Providing Quick Links to News Stories of Local Interest. Feel FREE to come back and leave comments on any story. Yes, even anonymously.... No Subscription Fees--No Registration!!! Enjoy!!! http://HermannMoNews.blogspot.com/
HERMANN MISSOURI OKTOBERFEST 2010
HERMANN MISSOURI OKTOBERFEST 2010 - CLICK ON PHOTO FOR THIS YEARS SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
Lady Gaga Falls in Concert
Pop star slips on stage while performing "Poker Face" in Atlanta, Georgia.
___________________________________________ _____________________________________ . . Donate To Keep This Site Alive
______________________________________________________ ___________________________ . . . .
_____________________________________________________________________________
Donate To Keep This Site Alive
______________________________________________________ ___________________________ . . . .
_____________________________________________________________________________
GANNETT -- You may be wondering what you are actually paying for in that high priced gallon of regular gas. The Energy Information Administration released a breakdown based on the most recent data they analyzed in February. The average price then, was $3.21 a gallon. -- 13 percent went to state and federal taxes. -- Eight percent went toward everything that happens with the gas before it gets to the gas station, including: transportation, storage, retail sales and profits. -- 14 percent went to refine that crude oil into gas. -- But by far, oil companies pocketed the biggest share of the pie - 65 percent.
___________________________________________ _____________________________________ . . Donate To Keep This Site Alive
______________________________________________________ ___________________________ . . . .
_____________________________________________________________________________
3D Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy beats opening day box office record set by Avatar
A PIONEERING 3D erotic comedy has taken the Hong Kong box office by storm.
"People have always thought that you need 3D for this kind of content."
Next stop, the world.
The Cantonese-language production 3D Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy had earned 17 million Hong Kong dollars ($2.2 million) as of Tuesday since opening last week, according to figures provided by producer Stephen Shiu.
That's nearly seven times the total take so far for Hollywood thriller Scream 4, which has earned $HK2.5 million ($320,000). Sex and Zen — a remake of a 1991 Hong Kong movie by the same name — features full nudity and camouflaged lovemaking scenes but does not show actual sexual intercourse.
The movie, which stars Japanese porn stars Hara Saori and Suo Yukiko and Hong Kong actress Vonnie Liu, tells the story of a sexually frustrated scholar in ancient China who loses himself in the harem of a duke he befriends.
The film brought in $HK2.78 million ($360,000) on its opening day last Thursday, eclipsing the previous first-day record set by James Cameron's 2009 3D sci-fi epic Avatar, which earned $HK2.63 million ($340,000) on its first day.
Shiu, whose father Stephen Shiu Sr served as executive producer on the original Sex and Zen, said he believes he has capitalised on a huge desire for 3D erotic movies.
"We met people's expectations. People have always thought that you need 3D technology for this kind of content. So people were very curious," he said. Sex and Zen bills itself as the world's first 3D erotic film, although Shiu acknowledges that a South Korean production — last year's Natali — hit the market before his release did.
However, Shiu's movie is still a pioneering attempt at using new 3D technology in theatrical releases of erotic films, given that the market in the West is now largely dominated by DVD releases.
The movie's Hong Kong performance has also been boosted by an influx of mainland Chinese viewers, whom Shiu estimates accounted for up to half of the business at some theatres.
Although former British colony Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule in 1997, it still maintains a separate political system — and film regulatory regime.
While Hong Kong has a film ratings system, mainland China doesn't, which effectively rules out erotic content. Sex and Zen received a restricted rating in Hong Kong, allowing only audiences aged 18 and older to see the film.
It's not the first time mainland viewers have traveled to Hong Kong to evade censorship by Chinese authorities. Many mainlanders crossed over to watch the uncut version of Oscar-winning Taiwanese director Ang Lee's sexually explicit 2007 spy thriller Lust, Caution.
Hong Kong theatre operators have also sought to cash in on the novelty factor by staging women-only screenings. Sex and Zen has also been released in about a dozen theatres in Chinese communities in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, but Shiu didn't have box office results.
The movie is scheduled to be released in South Korea on May 12, and in France, Italy and India in June. Shiu is also targeting a May release for Singapore, although the filmmakers are still working with local censors on the final cut.
