Since the 1970s, some radical environmentalists have argued that trees have legal rights and should be allowed to go to court to protect those rights. The idea has been endorsed by John P. Holdren, the man who now advises President Barack Obama on science and technology issues.
A Google genius was in a coma Wednesday night after a rotting branch snapped off a tree in Central Park and smashed him in the head. Sasha Blair-Goldensohn was walking to work through the park when a 100-pound limb came crashing from a massive pin oak tree near W. 63rd St.
A 78-year-old Carroll woman says she’s so tired of seeing President Barack Obama on the airwaves that she’s selling her television sets – two of them. Deloris Nissen, a retired nurses’ aide and former Kmart employee who was raised on a farm near Audubon, placed a classified advertisement with The Daily Times Herald for Friday’s paper. In the $5.50 ad, Nissen tells readers she has two television sets for sale. The reason: “Obama on every channel and station.”
Royal Dutch Shell Plc plans to reduce capital spending by about 10 percent next year and make further “substantial” job cuts, saying the economy won’t recover any time soon. The budget to buy and maintain assets will drop to about $28 billion in 2010 from as much as $32 billion this year, The Hague-based Shell, whose North American operations are based in Houston, said today in a statement after posting a 67 drop in quarterly earnings.
More happy news for the oil company haters.
Exxon Mobil reported a steeper-than-expected second quarter profit drop this morning, falling 66 percent to $3.9 billion, or 81 cents per share, largely on lower commodity prices and slower demand. “This is an unusually bad miss,” Credit Suisse analysts said in a report this morning, particularly given the drop in the important international exploration business, where profits fell by $4.979 million to $2,999 million.
Two DeKalb County Officers are being investigated for allegedly performing a background check on President Barack Obama. Officers Ryan White and C.M. Route have been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation, according to DeKalb County spokeswoman Sheila Edwards.
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The dumbest cop of the year award goes to….
A Boston, Massachusetts, police officer who sent a mass e-mail in which he referred to Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. as “banana-eating” and a “bumbling jungle monkey” has been placed on administrative leave and faces losing his job. Officer Justin Barrett, 36, who is also an active member of the National Guard, sent an e-mail to some fellow Guard members, as well as the Boston Globe, in which he vented his displeasure with a July 22 Globe column about Gates’ controversial arrest. [What an idiot….ed]
The National Endowment for the Arts may be spending some of the money it received from the Recovery and Reinvestment Act to fund nude simulated-sex dances, Saturday night “pervert” revues and the airing of pornographic horror films at art houses in San Francisco. The NEA was given $80 million of the government’s $787 billion economic stimulus bill to spread around to needy artists nationwide, and most of the money is being spent to help preserve jobs in museums, orchestras, theaters and dance troupes that have been hit hard by the recession. [A lot of this unbelievable spending is going on in Pelosi’s district…ed]
Members of the country’s oldest black sorority are suing to remove their president, alleging that she spent hundreds of thousands of dollars of the group’s money on herself — some of it to pay for a wax statue in her own likeness. In the suit filed in Washington, D.C., the Alpha Kappa Alpha members also alleged that international President Barbara McKinzie bought designer clothing, jewelry and lingerie with the sorority credit card.
This is what Obama means when he says he is cutting costs in Washington DC?
The administration has fulfilled a promise to cut spending by trimming $100 million from the 2009 budget. That’s right — $100 million with an “m,” an imponderably small slice of this year’s expenditures.
A little perfume freaks out a building full Bank of America employees.
Almost 150 people needed medical treatment after a colleague in their office sprayed perfume at work. Fire officials and paramedics had feared carbon monoxide poisoning or some kind of leak of other toxic fumes when staff in the Bank of America call centre fell ill.
Regular visitors to federal buildings may have noticed recently that the familiar photographs of former President George W. Bush and former Vice President Dick Cheney have been replaced with a photograph of President Barack Obama alone. So where’s Joe Biden?
A transient accused of abducting and killing teenager Lily Burk was charged Tuesday with murder, kidnapping and robbery — charges that could make him subject to the death penalty. A hulking, handcuffed Charles Samuel, 50, was led into Los Angeles County Superior Court on Tuesday afternoon.
Four-hundred-, 600- and even 800-pound patients are presenting ambulance crews with some big challenges. As obesity rates rise, paramedics in Nebraska and Iowa are faced with carrying more obese patients. In turn, paramedics find creative ways to move them, and some fire departments are looking to borrow or buy specialized equipment.
It’s time to pay up if you’re a Philadelphia city employee who’s been dodging the tax man. Otherwise, the boss is going to dock your pay. There are 1,300 city employees who are tax delinquents, according to city officials.
The House health-care reform bill proposes to decrease hospital visits by establishing a “medical home pilot program” for elderly and disabled Americans. Such a medical home would not require a physician to be on the staff, and therefore could be run solely by nurse practitioners and physician assistants.
Quote of the day.
Nobody is talking about some government takeover of health care. I’m tired of hearing that. I have been as clear as I can be. If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.
-Barack Hussein Obama