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HERMANN MISSOURI OKTOBERFEST 2010
HERMANN MISSOURI OKTOBERFEST 2010 - CLICK ON PHOTO FOR THIS YEARS SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
____________________________________________________________________________ Washington, D.C. December 31, 2010
Minneapolis: Redby Couple Sentenced for Second-Degree Murder A Redby couple was sentenced in connection to the murder of a 21-year-old man on October 1, 2009. Renee Delores Ann Smith was sentenced to 121 months in prison on one count of aiding and abetting murder in the second degree. Kelly James Maxwell was sentenced to 222 months on one count of aiding and abetting murder in the second degree. Full Story
Cincinnati: Powell Man Sentenced for Selling More Than 35,000 Illegally Copied Videogames Over the Internet Qiang “Michael” Bi was sentenced to 30 months incarceration for selling more than 35,000 illegally copied computer games over the Internet between 2005 and 2009. He is required to make restitution to the companies who created the games. Full Story
Los Angeles: Orange County Man Surrenders After Being Indicted in Investment Fraud Case that Caused $2.4 Million in Losses Charles Davis surrendered to agents in Orange County. Davis was indicted in an investment scheme in which he allegedly defrauded approximately 40 investors with losses exceeding $2 million. Full Story
Atlanta: Principals of Defunct Hedge Fund Indicted for $30 Million International Fraud Scheme
Thomas Repke was arraigned on multiple counts of mail fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy relating to his operation of the Utah-based investment company, “Coadum Capital.” Repke was indicted on December 15 along with an alleged accomplice, James Jeffry. Full Story
New York: Manhattan U.S. Attorney Charges Consultant of Expert-Networking Firm with Insider Trading
Winifred Jiau, a/k/a “Wini,” was arrested on charges relating to her involvement in an insider trading scheme. Jiau was charged with conspiring to commit securities fraud and engaging in securities fraud by selling material, nonpublic information about publicly-traded companies to multiple hedge funds for the purpose of executing profitable securities transactions. Full Story
Chicago: Former Chicago Man Allegedly Swindled Nearly $8 Million from More Than 50 Victims in Investment Fraud Scheme Randy M. Cho was charged with allegedly engaging in an investment fraud scheme, swindling nearly $8 million from more than 50 victims who were led to believe they were buying shares of stock in well-known companies. Cho purportedly offered and sold more than $9.6 million of shares in well-known companies to more than 50 U.S. and foreign investors. Full Story
New Haven: FBI Task Force Investigation into New Haven Cocaine Ring Results in Federal Charges Against Nine Men
A jury returned a seven-count indictment charging nine individuals with narcotics trafficking offenses related to the distribution of cocaine in and around New Haven. The nine men charged in the indictment were previously arrested on federal criminal complaints. Full Story
FBI Lab/Albuquerque: FBI Responds to Relocation of CODIS Server from the City of Albuquerque to Santa Fe The FBI Lab Director issued a statement in response to local Albuquerque media outlets’ coverage regarding the CODIS server being moved from the City of Albuquerque, Albuquerque Police Criminalistics Lab to the NM Department of Public Safety in Santa Fe, per NDIS procedures. Full Story
Oklahoma City: Final Defendant Sentenced in Norman Oxycontin Trafficking Ring
The last of 24 defendants was sentenced following a long-term investigation and prosecution of a wide-spread OxyContin trafficking operation based in Norman. The investigation resulted in the conviction of individuals from central Oklahoma, Oklahoma City, Noble, Lexington and Wellston. Full Story
Albany: Schenectady Man Sentenced to 27 Months in Prison for Role in Mortgage Fraud Scheme
Michael Cassadei was sentenced to 27 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay restitution of more than $130,000, for his role as an organizer of a local mortgage fraud scheme. Full Story
Feb. 2, 2011 - A Noteworthy Date in the coming new year.
Both Groundhog Day and the State of the Union address occur on the same day, Feb. 2, 2011.
It is an ironic juxtaposition of events: one involves a meaningless ritual in which we look to an insignificant creature of little intelligence for prognostication. ......
The other involves a groundhog.
_________________________________
Will 2011 Budget Be Released Before the State of the Union?