Donate To Keep This Site Alive
______________________________________________________ ___________________________ . . . .
_____________________________________________________________________________
Deputies: Seath Jackson, 15, Killed In Marion County Home
April 21, 2011 www.wesh.com
___________________________________________________________________________________ . OCALA, Fla. -- Deputies in Marion County arrested six people after a teenager was beaten and shot and then his remains burned in a bound sleeping bag.
The Marion County Sheriff's Office said the six people were arrested and charged in connection with the death of 15-year-old Seath Tyler Jackson, of Belleview.Deputies said the slaying happened on Sunday, but Jackson's parents didn't report him missing until Monday. On Tuesday, the suspects confessed, police said.Investigators with the MCSO said Charlie Ely, 18; Amber E. Wright, 15; Michael Bargo, 18; Justin Soto, 20; James Havens, 47; and Kyle Hooper, 16, face first-degree murder charges. Detectives said Jackson walked into a trap. Arrest records indicate the teenager was brought to a home on false pretenses.Jackson's friends told WESH 2 News that the victim's ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend are at the center of the elaborate murder plot.Investigators said the savage plot began with a hatred between the victim and Bargo. They said they believe Bargo enlisted five others to help carry it out.Detectives said Wright, who was the victim's ex-girlfriend, and Ely lured Jackson to Ely's Summerfield home. Friends said they believe Jackson was lured for revenge in what became a teenage love triangle."Amber broke up with Seath and dated Mike Bargo," one of Jackson's friends told WESH 2 News.Deputies said that when Jackson arrived at the house, Hooper and Soto jumped him and beat him up.Jackson was beaten in the head with a wooden object, then shot multiple times with a .22-caliber gun, according to investigators. When Jackson tried to escape, deputies said, Soto tackled Jackson so Bargo could shoot him again.According to an arrest affidavit, Soto admitted to moving Jackson's body into a bathtub, where he saw Bargo break the victim's knees in order to stuff the body into a blue sleeping bag.That's when Soto said the group realized Jackson was still alive, so Bargo fired another round, police said.Investigators said the group then placed Jackson's body into the sleeping bag and burned it in a fire pit, and Jackson's remains were shoveled into several paint cans.Detectives said Bargo's stepfather drove him to a quarry to dump the ashes. Dive teams recovered the paint cans used to sink the remains. "I couldn't believe it, that people who I know could just snap like that," said Tessa McLamb, a friend of the suspects.Deputies said Havens is charged with accessory to first-degree murder because he was aware of the plan to kill Jackson. Deputies said Havens also attempted to help Bargo avoid capture."I hope they get the electric chair, and they burn and we can sit and watch like they did to him," said Billi Thorington, whose son was close friends with Jackson.On Wednesday, crime scene technicians scoured the property in search of the murder weapon.There were prayers and tears Wednesday night as friends of Jackson tried to understand how the teenager's one-time friends could now be charged in his death."Who could murder a 15-year-old boy?" asked William Samalot, the victim's best friend.Crime scene technicians are expected to be back out on Thursday searching for the gun.
_________________________________________________________________________ Opponents plan protest while Ameren board meets in Powell Hall
By Jo Mannies www.stlbeacon.org
April 20, 2011
___________________________________________________________________________________
Opponents of the legislative effort to allow utilities to collect money from customers to help pay for a site permit for a possible future nuclear power plant plan to hold a protest rally early Thursday outside Ameren's shareholders meeting in Powell Hall.
The rally is being held despite the opinion of the bill's handler in the Senate that it likely won't get through the chamber before the session ends May 13.
The bill in question, Senate Bill 48, would reverse part of the state's current law -- put in place by voters in 1976 -- that bars utilities from using customers' payments to finance some of the costs of new power plants before they are in operation. Ameren and Gov. Jay Nixon, along with some construction unions, have been encouraging construction of another nuclear plant in the state.
Ed Smith, coordinator of the opposition effort for the Missouri Coalition for the Environment, said today's protest reflected opponents' fears that the bill may be resurrected. "We have seen legislation in the past creep back up in the last day,'' he said.
