering up the compound's computers, hard drives, cellphones and other items that could provide valuable intelligence on al-Qaida and potential operations worldwide.
Those materials have been taken to the FBI lab at the Marine Corps base at Quantico, Va., the defense official said.
Widely published photos of the remains of the MH-60 Black Hawk helicopter that made a hard landing at the outset of the operation - and was destroyed with explosives before the SEALs left - show it had been modified to make it harder to detect with radar, said Richard Aboulafia, aviation expert with the Teal Group consultants said.
"It's pretty clear it was meant to penetrate Pakistani airspace," he said.
The SEAL team was flown in by an elite Army Special Operations unit, known as the Knight Stalkers, according to a defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the clandestine operation. The unit is based at Fort Campbell, Ky., and Obama is scheduled to visit there Friday.
The Knight Stalkers specialize in night flight operations and are equipped with Black Hawk, Chinook and MH-6 Little Bird helicopters. But Aboulafia said the existence of a helicopter like the one at the scene in Pakistan "was a very well-kept secret."
Also Thursday, two shopkeepers in Pakistani told The Associated Press that the bodies of al-Kuwaiti and his brother are shown in other photos taken in the compound after the raid.
The photos were published by Reuters news agency, which said it had bought them from a Pakistani security official who entered the compound after the assault.
The shopkeepers said they couldn't identify a third man's body in the photos. But by elimination, that would suggest the third man was bin Laden's son, since the Obama administration has said five were killed - bin Laden, his son, the courier, the courier's brother and a woman.
Prospects for ever seeing photos of bin Laden's corpse are uncertain now that President Barack Obama has decided not to release them publicly, said Scott Hodes, a former Freedom of Information and Privacy Act attorney at the Justice Department. The White House is exempt from FOIA, so the law wouldn't apply if the images are controlled there. The CIA, which had operational control of the mission, and the Defense Department can use a series of exemptions from the act to block release of the images.
The Associated Press on Monday requested through the FOIA photos of bin Laden's body as well as other materials, including video taken by military personnel during the raid and on the USS Carl Vinson, the ship that conducted bin Laden's burial in the North Arabian Sea. The government has 20 days to respond to a FOIA request.
The Obama administration has pledged to be the most transparent government in U.S. history and to comply much more closely with the Freedom of Information Act than the Bush administration did.
Ultimately, the issue could wind up in federal court.
"I think that it's going to be a hard road," Hodes said. "It's not inconceivable that a court is going to say to release them. But I think the government will fight because it's made its decision."
Sarah Palin, the 2008 vice presidential nominee and former Alaska governor, on Wednesday said Obama should stop "pussy-footing around" and release the photos of the slain bin Laden.
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Associated Press writer Nahal Toosi contributed to this story from Abbottabad, Pakistan, and AP writers Richard Lardner and Lolita Baldor contributed from Washington.
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Water covers the west-bound lane of Interstate 40 on the approach to the White River Bridge near Hazen, Ark., Thursday, May 5, 2011. Eastbound lanes of Interstate 40 remain open while 23 miles of westbound lanes from Brinkley to Hazen are closed because of flooding from the rain-swollen White River. Arkansas State Highway Transportation Department spokesman Glenn Bolick said Thursday morning that westbound drivers are being diverted off I-40 at Brinkley for a 120 mile detour to get to Little Rock. (AP Photo/Danny Johnston)_________________________________________________________________________
Slow-moving disaster rolls down Mississippi River
By DYLAN LOVAN and ADRIAN SAINZ Associated Press
May 5, 2011
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HICKMAN, Ky. (AP) -- Jail inmates filled sandbag after sandbag to protect one of the many Southern river cities threatened by the swelling Mississippi as it broke more 1930s flood records and crept higher Thursday.
A flooding tributary threatened to cut off Interstate 40, a major east-west route through Arkansas, and the Army Corps of Engineers planned to blast a new breach in a Missouri levee in hopes of controlling the slow-motion disaster flowing downriver.
Thousands of people from Illinois to Louisiana have already been forced from their homes, and anxiety is rising along with the river, though it could be a week or two before some of the most severe flooding hits.
