Sixteen people banned from entering the UK since October last year for fostering extremism or hatred have been named by the Home Office for the first time. A total of 22 people have been excluded in that time, although the identities of six of them have been withheld by the government in the “public interest”.
[What a pant load. It seems this is nothing more than Home Secretary Jacqui Smith trying to divert attention from all the scandals swirling around her head….read the comments after this article….ed]
In an ideal world, drivers would execute every road maneuver with precision and ease. Sadly, we do not live in a never-never land, and not everyone walks away from metal-to-metal mayhem. Truth is that drivers are not created equal. Some are too brash, others too conservative. Some are even downright clueless. The common thread is that they can all turn a pleasant day on the motorway into a surreal nightmare in the blink of an eye.
Authorities have arrested a man they believe threw an infant from a car along I-275 Tuesday morning. The 3-month-old boy died. 21-year-old Richard McTear Jr. was apprehended around 9 a.m. at 3803 Arlington Drive in Tampa. An off-duty news photographer found the child, identified as Emanuel Murray, in the southbound emergency lane near Fowler Avenue shortly after 4 a.m.
A Cuyahoga Falls school bus driver could face possible kidnapping charges after he refused to drop children off when they started to misbehave, police said. Officers said the Dewitt Elementary School children were being driven home after school on Monday when they started to act up. Police said to teach them a lesson, the bus driver drove the students around for 15 minutes instead of dropping them off at their designated stops. Police said they tracked down the bus and pulled it over after receiving several calls from frantic parents who were contacted by children on board with cell phones.
The $328,835 snapshots of an Air Force One backup plane buzzing lower Manhattan last week will not be shown to the public, the White House said yesterday. “We have no plans to release them,” an aide to President Obama told The Post, refusing to comment further. The sole purpose of the secret photo-op, which sent thousands of New Yorkers running for cover, was to take new publicity shots of the presidential jet over the city. “The photos . . . are classified — that’s ridiculous,” Councilman Peter Vallone Jr., said.
House Democrats told the president Monday he won’t be getting money to close the military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, until he has a “concrete program” for shutting it down and moving its prisoners. The $80 million will be dropped from President Obama’s supplemental request for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, House Appropriations Committee Chairman Rep. David Obey told reporters. “So far as we can tell, there is yet no concrete program for that,” said Obey, D-Wisconsin. “And while I don’t mind defending a concrete program, I’m not much interested in wasting my energy defending a theoretical program.
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China has tightened visa rules for citizens from the United States, which has reported the second highest number of H1N1 virus (swine flu) cases in the world. A notice dated May 3 on the Web site for the Chinese Embassy and its consulates in the U.S. said that all visa applications would now require six business days to process, with express and rush services for visa applications suspended until further notice. (snip) The American Embassy in Beijing said four U.S. citizens are now or have been quarantined in China due to swine flu fears.
On his HBO show, “Real Time With Bill Maher,” the comedian routinely makes vicious fun of celebrities, politicians, presidents and even God. But he’s learned that, for much of his audience, Barack Obama is off limits. Not long after the historic presidential election, Maher joked that Republicans were feeling particularly superstitious: “They say the country is having bad luck because there’s a black cat in the White House.” The studio audience erupted in loud groans and boos — a reaction, Maher observed in a recent interview, that exceeded his often scathing attacks on organized religion. “Obama is the new God,” quipped Maher of the poorly received dig, which he pointed out pokes at conservatives more than the commander in chief.
The U.S. is expected to direct about 10 of the 19 banks undergoing government stress tests to boost their capital, according to several people familiar with the matter, a move that officials hope will quell fears about the solvency of the financial sector. The exact number of banks affected remains under discussion. It could include Wells Fargo & Co., Bank of America, Citigroup Inc. and several regional banks. At one point, officials believed as many as 14 banks would need to raise more funds to create a stronger buffer against future losses, these people said, but that number has fallen in recent days. Representatives from Wells, Bank of America and Citi declined to comment.
Iraq’s government Monday ruled out allowing U.S. combat troops to remain in Iraqi cities after the June 30 deadline for their withdrawal, despite concern that Iraqi forces cannot cope with the security challenge following a resurgence of bombings in recent weeks. Asking U.S. forces to stay in the cities, including volatile Mosul in the north, would be embarrassing for Iraq’s prime minister, who has staked his political future on claims that the country has turned the corner in the war against Sunni and Shiite extremists.
In a historic first, Uncle Sam has supplanted sales, property and income taxes as the biggest source of revenue for state and local governments. The shift shows how deeply the recession is cutting. Federal stimulus money aimed at reviving the economy and a sharp drop in tax collections have altered, at least temporarily, the traditional balance of how states, cities, counties and schools pay for their operations. The sales tax had been the No. 1 source of state and local revenue since the mid-1970s, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Before that, property taxes were the primary source. That changed in the first three months of 2009. Federal grants — early stimulus money plus conventional federal aid — soared 15% in the first quarter to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $437 billion, eclipsing sales taxes, which fell 2%. The dominance of federal money is set to expand dramatically this year because tax collections are sinking while the bulk of federal stimulus aid is just starting to arrive. “This money isn’t manna from heaven. It comes with a price,” says Indiana state Sen. Jim Buck, a Republican. He worries that the federal money will leave states under greater federal control and burden future generations with debt.
3,000 Microsoft employees losing their jobs.
Microsoft on Tuesday notified more than 3,000 workers that it was eliminating their jobs. The software maker said in January that it would cut up to 5,000 jobs over the next 18 months. It made 1,400 cuts at the time. With the second wave of notifications on Tuesday, Microsoft has cut nearly all 5,000 jobs already. Although it didn’t announce further layoffs, the fact that the company has already made nearly all the reductions under the January plan means further job actions will have to come under a new round of cuts. In a memo to Microsoft workers, CEO Steve Ballmer left the door open to further action. “As we move forward, we will continue to closely monitor the impact of the economic downturn on the company and if necessary, take further actions on our cost structure including additional job eliminations,” Ballmer said in the memo, which was seen by CNET News.
Quote of the day.
One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.
-Plato