Tuesday, February 2 has been mentioned as a possibility. There is some controversy about this date, however, because the first episode of the final season of “Lost” on ABC is scheduled to air that night. (This is what happens when you deliver a speech in prime time). As a result, the SOTU date has not yet been set. READ MORE
________________________________________________________________________ TV Crew Covering President Claims Mistreatment
HONOLULU -- A public access television crew complained of police mistreatment Thursday, after trying to get a picture of President Barrack Obama.
Just after dawn Wednesday, the three-woman crew for a Big Island public access program called "We Are Change Hawaii" drove up to the barricade near the president's vacation home in Kailua.Host R.J. Hampton was told they couldn't stay, so she spoke into the video camera as she returned to the car.
The crew was video-taping vehicle searches along the potential motorcade route as they left the neighborhood. They noticed a van behind them.
Exciting turned to scary after they pulled into a gas station. On their video, a police officer approached the car and said, “Stay in the car. Put that camera off of me.” . Click Here for more info.
BRISBANE, Australia (AP) - Military aircraft dropped supplies to towns cut off by floods in northeastern Australia as the prime minister promised new assistance Friday to the 200,000 people affected by waters covering an area larger than France and Germany combined. Residents were stocking up on food or evacuating their homes as rising rivers inundated or isolated 22 towns in the state of Queensland. Prime Minister Julia Gillard toured an evacuation center in the flood-stricken town of Bundaberg on Friday and announced that families whose homes had been flooded or damaged would be eligible for disaster relief payments of $1,000 per adult and $400 per child. "My concern is for the people in these very difficult times," Gillard said. A day earlier, she pledged $1 million Australian dollars (about $1 million) in federal aid to match a relief fund already set up by the state government. Bundaberg resident Sandy Kiddle told Gillard she lost cherished items after floodwaters surged through her house. She said may not be able to return home for a week. "It was just a sea of water, and I thought the beach would never come to our house," she told Gillard, who gave her a hug. Officials say half of Queensland's 715,305 square miles (1,852,642 square kilometers) is affected by the relentless flooding, which began last week after days of pounding rain caused swollen rivers to overflow. The flood zone covers an area larger than France and Germany combined and bigger than the state of Texas. While the rain has stopped, the rivers are still surging to new heights and overflowing into low-lying towns as the water makes its way toward the sea. The muddy water inundating thousands of homes and businesses has led to a shortage of drinking water and raised fears of mosquito-borne disease. "This is without a doubt a tragedy on an unprecedented scale," Queensland Premier Anna Bligh told Australian Broadcasting Corp. Bligh warned that drenched communities could be stuck underwater for more than a week, and cleanup efforts were expected to cost billions of dollars. The Department of Community Safety said supplies of food and bedding were delivered by road and by military aircraft Friday to the towns of Rockhampton, Emerald, Springsure and Blackwater in central-east Queensland. Northeastern Australia often sees heavy rains and flooding during the Southern Hemisphere summer, but the scope of the damage from the recent downpours is unusual. The entire population of two towns has already been forced to evacuate as water swamped their communities, cutting off roads and devastating crops. The next city in the water's path - Rockhampton, near the coast - is bracing for flood levels forecast at 31 feet (9.4 meters) by Monday or Tuesday.. Click Here for more info.
Eberhardt worked at Steak 'n Shake in the Gravois Bluffs Mall in Fenton. Eberhardt has a six-year-old son who is now staying with his grandparents. Her funeral is scheduled for 11 a.m. Friday at Kutis Funeral Home on Lemay Ferry.
Police investigating a High Ridge woman's death said today they have arrested three people for abandoning her corpse. The body of Jessica Eberhardt, 26, was found in the passenger seat of her mother's snow-covered Ford Taurus early Tuesday morning on the parking lot of the St. Anthony's Urgent Care Center in Arnold. She was last seen Dec. 20. Police said foul play is not suspected, and that Eberhardt may have died from a drug overdose. On Thursday morning, Arnold police Lt. Nick McBroom confirmed that police had arrested three people in connection with the death investigation. McBroom said the three suspects were booked and released pending charges. A detective will be seeking charges today from the Jefferson County prosecuting attorney's office. McBroom described the three as a 32-year-old woman from the Arnold area, a 21-year-old man from Imperial, and a 21-year-old woman from the Arnold area. In addition to abandonment of a corpse, they were arrested on suspicion of obstructing a police officer, McBroom said. McBroom declined to discuss details about what the three allegedly did; he said more information would become available once charges are filed. Abandonment of a corpse is a class-D felony in Missouri, punishable by up to four years in prison. Missouri law says a person commits the crime if the person "abandons, disposes, deserts or leaves a corpse without properly reporting the location of the body to the proper law enforcement officials in that county."