In Hickman, a town of about 2,500, Morrison Williamson was confident a towering floodwall would save his hardware store, despite small leaks that let some flood waters spray through.
Williamson was in a nearly deserted downtown, keeping his store open for customers who needed flood-fighting supplies. He said the decision to break open the Missouri levee upstream has kept the river from topping the floodwall, saving many communities to the south.
"They say blowing up the levee saved Cairo (Ill.) Well, it did. But if this breaks, you're talking Dyersburg, Ridgely, Tiptonville, water all the way to Memphis," Williamson said about places in neighboring Tennessee.
About 120 Fulton County jail inmate volunteers dressed in orange or white prisoner uniforms furiously filled sandbags for Hickman. They have made 120,000 since April 26.
"We're just going to keep going until they say stop," jail Sgt. James Buckingham said.
Up and down the Big Muddy, farmers braced for a repeat of the desperate strategy employed earlier this week in southeast Missouri, where Army engineers blew up the levee and sacrificed vast stretches of farmland to protect populated areas upstream.
The corps planned to blast a third and final breach in the Birds Point levee around 1 p.m. Thursday to allow water to flow back out of the flood plain into the river.
"I've never seen it this bad," said 78-year-old Joe Harrison, who has lived in the same house in Hickman since he was 11 months old. Floodwaters turned his house into an island - dry but surrounded by water. He has been using a boat to get to his car, parked on dry ground along a highway that runs by his house.
Tom Salem, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Memphis, said flooding is extreme this year in part because of drenching rain over the past two weeks. In some areas, Wednesday was the first day without rain since April 25.
"It's been a massive amount of rain for a long period of time. And we're still getting snowmelt from Montana," Salem said.
President Barack Obama on Wednesday declared parts of Tennessee, Mississippi and Kentucky disasters, making the states eligible for federal help with relief efforts.
Forecasters and emergency officials said some of the high-water records set during the great floods of 1927 and 1937 could fall.
But because of the system of levees and locks built since those disasters more than 70 years ago, flooding this time is unlikely to be anywhere near as devastating.
"We have a high confidence in our levees, but in the sense of transparency, we have to say that the levees have not been tested," Shelby County Emergency Management Director Bob Nations said in Memphis, Tenn.
The great flood of the lower Mississippi River Valley in 1927 was one of the biggest natural disasters in U.S. history. More than 23,000 square miles were inundated, hundreds of thousands of people were displaced and hundreds died.
The flood found its place in folklore, literature and films, and popular songs including "When the Levee Breaks."
More devastation came in 1937 when 31,000 square miles were submerged from West Virginia to Louisiana.
Lifelong Hickman resident H.L. Williamson, 77, was a boy when he and his family fled to the highest point in town. He recalled little except that his brother wouldn't eat black-eyed peas or grapefruit for years because that was all they had during the flood.
This time, Williamson packed up and left his home, which was still dry thanks to a hill just inches higher than the floodwaters. He took only a few belongings, including the Navy uniform he hopes to be buried in.
The relief from blowing up the levee is probably only temporary downstream in Kentucky, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana because the water will eventually find its way back into the Mississippi River.
In Arkansas, a stretch of westbound Interstate 40 was closed where it crosses the White River, adding a 120-mile detour to the main route to Little Rock from Memphis. The state highway department said eastbound lanes remained open Thursday but flooding appeared imminent and they too could be shut.
Arkansas recorded its eighth death since the rains started April 25 when authorities found the body of a man in the floodwaters in eastern Arkansas' Prairie County.
In Kentucky, about 3,800 residents have left their homes.
Memphis, where the Mississippi was at 43.8 feet Tuesday, could see a crest of 48 feet on May 11, just inches below the record of 48.7 feet set in 1937. Water from the Wolf and Loosahatchie rivers already has seeped into the suburbs, and some mobile home parks were swamped.
Emergency management officials said more than 1,100 houses and apartments could be hit with flooding. Several hundred people have already left, and thousands more are expected to follow them.
In Louisiana, shippers, ports and the chemical industry hoped the government could dredge fast enough to keep a major channel into the Gulf of Mexico unclogged. The Mississippi sends huge amounts of sediment downriver during high-water times.