Opponents cite last weekend's actions by Ameren and its lobbyists, who appeared to woo some area legislators by providing tickets to the Lil Wayne concert.
Smith said that his side also has other issues to raise with Ameren. He said the board is expected to be asked to vote Thursday on a proposal that, in effect, "eliminates the ability of the shareholders to sue the board of directors in the case of a nuclear meltdown."
___________________________________________ _____________________________________ . . Donate To Keep This Site Alive
______________________________________________________ ___________________________ . . . .
_____________________________________________________________________________
mashable.com
by Charlie White April 20, 2011
___________________________________________________________________________________
Debt collector stalking you on Facebook? Melanie Beacham says it’s harassment and took debt collector MarkOne Financial to court, trying to get the company to stop sending her Facebook messages about the debt she owed. The company also allegedly sent such messages to everyone else on her Facebook friends list. Behind on her car payments, Beacham started receiving as many as 23 calls per day from MarkOne Financial before it found her on Facebook, according to the Orlando Sentinel. A Florida judge put a stop to the phone calls and online messages in a preliminary ruling, barring the debt collector from calling her, or from contacting her, anyone in her family or any of her Facebook friends. According to the Orlando Sentinel, this is the first court decision of its kind, and it could strike fear in the hearts of debt collectors everywhere, who are eager to use any legal means necessary to get that money back. Beacham’s attorney is Billy Howard, who’s in charge of the consumer protection department at personal-injury law firm Morgan and Morgan, a well-heeled outfit that includes big names such as former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist. We’re guessing the firm is taking care of the expenses of this high-profile lawsuit.
___________________________________________ _____________________________________ . . Donate To Keep This Site Alive
______________________________________________________ ___________________________ . . . .
_____________________________________________________________________________
Michael Edwards Infowars.com
April 21, 2011
___________________________________________________________________________________
Miami-Dade County seems to have become a staging ground in preparation of a militarized police state. The latest event was reported on by The Miami-Herald when a scene right out of the movie Conspiracy Theory led residents to start Tweeting about “pitch black” military helicopters dropping men onto buildings, including the Bank of America building, beginning around 9:15 p.m. as witnessed in the video below:
.
. Michael Edwards’s post first appeared on the Activist Post website.
___________________________________________ _____________________________________ . . Donate To Keep This Site Alive
______________________________________________________ ___________________________ . . . .
_____________________________________________________________________________
Paul Joseph Watson Infowars.com
April 20, 2011
___________________________________________________________________________________
A damning new study conducted by German scientists has found that so-called energy saving light bulbs contain poisonous carcinogens that could cause cancer and should be “kept as far away as possible from the human environment,” but Americans will be forced to replace their traditional light bulbs with toxic CFLs ahead of a government ban set to take effect at the start of next year.
“German scientists claimed that several carcinogenic chemicals and toxins were released when the environmentally-friendly compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) were switched on, including phenol, naphthalene and styrene,” reports the London Telegraph.
The study, conducted by Peter Braun at the Berlin’s Alab Laboratory, led the scientists involved to warn that the bulbs should only be used sparingly, in areas with good ventilation, and “definitely not in the proximity of the head,” due to the danger of the electrical smog the bulbs generate impacting human health.
That’s going to cause difficulties for Americans who will be forced to buy the bulbs following a government ban on traditional incandescent lighting that comes into effect on January 1, 2012.
A 2007 bill signed in to law by President George W. Bush mandates that, “Manufacturers will no longer be able to make the 100-watt Thomas Edison bulb after Jan. 1, 2012, followed by the 75-watt version in Jan. 2013, and the the 60- and 40-watt bulbs in Jan. 2014.”
The legislation mirrors similar laws in Europe, where incandescent bulbs began to be phased out in 2009. The EU also plans to ban halogen bulbs by 2016, forcing people to use compact fluorescent lamps, or CFLs, which produce a poor quality of light with an attendant flicker affect that causes many people to become dizzy and ill.
Ron Paul is amongst those leading a charge in Congress to repeal the draconian state phase out of Thomas Edison’s iconic invention. The Freedom Action group has also launched a national campaign to repeal the ban. Last week, the South Carolina House passed a bill overturning the ban and similar legislation is in the works in Texas, Georgia and Minnesota.