The body of a missing High Ridge woman was found early this morning inside her mother's snow-covered car, which was parked on the lot of an urgent care center in Arnold. Police say the blue Ford Taurus was recovered about 3 a.m. -- and inside was the body of Jessica Yvonne Eberhardt, 26, of High Ridge. Police haven't told relatives how she died. Eberhardt was last seen Dec. 20. Police released few details at a news conference this afternoon, but said they did not suspect foul play in her death. Eberhardt's mother, Kim Eberhardt, told the Post-Dispatch that she was called to the police station this morning and asked about her daughter's tattoos. When the mother confirmed what they were, police showed her pictures of the dead woman's wrist with a tattoo her mother had mentioned. That is how Kim Eberhardt identified the body of her daughter. "They found her in her car, in the passenger's side," Kim Eberhardt said. Arnold police Lt. Nick McBroom said the car was found in an employee parking area of the urgent care center. He said it had been there since early in the week but would not be more specific. He said autopsy results are expected in four to six weeks. Police told Jessica Eberhardt's family this morning that they are continuing to talk with people last seen with her. "Hopefully they can find out who drove the car there," Kim Eberhardt said. Kim Eberhardt said relatives had been out searching for her daughter and the car since Dec. 20. They searched nearby but not the urgent care lot. "My youngest girl went to the movie theater across the street (from the urgent care center), and to Save-A-Lot, and this and that," Kim Eberhardt said. And the snowfall on Christmas Eve would have covered the car's magnetic American flag sticker on the trunk that made it easily identifiable, she added. read more
The Jefferson County sheriff's office is investigating the disappearance of Jessica Yvonne Eberhardt, 26, of High Ridge, who was last seen Dec. 20. Lt. Dave Marshak said investigators have determined through interviews that Eberhardt apparently had been asked to leave a residence where she was socializing with friends. She left in the dark blue 1993 Ford Taurus she was driving that belongs to her mother. Marshak said nothing so far points to foul play in her disappearance, although some relatives say they fear for her safety. Eberhardt has a 6-year-old son. She is 26, about 5-foot-7, weighs between 175 and 200 pounds, and has green eyes and shoulder-length brown hair with blond highlights. She has a dream catcher tattoo on her right ankle, a lizard tattoo on her right shoulder, fairy tattoo on her left shoulder and tattoos that say "Steven" on her right wrist. She also has a small scar about an inch long on her forehead. The car she was driving has the license tag FEO V4Y. Anyone with information is asked to call the sheriff's office at 636-797-6407.
High Ridge, MO (KSDK) -- Jefferson County authorities are looking for a 26-year-old mother who has been missing for a week. Police say Jessica Eberhardt was last seen driving away from her High Ridge apartment. Investigators do not suspect foul play, but have listed Eberhardt as a missing person. Eberhardt's parents say Jessica told a live-in friend that she was driving to a title loan business; she hasn't been seen since. Jessica works at the Steak 'n' Shake in the Gravois Bluffs Mall in Fenton. Kim Eberhardt says her daughter was driving a 1993 dark Ford Taurus, with Missouri plates FEO-V4Y. Anyone with information on Jessica Eberhardt's location is asked to contact the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office at 636-797-5000.. Click Here for more info.
The photo IS NOT RELATED TO THIS BUST...it is just one of several ways indoor growers try to beat the system.
_____________________________________________________________________________ Drug Arrest Resulting From Indoor Marijuana Grow Operation
MISSOURI STATE HIGHWAY PATROL
a division of the
DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY
Troop A, 504 SE Blue Parkway, Lee's Summit, MO 64063
NEWS RELEASE
For further information please contact: Sgt. Collin Stosberg
(816) 622-0800 ext. 259
A2010-79
December 29, 2010
EMPHASIS: Drug Arrest Resulting From Indoor Marijuana Grow Operation
On Tuesday, December 28, 2010, after an 11-month drug investigation by members of the Missouri State Highway Patrol, the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department, and the diversion unit of the Kansas City Power and Light Company, officers executed a search warrant at 427 Lawn Avenue, in Kansas City, Missouri. Officers seized an operational indoor marijuana growing operation consisting of 541 marijuana plants, grow equipment, and approximately one pound of processed marijuana.