Because the maximum-security Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola is particularly flood-prone, the state planned to evacuate the most medically vulnerable inmates by Monday, then others later.
Mississippi officials told about 1,000 people packed into a National Guard armory Wednesday that they are confident the main levees along the Mississippi River will withstand high water in the coming weeks, but they warned that some backwater levees could be overtopped by as much as a foot.
Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour warned people to expect monumental flooding and said he was moving his furniture from his family's lakeside home to prepare for flooding from the Yazoo River.
With the recent deadly outbreak of tornadoes and, now, the threat of flooding, "we're making a lot of unfortunate history here in Mississippi in April and May," said Jeff Rent, a Mississippi Emergency Management Agency spokesman.
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Sainz reported from Memphis. Associated Press writers Jim Suhr in Metropolis, Ill., and Holbrook Mohr in Rolling Fork, Miss., contributed to this report.
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A grant from the U.S. Commerce Department's Economic Development Administration to the city of Washington is expected to create new manufacturing jobs. The grant, announced Wednesday, totals $973,551, and will be used to build a rail spur to expand the size of the city's John F. Feltman Industrial Park.
“The region has been hard-hit by cutbacks and closures in the automotive sector,” said U.S. Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development John Fernandez. “This EDA grant will help build a rail spur that will ease the transfer of goods, allowing industries located in the Feltman Industrial Park to expand and create new, higher-skilled, living-wage job opportunities.”
“With industries in Washington looking to expand, the rail facility will allow for the efficient transport of goods from the industries located in the industrial park. The Team Track facility will provide expanding and new manufacturers of large end products a viable shipping alternative and will help to diversify the region’s economic base,” said Darren Lamb, Director of Planning and Engineering for the city of Washington.
The investment is expected to generate $26 million in private investment and create 150 new jobs, according to grantee estimates.
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Father Of 9/11 Victim: Obama "Putting Too Much Spotlight On Himself"
May 5, 2011 www.realclearpolitics.com
___________________________________________________________________________________ . David Beamer, father of 9/11 victim Todd Beamer on FOX News: "I feel some chagrin now, though, about how the rest of it has been handle. And frankly it started May Day, 2011 when the president announced what had happened. The excessive use of the personal pronoun that he used in his remarks, I really felt that was the beginning of the Commander-in-Chief putting too much spotlight on himself, taking too much credit for what the remarkable Americans had done. And of course it's only now accelerated to a greater degree in the media. "
NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- The actress who played Elly May Clampett on the hit television series "The Beverly Hillbillies" is suing toy manufacturer Mattel Inc., claiming the company used her name and likeness for a Barbie doll without her authorization.
The federal suit filed Wednesday in Baton Rouge, La., says packaging for the "Elly May" Barbie doll features a photo of Donna Douglas portraying the character. Douglas says she never endorsed the doll or gave Mattel permission to use her name to promote its sale before the toy maker introduced the doll in December 2010.
From 1962 to 1971, Douglas appeared in all 274 episodes of the CBS comedy show about a poor family that moves to Beverly Hills after striking oil on their land.
A Mattel spokeswoman didn't immediately respond to a call and e-mail seeking comment.
Douglas lives in Zachary, near Baton Rouge, and continues to make public appearances and speaking engagements in connection with the show, according to one of her attorneys, Charles von Simson.
"Depending on their age, people remember the show immediately and they remember her," he said of Douglas, now 77. "It's something she gets a lot of fan interest from."
Von Simson said Mattel made other "nostalgia dolls" of iconic TV characters, including Barbara Eden's from "I Dream of Jeannie" and the late Elizabeth Montgomery's from "Bewitched."
The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages and a court order barring Mattel from using her "name, likeness, image and distinctive attributes."
In a 2009 interview with The Associated Press, Douglas said she felt at ease playing the role because, like her character, she grew up a poor Southern tomboy.
"Elly has always been good for me," the Louisiana native said. "That was a slice out of my life, a very happy slice out of my life.
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9/11 Family Invited To Presidential Ground Zero Visit Snubs Obama
By MONICA MORALES pix11.com
May 5, 2011
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NEW YORK (PIX11)—
As 50 carefully selected families prepare to join President Barack Obama for a ceremony at the World Trade Center site Thursday, one of the invited 9/11 families have decided to pass on the Commander-in-chief's visit.