“It is my strong belief that the feds have overstepped the 10th Amendment and now are venturing into telling us what kind of lighting we can have in our homes and businesses,” Republican Rep. Bill Sandifer said in a statement after the House passed his legislation. “This bill is about taking a stand against government intrusion in our everyday lives. I am championing this bill because I believe that we must fight for limited government, personal freedoms, and the free market.”
Forcing Americans to buy CFL bulbs that are harmful to their health and the environment is completely unconstitutional. Indeed, in a similar vein to forcing Americans to buy mandatory health insurance under Obamacare, it’s a clear violation of the Commerce Clause.
The so-called “dirty energy” emitted by CFLs produces radiation that has been linked with migraine headaches, sleep abnormalities, fatigue, and other health defects.
The new German study adds to concerns raised by separate research conducted by Abraham Haim, a professor of biology at Haifa University in Israel, who found that the light emitted by CFL’s increased the chance of women getting breast cancer by disrupting the body’s production of the hormone melatonin.
CFLs are also more harmful to the environment because they are filled with toxic mercury that contaminates the environment when the bulbs reach the landfill.
“A report released in 2008 from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection revealed that when a CFL bulb is broken, it can release dangerously high levels of mercury into the air,” writes Ethan Huff.
“In Toronto, city officials require people to dispose of CFL bulbs at special hazardous waste facilities because they don’t want the city’s landfills to become contaminated with mercury. While used CFL bulbs are not legally recognized as hazardous waste, they are treated as such because they pose serious environmental threats when broken and released into the environment.”
Americans have begun stockpiling dwindling supplies of incandescent light bulbs as the 2012 ban nears.
The light bulb ban is a foretaste of what’s to come as the enforcement arm of the eco-fascist agenda unfolds. As we have documented, enviro-Nazis envisage a future world in which car use will be heavily restricted, CO2 emissions will be rationed, meat will be considered a rare delicacy, the state will decide your career, and only the mega-rich elitists enforcing all these new rules and regulations will be exempt from them.
Indeed, as Rand Paul recently highlighted, the light bulb ban mirrors the collectivist dictatorship fictionalized in Ayn Rand’s dystopic novel Anthem, where the elite decides to replace light bulbs with candles as part of its purge of individual choice.
“There’s a young man and his name is Equality,” explained U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican and tea party favorite, at a recent energy hearing in Washington where he talked about the book. “[The character] is an intelligent young man but he is banned from achieving or reaching any sort of occupation that would challenge him. He is a street sweeper.”
“Over time, he discovers an abandoned subway and rediscovers the incandescent light bulb,” Paul continued. “And he thinks, naively, that electricity and the brilliance of light would be an advantage for society and that it would bring great new things as far as being able to see at night, being able to read and the advancement of civilization.”
“He takes it before the collective of elders, and they take the light bulb, and basically it’s crushed beneath the boot heel of the collective,” Paul went on. “The collective has no place basically for individual choice.”
VIDEO: The Dark Side of CFLs - Energy Saving Bulbs, Not Such a Bright Idea, Dirty Electricity Health Risks
.
.
___________________________________________ _____________________________________ . . Donate To Keep This Site Alive
______________________________________________________ ___________________________ . . . .
_____________________________________________________________________________
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
April 20, 2011
___________________________________________________________________________________
If there was a scintilla of doubt as to whether Americans are living in a predatory police state, then this story completely eviscerates it. Michigan state police have been using a handheld mobile forensics device to steal information from cell phones belonging to motorists stopped for minor traffic violations.
.
.
The high-tech device works with 3000 different phone models and can bypass passwords to process “Complete extraction of existing, hidden, and deleted phone data, including call history, text messages, contacts, images, and geotags,” according to CelleBrite, the company behind the device. “The Physical Analyzer allows visualization of both existing and deleted locations on Google Earth. In addition, location information from GPS devices and image geotags can be mapped on Google Maps.”
“A US Department of Justice test of the CelleBrite UFED used by Michigan police found the device could grab all of the photos and video off of an iPhone within one-and-a-half minutes,” reports TheNewspaper.com.