As a result of the drug investigation and search warrant execution, Tham V. Huynh, 47, was arrested for felony possession of a controlled substance with the intent to distribute and was transported to the Jackson County Jail.
The charge for which Huynh was arrested is mere accusation and is not evidence of guilt. Evidence in support of the charge must be presented before a court of competent jurisdiction whose duty is to determine guilt or innocence . Click Here for more info.
BRITAIN’S winter is the coldest since 1683 and close to being the chilliest in nearly 1,000 years.
Latest figures reveal that the average temperature since December 1 has been a perishing -1C.
That makes it the second coldest since records began in 1659.
The chilliest on record was 1683/84, when the average was -1.17C and the River Thames froze over for two months.
But with January and February to come, experts believe they could suffer the most freezing cold winter in the last 1,000 years.
Although official weather records only go back to 1659, weather experts said the centuries from 1100 to 1500, dubbed the “Medieval warm period”, would not have produced winters as cold as today.
_____________________________________________________________________________ Forecasters keep eye on looming 'Solar Max'
The coming year will be an important one for space weather as the Sun pulls out of a trough of low activity and heads into a long-awaited and possibly destructive period of turbulence. Many people may be surprised to learn that the Sun, rather than burn with faultless consistency, goes through moments of calm and tempest.
But two centuries of observing sunspots -- dark, relatively cool marks on the solar face linked to mighty magnetic forces -- have revealed that our star follows a roughly 11-year cycle of behaviour.
The latest cycle began in 1996 and for reasons which are unclear has taken longer than expected to end.
Now, though, there are more and more signs that the Sun is shaking off its torpor and building towards "Solar Max," or the cycle's climax, say experts.
"The latest prediction looks at around midway 2013 as being the maximum phase of the solar cycle," said Joe Kunches of NASA's Space Weather Prediction Center.
But there is a prolonged period of high activity, "more like a season, lasting about two and a half years," either side of the peak, he cautioned.
At its angriest, the Sun can vomit forth tides of electromagnetic radiation and charged matter known as coronal mass ejections, or CMEs.
This shock wave may take several days to reach Earth. When it arrives, it compresses the planet's protective magnetic field, releasing energy visible in high latitudes as shimmering auroras -- the famous Northern Lights and Southern Lights.
But CMEs are not just pretty events.
They can unleash static discharges and geomagnetic storms that can disrupt or even knock out the electronics on which our urbanised, Internet-obsessed, data-saturated society depends.
Less feared, but also a problem, are solar flares, or eruptions of super-charged protons that can reach Earth in just minutes.
In the front line are telecommunications satellites in geostationary orbit, at an altitude of 36,000 kilometres (22,500 miles) and Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites, on which modern airliners and ships depend for navigation, which orbit at 20,000 kms (12,000 miles). . Click Here for more info.
Pluto is about 39 times farther from the Sun than Earth. With a surface temperature of about -230 degrees Celsius, Pluto does not seem like an ideal candidate to host an ocean. Yet, resent research suggest that Pluto may be warm enough to contain a large ocean beneath its miles-thick ice shell.
According to planetary scientist Guillaume Robuchon of the University of California, Santa Cruz, Pluto's ocean could be 60 to 105 miles in depth, 120 miles beneath the surface.
For an ocean to exist, Pluto's rocks must be concentrated in a rocky core with water and ice layered on the surface. Scientists suspect that the dwarf planet Pluto does in fact hold a rocky core spiked with radioactive materials that are slowly breaking down, releasing enough heat in the process to melt ice and keep it liquid.
By studying Pluto's surface, scientists can determine whether the dwarf planet contains an ocean or not.
If there is an ocean on the planet, the surface should show cracks created as Pluto gradually lost heat and the ice cap thickened over billions of years. That is because the freezing ice would have expanded, causing the surface to bulge upward cracking in the process.
If there was only ice and never an ocean, the cooling of the planet should have contracted the ice rather than expanded it.
NASA's New Horizon space probe is currently on its way to Pluto. After travelling more than 3 billion miles, it is scheduled to fly past Pluto and its moons in July 2015.
It will be the first space probe to have visited Pluto.
It is an exciting mission to an entirely new type of world and all involved scientists look forward to learn more about the enigmatic dwarf planet.
New Horizon will test whether Pluto actually has a subsurface ocean. We will just have to wait a little longer to find out.