Although many consider it to be a once in a lifetime invitation, the Vigiano family of Deer Park, Long Island have respectfully declined.
"If this form letter was the invitation, it was kinda lame," John Vigiano told PIX 11 News when describing the email invitation sent to him from the White House.
Jan and John Vigiano received the email invite Tuesday and admitted that they nearly deleted it, thinking it was spam. The private invitation complete with the White House seal informed the couple about President Obama's visit to the World Trade Center site just days after news broke about Osama bin Laden's death.
What rubbed the Vigiano's the wrong way was not what the email said, but how it was addressed.
"It says 'Dear 9-11 family member,' - no names" " John Vigiano said, reading the invite aloud to PIX 11 cameras. "I don't know if its disrespectful, but it doesn't work for me."
The Vigianos lost both their sons on September 11, 2001. John Vigiano Jr. was 36, and a FDNY firefighter, while their youngest Joe Vigiano was an emergency services detective with the NYPD.
"There is no closure," a sobbing John Vigiano said. "There is none."
The Vigiano family is just one of fifty families sent the exclusive invitation to meet the President at what is being billed as a historic visit to Ground Zero Thursday. With all that considered, the mourning father says he's not going.
"I'm honored the President of the United States is coming to New York," he said. "[But] to me its just going to be a photo op."
Jeannie Evans, of Elmont, who lost her baby brother firefighter Robert Evans on 9/11 will also not be there Thursday. She wasn't invited.
"I guess I feel lucky and leftout," Evans said as she held a picture of her brother. "Its always a select few. Is it fair? No. We all have voices."
Evans says she will probably watch Obama's visit on television but wishes she could ask him a few questions.
"Why not show us proof, that Bin Laden was killed? I would like to see that," wondered Evans.
Meanwhile, the Vigiano family insisted they mean no disrespect toward the President as John is a former marine and a retired Brooklyn firefighter.
"I got a call from the White House today apologizing," he revealed. "Apology accepted of course. He is the President of the United States after all.". . Click Here to Read More.
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By Alex Kowalski and Shobhana Chandra - May 5, 2011 www.bloomberg.com
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The number of claims for U.S. unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose last week, pushed up by auto-plant shutdowns and other unusual events that seasonal variations failed to take into account, the Labor Department said.
Applications for jobless benefits jumped by 43,000 to 474,000 in the week ended April 30, the most since August, Labor Department figures showed today. A spring break holiday in New York, a new emergency benefits program in Oregon and auto shutdowns caused by the disaster in Japan were the main reasons for the surge, a Labor Department spokesman said as the data was released to the press.
Even before last week, claims had drifted up, raising concern the improvement in the labor market has stalled. Employers added 185,000 workers to payrolls in April, fewer than in the prior month, and the unemployment rate held at 8.8 percent, economists project a Labor Department report to show tomorrow.
“We’re seeing so many distortions in the claims numbers week to week that it’s hard to say, but I’m willing to be patient and wait and see,” said Stephen Stanley, chief economist at Pierpont Securities LLC in Stamford, Connecticut. “Other reports show an improvement in the labor market. It’s going to take a while to dig out of the hole we have in relation to the jobs the economy lost during the recession.”
Futures Fall
Stock-index futures dropped after the report. The contract on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index maturing in June fell 0.6 percent to 1,334.8 at 8:58 a.m. in New York. Treasury securities rose, sending the yield on the benchmark 10-year note down to 3.18 percent from 3.22 percent late yesterday.
Economists forecast 410,000 claims, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey. Forecasts ranged from 395,000 to 450,000 in the survey of 46 economists. The Labor Department revised the prior week’s figure up to 431,000 from an initially reported 429,000.
A spring break holiday at schools in the state of New York prompted workers to file claims, which the seasonal adjustment factors didn’t expect last week, the Labor Department official said. In addition, Oregon began a new emergency benefits program for the long-term unemployed that also pulled in some new claimants, he said. Finally, auto plant shutdowns due to parts shortages caused by the earthquake and tsunami in Japan also contributed to the increase, the official said.