Michigan state police have been using the device to conduct 4th amendment-violating searches of motorists’ phones who have not even been suspected of any crime.
To add insult to injury, when the ACLU attempted to file a freedom of information act request to discover how police were using the devices, they were slapped with a demand for $544,680 from the Michigan state police.
The fact that Americans are now considered guilty until proven innocent and treated like terrorists by cops who have been trained that their role is no longer to “serve and protect” but to harass and abuse is fast becoming a glib concept.
The question really boils down to whether anyone actually cares. Most Americans couldn’t live without their smart phone and now give it more attention than their own children. We are being enslaved through our own overdependence on gadgets and technology.
As the ACLU points out, use of the devices is completely illegal as it clearly violates the 4th amendment.
“With certain exceptions that do not apply here, a search cannot occur without a warrant in which a judicial officer determines that there is probable cause to believe that the search will yield evidence of criminal activity,” ACLU staff attorney Mark P. Fancher wrote. “A device that allows immediate, surreptitious intrusion into private data creates enormous risks that troopers will ignore these requirements to the detriment of the constitutional rights of persons whose cell phones are searched.”
With the ACLU currently embroiled in a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security in an effort to stop its warrantless searches of laptops belonging to anyone who enters the United States, another legal fight in the case of the mobile cellphone scanner device is also on the cards.
___________________________________________ _____________________________________ . . Donate To Keep This Site Alive
______________________________________________________ ___________________________ . . . . _____________________________________________________________________________
Not all bridge namings need to stir up troubled political waters.
A week after the Missouri Senate was whipped into a frenzy over a proposal to name the new Mississippi River bridge after Illinois Congressman Jerry Costello, state officials came together amicably on Wednesday to dedicate another crossing.
Although this stretch is more path than span.
The new bicycle and pedestrian lane on the Missouri River bridge near the state Capitol has been named for Pat Jones, whose late husband, Ted Jones, was the managing partner of Edward Jones investments. (His father, Edward D. Jones, founded the St. Louis company.)
The lane, on the northbound side, will make it easier for bikers and hikers to travel between Jefferson City and the Katy Trail.
Costello's commitment to the Mississippi River bridge was called into question by state senators, but Jones' dedication to the Katy Trail is not in doubt.
Jones and her husband, who died in 1990, donated over $2 million to purchase the right-of-way space from the railroads that got the 225-mile trail started. READ MORE
.
The new pedestrian/bicycle attachment that crosses the Missouri River in Jefferson City is open, so government officials are putting it to good use. More than 20 legislators, along with state and city officials lead a bike ride from the capitol to the Katy Trail as part of the opening of the multi-million dollar bridge renovation.
Donate To Keep This Site Alive
______________________________________________________ ___________________________ . . . . _____________________________________________________________________________
Series of storms that hit states from Oklahoma to North Carolina left at least 45 people dead and caused widespread damage
___________________________________________________________________________________
A US nuclear power company has disclosed that one of the tornadoes that hit the US at the weekend, killing at least 45 people and causing widespread damage, forced the shutdown of two of its reactors.
The series of tornadoes that began in Oklahoma late last week barrelled across the country, with North Carolina, where 22 people died, the worst-hit state.
The US nuclear safety regulator said on Mondayit was monitoring the Surry nuclear power plant in Virginia. Dominion Virginia Power said the two reactors shut down automatically when a tornado cut off power to the plant. A backup diesel generator kicked in to cool the fuel. The regulator said no radiation was released and staff were working to restore electricity to the plant.
The tornadoes were among the worst in the US in the past two decades. Last year, 10 people died in a tornado in Mississippi, while 57 were killed in North and South Carolina in 1984 and 330 across the south in 1974.
Two of the survivors of this year's storms, Audrey McKoy and her husband Milton, who live near Raleigh, North Carolina, told the Associated Press they had seen the tornado bearing down on them over the tops of pine trees. At a nearby farm, winds were lifting pigs and other animals into the sky. "It looked just like The Wizard of Oz," McKoy said.
led residents to start Tweeting about “pitch black” military helicopters dropping men onto buildings, including the Bank of America building, beginning around 9:15 p.m. as witnessed in the video below: 