Sanitation Department's slow snow clean-up was a budget protest
Selfish Sanitation Department bosses from the snow-slammed outer boroughs ordered their drivers to snarl the blizzard cleanup to protest budget cuts -- a disastrous move that turned streets into a minefield for emergency-services vehicles, The Post has learned.
Miles of roads stretching from as north as Whitestone, Queens, to the south shore of Staten Island still remained treacherously unplowed last night because of the shameless job action, several sources and a city lawmaker said, which was over a raft of demotions, attrition and budget cuts. . Click Here for more info.
Dodging Repatriation Tax Lets U.S. Companies Bring Home Cash
At the White House on Dec. 15, business executives asked President Obama for a tax holiday that would help them tap more than $1 trillion of offshore earnings, much of it sitting in island tax havens.
The money -- including hundreds of billions in profits that U.S. companies attribute to overseas subsidiaries to avoid taxes -- is supposed to be taxed at up to 35 percent when it’s brought home, or “repatriated.” Executives including John T. Chambers of Cisco Systems Inc. say a tax break would return a flood of cash and boost the economy.
What nobody’s saying publicly is that U.S. multinationals are already finding legal ways to avoid that tax. Over the years, they’ve brought cash home, tax-free, employing strategies with nicknames worthy of 1970s conspiracy thrillers -- including “the Killer B” and “the Deadly D.”
Merck & Co Inc., the second-largest drugmaker in the U.S., last year brought more than $9 billion from abroad without paying any U.S. tax to help finance its acquisition of Schering-Plough Corp., securities filings show. Merck is also appealing a federal judge’s 2009 finding that Schering-Plough owed taxes on $690 million it had earlier brought home from overseas tax-free.
The largest drugmaker, Pfizer Inc., imported more than $30 billion from offshore in connection with its acquisition of Wyeth last year, while taking steps to minimize the tax hit on its publicly reported profit.
Disclosures in Switzerland and Delaware by Eli Lilly & Co. show the Indianapolis-based pharmaceutical company carried out many of the steps for a tax-free importation of foreign cash after its roughly $6 billion purchase of ImClone Systems Inc. in 2008. ‘Trivially Small Taxes’
“Sophisticated U.S. companies are routinely repatriating hundreds of billions of dollars in foreign earnings and paying trivially small U.S. taxes on those repatriations,” said Edward D. Kleinbard, a law professor at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. “They devote enormous resources first to moving income to tax havens, and then to bringing those profits back to the U.S. at the lowest possible tax cost.”
U.S. companies overall use various repatriation strategies to avoid about $25 billion a year in federal income taxes . Click Here for more info.
Could Delay Payments and Partial Funding of Some County Agencies
Ameren has agreed to pay 65 percent of the $410,900 in taxes assessed in the county for railroad and utilities but is protesting the other 35 percent. The issue will be decided in negotiations between the State Tax Commission and Ameren legal counsel. The Gasconade County R-1 and R-2 School Districts could be hardest hit.. Click Here for more info.
In a complaint filed Nov. 22, to the Surface Transportation Board, a federal regulatory agency that resolves railroad service disputes, Ameren asserts that Union Pacific is preventing the Missouri Central Railroad Co. from serving the plant, which burns more than 10 million tons of coal a year.
Missouri Central is owned by Ameren Development Co., a subsidiary of the Ameren Corp., the parent company of the utility. Ameren wants to use the railroad to bring in coal from Illinois, a potentially lower-cost alternative to mines in Wyoming's Powder River Basin that currently provide the bulk of the coal the utility uses.
The dispute revolves around a contested provision in a complex 1999 sale of a railroad line and the rights to use it, involving three railroads and Ameren Missouri, which financed the purchase. In the exchange, Missouri Central Railroad — using money from Ameren — purchased a majority interest in the Rock Island line railroad between St. Louis and Kansas City. It purchased the line from GRC Holdings, which had purchased it from Union Pacific, all in the same set of connected deals. Also included were "trackage rights" for Missouri Central to use several other sections of track in the region.. Click Here for more info.
Lithium—a simple metal and the oldest drug in psychiatry—might protect the brain against mental illness, Alzheimer’s, and other diseases. One problem: There’s no profit in it.