The spokesman also said that any claims filed by workers throughout the South that lost their jobs due to the storms that spawned tornados would probably be reflected in a different set of data rather than in the initial claims figures.
Productivity Cools
The productivity of U.S. workers slowed in the first quarter and labor costs rose as a growing economy prompted companies to boost employment, another report from the Labor Department showed today.
The measure of employee output per hour increased at a 1.6 percent annual rate, after a 2.9 percent gain in the prior three months. Expenses per employee climbed at a 1 percent rate after dropping 1 percent.
The four-week moving average for jobless claims, a less- volatile measure, rose to 431,250 from 409,000.
The number of people continuing to collect jobless benefits rose by 74,000 in the week ended April 23 to 3.73 million. The continuing claims figure does not include the number of workers receiving extended benefits under federal programs.
Extended Benefits
Those who’ve used up their traditional benefits and are now collecting emergency and extended payments decreased by about 42,900 to 4.12 million in the week ended April 16.
The unemployment rate among people eligible for benefits, which tends to track the jobless rate, rose to 3 percent in the week ended April 23 from 2.9 percent, today’s report showed. Twenty states and territories reported an increase in claims, while 33 had a decrease.
Initial jobless claims reflect weekly firings and tend to fall as job growth -- measured by the monthly non-farm payrolls report -- accelerates. These data are reported with a one-week lag.
Employers announced fewer job cuts in April than the same month last year, Chicago-based Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. said yesterday. Planned firings decreased 4.8 percent to 36,490 last month from April 2010.
‘Signs of Improvement’
“Employment has begun to show signs of improvement,” Scott Davis, chief executive officer of United Parcel Service Inc., said during an April 26 call with analysts. “In the U.S., unemployment dipped below 9 percent for the first time in almost two years, further evidence that the recovery continues.”
While payrolls have grown each month since October, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said on April 27 that central bankers would like to see more strength in the U.S. labor market, noting that a recovery has been “quite slow.”
“The labor market is improving gradually,” Bernanke said to reporters during the first-ever press conference following a Federal Open Market Committee meeting. “We would like to make sure that that is sustainable. The longer it goes on, the more confident we are.”
Another report yesterday showed employment at U.S. companies increased 179,000 in April, the smallest gain in five months, according to ADP Employer Services.
Stimulus Necessary
Federal Reserve Bank of Boston President Eric Rosengren yesterday said record stimulus is necessary to spur the “anemic” economy and that raising interest rates to combat increasing food and fuel prices would impede growth.
“With significant slack in labor markets, stable inflation expectations, and core inflation well below our longer run target, there is currently no reason to slow the economy down with tighter monetary policy,” Rosengren said during a speech in Boston. Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO), the largest maker of computer- networking equipment, is among companies trying to cut costs. The San Jose, California-based company last week said it is offering early-retirement packages to some employees in the U.S. and Canada. The company didn’t specify how many workers it expected to take the packages or how much would be saved.
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Paul Joseph Watson Infowars.com
May 5, 2011
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In addition to images of President Obama’s address to the American public on Sunday night, it has emerged that the dramatic photos of Obama, Biden, Hillary Clinton and members of the White House security team watching the assassination of Bin Laden “live” were in fact completely staged, casting further doubt on the ever-changing official account of the operation.
On Tuesday, the White House released provocative images that purported to show, “US President Barack Obama watching live footage of the operation that killed Osama bin Laden.”
In one particularly dramatic photo, Hillary Clinton is seen with her hand anxiously clasped over her mouth as if reacting to a crucial event. Other photos show Obama and his staff with stern faces as they discuss the operation while it unfolds.
The photos were described by many as having “historical significance,” forming a “captivating” record of Obama’s greatest success and being the “defining moment” of his Presidency. We were also told by the media that, “The leader of the free world saw the terror chief shot in the left eye.”
“US president Barack Obama along with his high-level team, watched live coverage in the White House, as the commandos gunned down the world’s most wanted terrorist Osama Bin Laden Via a video camera fixed to the helmet of a US Navy Seal,” it was also reported.