Lithium is as puzzling as it is potent. It was the first drug used to treat mental illness, and more than 50 years later, it is still one of the most widely used psychiatric medications. But the doctors who prescribe lithium to their patients still do not know how it works or even why it works. “It is the most mysterious drug in psychiatry,” says De-Maw Chuang, a biologist at the National Institute of Mental Health. “It’s so small, but it is so powerful.”
Unlike other psychoactive chemicals—large, complex molecules like Prozac (fluoxetine) or Abilify (aripiprazole)—lithium is extremely simple. It is an element, the lightest of the metals, and its chemical properties are similar to those of the sodium in table salt. Nonetheless, researchers have recently found that lithium could be something close to a psychiatric wonder drug. It has two remarkable powers in the brains of mentally ill patients: protecting neurons from damage and death and alleviating existing damage by spurring new nerve cell growth. Far beyond its current application as a mood stabilizer, lithium could be helpful in treating or preventing Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia, stroke, glaucoma, Lou Gehrig’s disease (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), and Huntington’s disease—an impressive tally that earned it the nickname “the aspirin of the brain” in the journal Nature.
In the United States, lithium is now the first-line treatment for bipolar disorder, a dangerous condition with the highest suicide rate of any psychiatric illness. Lithium compounds, usually given as lithium carbonate or lithium citrate, have three beneficial effects on bipolar patients: preventing mania, easing acute manic episodes, and, to a lesser extent, lifting depression. . Click Here for more info.
What volume of antibiotics are sold in the United States each year for human use. It’s a crucial question because, in answer to concerns about antibiotic resistance arising on farms, the answer has always been that human medicine is equally culpable because it uses similar volumes of antibiotics.
In accordance with a 2008 amendment to the Animal Drug User Fee Act, for the first time the FDA released last week an annual amount of antimicrobial drugs sold and distributed for use in food animals. The grand total for 2009 is 13.1 million kilograms or 28.8 million pounds.
Human antibacterial drug use in the U.S. market was approximately 3.3 million kilograms of antibacterial drugs were sold in year 2009,a little over 7 million pounds.
Most important to note: Most of the drugs used in animal agriculture and in human medicine are functionally identical. That’s one reason why the overuse of antibiotics in animals is such a concern: When organisms become resistant on the farm to drugs used on livestock, they are becoming resistant to the exact same drugs used in humans.
The next battle, which industry has already begun, is defining what non-therapeutic use will constitute. Producers are already claiming that the use of antibiotics for growth promotion has decreased, maintaining current low-dose usage is aimed at disease prevention. Regardless, all low-dose usage of antibiotics can lead to a significant increase in antibiotic resistance. . Click Here for more info.
U.S. Armed Forces Reduce Recruitment Target Even as Demand Increases
Young Americans looking to join the armed forces may have to wait to serve.
The combination of lower recruitment target numbers, a weak economy and the implementation of the GI bill has made waiting lists, officially known as the Delayed Entry Pool, longer than they have been in recent years.
The Marine Corps, which has traditionally had a smaller recruiting base, has fulfilled more than 65 percent of its target for fiscal year 2011. The Army entered the new recruiting year in October having fulfilled 50 percent, or half its targeting goals for next year.
The number is a near record for the Army. The last time in recent decades the waiting list was so long was 1996, when the Delayed Entry Pool was at 42.9 percent at the start of the fiscal year.
In recent years, the Army lowered standards to boost recruitment, including allowing those with low test scores and even criminal records to join. But after years of such incentives and hefty bonuses, recruitment interest has not only surged but the quality of Americans who have expressed interest has improved considerably.
For the first time since fiscal year 1992, nearly all of the Army recruits -- 99.9 percent -- in fiscal year 2010 were high school graduates. . Click Here for more info.
An enormous storm has erupted in Saturn’s northern hemisphere.
Amateurs first sighted the storm earlier this month, but the Cassini spacecraft moved into a good position on Dec. 24 to photograph it from about 1.1 million miles away. Earth received the raw and unprocessed shots today.
The storm has a huge central funnel and a long tail that sweeps around Saturn’s northern hemisphere for tens of thousands of miles. A shot in blue light (left) reveals the extent of the tail, but infrared light (right) shows detail of the storm’s amorphous core. The photos were taken exactly a month after Cassini recovered from a solar-flare-induced error that temporarily silenced the spacecraft from Nov. 2 through Nov. 24.