US chief counter-terrorism advisor John Brennan claimed that the head cameras that fed audio and video back to the White House, allowed Obama and his staff to track the operation “on an ongoing basis”.
But the claims have been proven to be completely fraudulent. Alongside the crumbling official narrative of the operation to kill Bin Laden, it has emerged that Obama, Clinton and their staff saw virtually nothing whatsoever of the mission that allegedly led to the assassination of Bin Laden, because according to CIA director Leon Panetta, there was a 25 minute blackout of the live feed which was cut off before the US Navy SEALS even entered the building.
“A photograph released by the White House appeared to show the President and his aides in the situation room watching the action as it unfolded. In fact they had little knowledge of what was happening in the compound,” reports the London Telegraph.
In an interview with PBS, Mr Panetta said: “Once those teams went into the compound I can tell you that there was a time period of almost 20 or 25 minutes where we really didn’t know just exactly what was going on. And there were some very tense moments as we were waiting for information.
The notion that Obama “saw the terror chief shot in the left eye” live on video is a total fabrication. At best, the photos were cynically misrepresented by the White House and the mainstream media, at worst, they were completely staged to add a contrived dramatic spin to the unfolding wall-to-wall press coverage of the Bin Laden fable, which is becoming more convoluted with each passing day.
The key image that clearly indicates the photos were staged is the shot of Hillary Clinton with her hand over her mouth. Clinton looks shocked as if she has witnessed something disturbing, obviously implying that she is watching a live shootout or someone being assassinated, when in fact she saw nothing of the kind because the feed was cut before the SEALS entered the compound. The White House was careful to not describe this image as representing the moments during which the SEALS stormed the building, but the implication was clear, and the establishment media did the work for them, reporting that the picture depicted Obama and Clinton, “watching intently as the raid takes place,” another total falsehood.
Former top spymaster Dr. Steve R. Pieczenik, a man who worked under five different US Presidents, has been proven correct in his assertion that the photos were “Nonsense….total make-up, make believe,” and proof that Americans were being held captive to a “theater of the absurd”.
The entire account of the Bin Laden raid is fast turning into a Jerry Bruckheimer-style fictional made for TV movie, just as the Jessica Lynch “rescue” was scripted for public consumption, solely to elicit contrived patriotism and pro-war sentiment amongst the American people.
In addition to the dubious situation room pictures, it has also emerged that the images of Barack Obama that appeared on Monday morning’s newspapers after he had announced the death of Bin Laden the previous night were also completely staged.
“While the photo that ran on many newspapers and websites the next morning appeared as if it were taken during Obama’s address to the nation the night before, it was actually the result of an elaborate post-speech production,” reports the International Business Times.
“As President Obama continued his nine-minute address in front of just one main network camera, the photographers were held outside the room by staff and asked to remain completely silent,” Reuters photographer Jason Reed explained in his blog.
“Once Obama was off the air, we were escorted in front of that teleprompter and the President then re-enacted the walk-out and first 30 seconds of the statement for us.”
The staging of the Obama speech photo is embarrassing, but the staging of the situation room photos, which were heavily promoted by the establishment media, falsely presented as evidence that Obama, Biden and Clinton saw the assassination of Osama live, and used by the White House to lend credence to the fairytale they were busily scripting, are damning.
We truly have entered the “theater of the absurd” when, even as the narrative of the Bin Laden fable crashes and burns, the establishment media that helped manufacture this work of fiction are still claiming that anyone who even questions the blaring inconsistencies of the official account are merely conspiracy theorists engaging in “black helicopter fantasies”.
— Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a regular fill-in host for The Alex Jones Show.
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A man who shot and wounded another man during an altercation outside a Washington tavern was sentenced recently after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge.
Gregory S. Keys, 29, St. Clair, entered a guilty plea to one count of leaving the scene of a shooting.
Associate Circuit Judge Stan Williams accepted the plea and sentenced Keys to serve five days in the county jail.
Keys, originally charged with first-degree assault and armed criminal action in the March 12 shooting of Robert Skaggs, 23, Union, was given credit for time already served, according to Prosecuting Attorney Bob Parks.
Under the Class A misdemeanor, Keys could have been sentenced to up to a year in the county jail and/or fined up to $1,000.
No fine was levied in the case, Parks said.
The shooting occurred at the corner of Fifth and Stafford streets near the Sand Bar tavern and followed a previous confrontation between Keys and a friend and a group of men including Skaggs.
According to reports, when Keys stopped at the Fifth and Stafford intersection, the other group — in two vehicles — approached the intersection from the north and when they saw Keys’ vehicle they piled out of the cars and stormed Keys’ car. As Keys was backing up, Skaggs jumped on the hood of Keys’ car and was throwing punches or reaching through the sunroof while other men were trying to open the car doors. A brick or some other object was thrown, cracking the windshield on Keys’ car, Parks said.
Keys then fired a pistol through the sunroof and the bullet struck Skaggs, who was hospitalized but later recoverd.
After the shot was fired, Keys drove off, according to reports, and disposed of the gun which later was recovered by police detectives.
A man accused of shooting another man during an altercation outside a Washington tavern is no longer facing felony charges.
Prosecuting Attorney Bob Parks said after reviewing police reports and interviewing witnesses he made the decision Monday to dismiss first-degree assault and armed criminal action charges filed against Gregory S. Keys, 29, of St. Clair.
Keys shot and wounded Robert Skaggs, 23, Union, early Saturday, March 12, outside the Sand Bar at Fifth and Stafford streets, authorities alleged. Skaggs was shot in the chest near his left shoulder.
"I finally got all the reports and upon further investigation and consideration I decided to dismiss the felony charges," Parks told The Missourian Monday.
Parks did charge Keys with leaving the scene of a shooting, a Class A misdemeanor which carries a maximum penalty of a year in the county jail and/or a $1,000 fine.
Skaggs was with several friends, including a young woman, at Big Johnson's Doc Haus earlier in the evening and Keys had talked with the young woman.
Later, the group with Skaggs went to the Sand Bar and Keys and his friend also went to that bar where Keys again struck up a conversation with the young woman and asked her to leave with them. She refused, according to police
Keys and his friend then left, went to a tavern in St. Clair and later returned to the Sand Bar as Skaggs and his group were leaving the tavern. A confrontation occurred in which one man punched the passenger in Keys' car, according to statements to police.
Keys then drove off but returned to the area a short time later which resulted in another confrontation that ended with Keys pointing a handgun out of the car's sunroof and firing one shot that struck Skaggs.
Parks said statements by the different parties were consistent except for certain points. He said as Keys stopped at the Fifth and Stafford intersection, the other group - in two vehicles - approached the intersection from the north and when they saw Keys' vehicle they piled out of the cars and stormed Keys' car.
As Keys was backing up, Skaggs, Parks said, jumped on the hood of Keys' car and was throwing punches or reaching through the sunroof while other men were trying to open the car doors. A brick or other object was thrown, cracking the windshield on Keys' car, Parks said.
"Given all the facts, I felt I couldn't proceed with the felony charges," Parks said.
After the shot was fired, Skaggs fell off the hood and Keys drove off, Parks said. The other men then rushed Skaggs to the hospital.
Keys then drove to the Missouri River bridge where the gun - a 9 mm semiautomatic - was thrown over the side. Detectives later recovered the weapon between the riverfront trail and railroad tracks. READ MORE
A St. Clair man accused of shooting another man during an altercation outside a Washington tavern has been charged in a two-count felony warrant.
Gregory S. Keys, 29, was being held in the Franklin County Jail on a $100,000 cash-only bond in connection with the shooting early Saturday, March 12, outside the Sand Bar at Fifth and Stafford streets.
Prosecuting Attorney Bob Parks filed the felony complaint Thursday charging Keys with one count of first-degree assault and one count of armed criminal action.
Keys is accused of shooting Robert Skaggs, 23, Union.
Police Chief Ken Hahn called the arrest a case of “great follow-up police work” by Detective Steve Sitzes.
Sitzes “did an unbelievable job after an exhaustive investigative effort that resulted in cleaning up this case,” Hahn said in a prepared statement.
Sitzes told The Missourian that during his investigation he obtained information that led him to a man who was a passenger in Keys’ car the night the shooting occurred.