Saturn’s weather is complex like Jupiter’s, but it’s often difficult to see such storms beneath Saturn’s hazy outer atmosphere, wrote Carolyn Porco, a planetary scientist and leader of Cassini’s imaging team, on Twitter. Images: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
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More banks failed in the United States this year than in any year since 1992, during the savings-and-loan crisis, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
Amid high unemployment, a struggling economy and a still-devastated real estate market, the nation is closing out the year with 157 bank failures, up from 140 in 2009. As recently as 2006, before the bubble burst, there were none.
Now, there are more on the horizon.
The FDIC's list of "problem" banks - those whose weaknesses "threaten their continued financial viability"- stood at 860 as of Sept. 30, the highest since 1993. Historically, about a fifth of banks on the watch list end up failing.
Bank failures have left the FDIC insurance fund in the red, but the agency predicts that it will have more than enough money to meet the anticipated cost of failures through 2014. . Click Here for more info.
Porter Stansberry: I'm fascinated by the way the crisis is unfolding. The U.S. government is still willing to add enormous amounts of new debt. And it is willing to underwrite not only quantitative easing in the U.S. but also fund it in Europe as well. These are symptoms of a much bigger ongoing problem-the enormous sovereign debt crisis in the Western democracies. I think we're going to see a lot more quantitative easing. We're going to have to see a lot more fiscal deficit growth going forward, especially with a union between the Republican House that wants to cut taxes and the Obama administration that wants to extend benefits. "You let us cut taxes and we'll agree to extend benefits." Of course, that's the worst of both worlds in terms of our fiscal position because it will result in vastly bigger spending and less tax revenue. There's no other government that will even attempt adding vast new debts at this stage in the game. Americans still have no idea of the risks our government is taking with our currency. . Click Here for more info.
Missouri has proposed increasing tattoo shop licensing fees from $30 to $100. The increase in fees for artists and body piercers would generate more revenue for the state, about $120,000 over the two year licensing period.
Surprising to some, some artists think fees should go up because it will help get the people who do tattoos illegally out of the market.
A state agency that looks at professional licensing said the state needs the increase in order to make sure businesses give tattoos and piercings in the correct way. The number of body piercing and tattoo businesses in Missouri has increased by 33 percent since 2005. Click Here for more info.
According to The Associated Press, Wayne, Mich., City Manager John Sechs says workers have pulled a man's body from the wreckage of a furniture store in the town. He was identified as James Zell, 64, of Westland, Mich. One other person is still missing. As rescuers in Wayne, Mich., continue to search for two people believed trapped in the rubble, authorities have widened the evacuation zone around a furniture store that was leveled earlier today by what's believed to have been a natural gas explosion.
The Detroit Free Press reports that at least "100 homes and 250 to 300 people have been evacuated, assistant to city manager Carrie Shelton said."
"Gas officials are evacuating City Hall and additional homes after detecting a second gas leak in the neighborhood where an explosion this morning left a store owner seriously injured and two others possibly buried in rubble."
The News adds that:
"The [William C. Franks] store, which had been a mainstay business in this community since 1963, has been reduced to rubble. Broken wood frames, cinder blocks and remnants of dry wall were scattered near the building that now looks like a house of cards that has partially fallen down. The roof has totally collapsed. The windows of buildings next door were blown out. "The explosion, which shook area homes and frightened residents, could be felt as far as five miles away, witnesses said."
L&S is holding a large used machinery auction on Thursday, Dec. 30, starting at 9 a.m.
The John Deere dealership in Hermann will be changing names Monday, Jan. 3, 2011. L & S Equipment, Inc. of Hermann will become the 10th location of Sydenstricker Implement Co., based in Mexico, Mo. Steve and Donna Bockting sold their dealership to the Sydenstricker firm after operating the business for nearly 24 1/2 years. The Bocktings started their L&S Equipment business as a John Deere dealership in August 1986. It is located on Highway 100, 4 miles west of Hermann.
Steve Bockting and the rest of the employees will remain at the John Deere dealership in Hermann. Bockting will work in the sales department. . Click Here for more info.
Cory Brooks, Deveon Shockley and Tory Brooks were charged with second-degree murder in the Dec. 24, 2010, shooting of Brandon Joyce on the parking lot of the Bass Pro Shop in St. Charles.
A fourth suspect, who police said fired the fatal shot, has been taken into custody in the drug deal turned robbery in St. Charles on Christmas Eve. The man, Jevone L. Little, 20, of the 6000 block of Jefferson Street in St. Louis, was arrested in Jennings about 2 p.m. He is charged with second-degree murder, first-degree robbery and two counts of armed criminal action. Bail is set at $1 million cash. According to court records, Little and Cory Brooks met the victim, Brandon Joyce, on Main Street in St. Charles at 1:30 a.m. on Christmas Eve. Joyce made arrangements with Little to buy drugs, and Little told Cory and Tory Brooks and Deveon Shockley that he was going to rob Joyce. Little and Cory Brooks got into Joyce's vehicle, and Joyce picked up a friend. They drove to a nearby ATM where Joyce made a withdrawal. Joyce then parked on the lot of the Bass Pro Shop and a struggle ensue between Joyce and Little inside the vehicle. "Little removed a large caliber revolver that he had concealed inside of his clothing," court documents say. "Little pointed the revolver at the victim and shot him one time in the head. Little took the U.S. currency in the victim's possession and fled the scene along with the other co-defendants." According to the records, Little has been identified by a witness as the shooter. Forensic evidence places Little in the victim's vehicle. The records also describe Little as "a documented gang member." Little has a history of arrest for burglary, possession of a controlled substance, unlawful use of a weapon and resisting arrest. . Click Here for more info.
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View 5 days ago, looking into the woods, from Poor Richards deck at home.
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Poor Richard 2011 started Hermann MO News just 78 short days ago, October 14, 2010.
Today, December 29th, marks the first time HMN has hit 10,000 Page Views in a 30 day time frame!!!
I never envisioned this kind of attention in such a short time, it is GREATLY APPRECIATED!!!
To all our Visitors, the world over, Hermann MO News & Poor Richard wish to THANK YOU for your support and hope each and every Reader has a Prosperous and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
_________________________________________________________________________________ Jeff Limberg of the Owensville electric department lowers the damaged pole as Brian Scott of Hermann and Jesse Price and Dave Micke of the Owensville department replace fixtures and lines on the new pole.
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Owensville Power and Light Department linemen, along with three linemen from the city of Hermann's electric department, replaced a utility pole Wednesday which was damaged Tuesday night by a tractor-trailer driver attempting to turn right onto North Cedar off East Apple.
Power was out for approximately 30 minutes to much of the city's north side following the incident reported at 9:45 p.m. on Dec. 28. Linemen shut off power to the circuit for safety concerns as the broken pole was secured with a boom-arm truck. The No. 4 primary line services the area east of Oak Street and the area north along Springfield Road.
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania whose pension problem was called a “financial Armageddon” by two city councilors yesterday, joins cities such as San Diego and states such as Illinois and New Jersey that may cut services or raise taxes to meet ballooning retirement costs. Those states and 18 others skipped payments or underfunded their retirement systems from 2007 to 2009, according to an October 2010 report from Loop Capital Markets in Chicago.
Raising taxes is not the answer. It would encourage both white flight and business flight. Higher property taxes would cause more bankruptcies from people already on the edge, barely able to get by right now. Higher taxes certainly would do nothing to attract business.
The first baby boomers will be old enough to qualify for Medicare Jan. 1, and many fear the program's obituary will be written before their own.
A new Associated Press-GfK poll finds that baby boomers believe by a ratio of 2-to-1 they won't be able to rely on the giant health insurance plan throughout their retirement. The boomers took a running dive into adolescence and went on to redefine work and family, but getting old is making them nervous. Now, forty-three percent say they don't expect to be able to depend on Medicare forever, while only 20 percent think their Medicare is secure. The rest have mixed feelings.
Here's the math: when the last of the boomers reaches age 65 in about two decades, Medicare will be covering more than 80 million people. At the same time, the ratio of workers paying taxes to support the program will have plunged from 3.5 for each person receiving benefits currently, to 2.3.
The government can't balance its books without dealing with health care costs, and Medicare is in the middle. Some leading Republicans and a few Democrats have called for phasing out the program and instead giving each retiree a fixed payment _ or voucher _to help them buy private medical insurance of their choice. The poll found doubts about the idea, and a generational debate.
Overall, a narrow majority (51 percent) of Americans opposed the voucher plan. But those born after 1980 favored it by 47 percent to 41 percent, while seniors opposed it 4-to-1. A majority of boomers were also opposed, with 43 percent strongly objecting. . Click Here for more info.