Sitzes later arrested Keys who, during questioning, made some incriminating statements, Parks said.
Keys made statements during the interview “that a man has a right to defend himself” and “someone shouldn’t break into a man’s car while he’s in the car,” according to a probable cause statement filed in associate circuit court.
Sitzes said Skaggs was with several friends, including a young woman, at Big Johnson’s Doc Haus Friday night and Keys had talked with the young woman. Later, the group with Skaggs went to the Sand Bar and Keys and his friend also went to that bar where Keys again struck up a conversation with the young woman.
Keys and his friend then left, went to a tavern in St. Clair and later returned to the Sand Bar as Skaggs and his group were leaving the tavern. A confrontation occurred in which one man punched the passenger in Keys’ car, according to the statement.
Keys then drove off but returned to the area a short time later which resulted in another confrontation.
Police allege that during the second encounter, Keys pointed a handgun out of the car’s sunroof and fired at least one shot. A bullet struck Skaggs in the chest near his left shoulder.
Sitzes said according to witnesses, Skaggs was on the hood of Keys’ car when he was wounded.
During an interview, the passenger in Keys’ car said after the shooting they drove over the Missouri River bridge and tossed out the handgun.
Sitzes and another detective searched the area under the bridge and found the gun — a 9mm semi-automatic — in the weeds between the railroad tracks and the riverfront trail. READ MORE
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Washington Police announced charges Thursday afternoon against a St. Clair man accused of shooting another person outside the Sand Bar early Saturday, Mar. 12. Gregory Keys, 23, was charged with First Degree Assault and Armed Criminal Action. His bond was set at $100,000 cash. According to information from police, Keys was seated in his vehicle outside the bar at Fifth and Stafford Streets when a male approached the car and punched a passenger in Keys' vehicle in the face. Keys drove off, circled the block, and returned a short time later, police said. When a group of men approached Key's vehicle, he allegedly took a black semi-automatic handgun from the glove box and shot one of them in the chest. Keys then drove off and threw the gun over the Highway 47 bridge, where it was later recovered by police. The victim was taken to an area hospital, and is expected to recover.
Police said the victim in Saturday morning's shooting, 23-year-old Robert Skaggs of Union, remained in stable condition at a St. Louis area hospital.
Skaggs was shot once in the chest following an altercation outside the Sand Bar on Fifth Street in Washington.
Police still have not identified a suspect in the case, described as a black male, possibly in his 30s, who left the scene in a dark-colored vehicle.
The incident, reported shortly after 1 a.m. Saturday, remains under investigation.
___________________________________________________ As of late Saturday afternoon Washington police continued their search for a suspect in an early morning shooting outside a local establishment named The Sand Bar. The suspect, identified as a black male, approximately 30-40 years old, shot the victim once in the shoulder shortly after 1:00 a.m.
The shooting outside the bar at the corner of Fifth and Stafford Streets occured during an altercation between roughly eight or nine people, police said. The victim, identified by police as a 23 year old male from Union, was standing outside the bar, while the shooter was inside a dark colored Cadillac, police said. Police believed two shots were fired through the car's sunroof.
The victim was taken to an area hospital, where, as of late Saturday, he was listed in stable condition, according to police.
Police said they were still piecing together details, and described those they had at this point as "sketchy", because witness accounts could have been blurred by alcohol.
Saturday, March 12, 2011 www.emissourian.com
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A man was shot early Saturday morning at Fifth and Stafford streets following an altercation outside the Sand Bar, according to Washington police. The man was sent to St. John's Mercy Hospital and later flown by air ambulance to St. John's Mercy Medical Center. He was listed in stable condition Saturday morning, a police spokesman said. The victim was described as a white male. No age or address was available. Police described the shooter as a black male who fled the scene following the incident which occurred about 1:15 a.m. Saturday. A police spokesman said details of the incident were sketchy because both the victim and witnesses did not cooperate with officers who responded to the scene.
Now the feds warn al-Qaeda may strike the rail sector. “An advisory has been sent to law enforcement officials asking them to be vigilant about train security based on information uncovered at Osama bin Laden’s compound after his death,” reports NBC New York.
