Put on a few pounds over the winter? You may want to hit the gym before heading down to your friendly United Airlines ticket counter.

If “beefy” or “curvy” describes you, here is a word of warning: United Airlines will begin aggressively enforcing a new policy that allows it to charge heavier passengers twice to fly. United will now implement new policies for passengers they deem to be overweight. Under the rules outlined by United, passengers who “are unable to fit into a single seat in the ticketed cabin; are unable to properly buckle the seatbelt using a single seatbelt extender; and/or are unable to put the seat’s armrests down when seated” will be denied boarding unless they purchase an extra seat.

Germany’s economy, the largest in Europe, taking a big nosedive in ’09. Not good.

Europe’s largest economy is poised to shrink nearly five percent this year, says the German Institute for Economic Research, the DIW. The downward spiral is essentially due to a 12.9 percent slump in exports, the institute says. The latest DIW report underscores how the recession has deepened in Germany in recent months and follows a series of forecast revisions made by other economic research institutes. Just four months ago, economists were predicting that the economy would contract by only 1.1 percent.

L.A. County sheriff deputies battling booze problem within the ranks. Union fights to let cops carry guns even when drunk.

There has been a dramatic upswing in the number of Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies arrested for alcohol-related offenses in recent years, suggesting a growing drinking problem within the department, a county watchdog agency reported Wednesday. Last year, 70 sworn and civilian employees of the Sheriff’s Department were arrested. The majority of those arrests involved employees driving off-duty while under the influence of alcohol, according to an annual report produced by the county Office of Independent Review. In many cases, drunk deputies were carrying firearms at the time of their arrests.

CNBC’s Rick Santelli, the guy who’s rant on live TV may have been the impetus for the tea party phenomenon, is pleased with what he sees.

While Fox News has celebrated the Taxpayer Tea Party rallies and MSNBC has denigrated them, the impetus of the movement – CNBC and specifically Rick Santelli, its inspiration – had been conspicuously quiet about it. But on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” April 15, co-host Joe Kernen asked Santelli what he thought of being a “cultural phenomenon.” That was the same show Santelli famously called out President Barack Obama for the unfairness of his housing bailout proposal on Feb. 19.

Obama gives speech at Georgetown University, has “Jesus” covered up beforehand. I guess somebody didn’t want to offend Muslims.

When President Obama gave his economics speech at Georgetown University on Tuesday, several folks noticed something was missing. That “something” was an ancient monogram — the letters IHS — that symbolizes the name of Jesus. It was missing from a wooden archway above the dais in Gaston Hall where the president delivered his 45-minute speech. The gold-lettered monogram appeared near a painting of three female figures — symbolizing morality, faith and patriotism — and decorative edging along the wall that spelled out the Jesuit motto “Ad majorem Dei gloriam”—”To the greater glory of God.” Georgetown was founded by the Jesuits.

Employee Free Choice Act (card check) more ominous that most people could have imagined.

The announcements by Senators Arlen Specter (R-Penn.) and Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) that they intend to vote against cloture on the so-called Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) has taken the legislation out of the headlines for now, as EFCA supporters seem short of the 60 votes needed in the Senate to end debate. But EFCA opponents should not become complacent. Organized labor and its allies in Congress continue pushing this bill, and they are not about to go quietly. And this legislation may be even more damaging than even its opponents think.

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Tea Party tax and government spending protests taking place all over the country today. Great, terrific…..so what happens starting tomorrow?

Today American taxpayers in more than 300 locations in all 50 states will hold rallies — dubbed “tea parties” — to protest higher taxes and out-of-control government spending. There is no political party behind these rallies, no grand right-wing conspiracy, not even a 501(c) group like MoveOn.org. So who’s behind the Tax Day tea parties? Ordinary folks who are using the power of the Internet to organize.

List of most wanted Mexican drug cartel members roaming around in the U.S. has been released.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) for the first time has listed the eleven most-wanted Mexican drug-crime fugitives sought by the United States. The fugitives, all Mexican nationals, are members of Mexican drug cartels that are now considered to be the top organized crime threat to the United States, responsible for murderous violence along the U.S.-Mexico border in recent years.

Left wing website soliciting information about “anti-Obama activities” on the internet. Evidently the idiot that came up with this idea considers those who don’t subscribe to the far left agenda are not “real Americans” and are therefor worthy of having their websites attacked by these rabid Obama-bots.

Here is their front-page mission statement: “A site dedicated for American citizens monitoring and reporting all anti-obama activities taking place on the world wide web. A site dedicated to the preservation of truth, justice and the American way. Where true American citizens can monitor and report all anti-obama activities taking place on the world wide web. This is a place where one can post and report on all activities, web sites and or blogs that would be considered erroneous, slanderous or detrimental to the newly elected President of the United States. There are those who go under the disguise of patriotism who seek to undermine the President by reporting false allegations as truth and there by starting a incendiary viral campaigns based on lies and innuendo. This site is dedicated to exposing all of them. Bringing those guilty of playing with the fire of deceitful comments out of their secret little lairs, the forums where they think they are safe to discuss their hate mongering and racist ways and expose them to the light of day for all the public to see. They are extremely scared of this, so please for the sake of the American way, join our cause and root out these sites and post them for all the world to see.”

Woman arrested in Mexico was guarding stash of high powered weapons including a .50 anti aircraft gun that was no doubt purchased in a U.S. WalMart and smuggled across the border.

A woman was arrested guarding an arsenal that included an anti-aircraft machine gun — the first weapon of its kind seized in Mexico, police said Tuesday. The arsenal belonged to a group linked to the powerful Beltran Leyva drug cartel, federal police coordinator Gen. Rodolfo Cruz said. It also included ammunition, five rifles, a grenade and part of a grenade launcher.

People owing taxes are freaking out the Internal Revenue Service will be coming after them with a vengeance. Weird considering the guy in charge of the IRS is himself a tax cheat along with several others in Obama administration.

As a deep recession strips Americans of their jobs, homes and investments, the 2009 U.S. tax season promises to see a large uptick in first-time delinquent income taxpayers. “Our calls are up 280 percent,” said Richard Boggs, founder and chief executive of Los Angeles-based Nationwide Tax Relief, a firm that helps delinquent taxpayers resolve tax issues.

Will people be willing to start paying for most online news content? So far history has shown they won’t.

Three media veterans plan to bundle the Internet content of newspaper and magazine publishers into a subscription package that will test Web surfers’ willingness to pay for material that has been given away for years. The system won’t be ready until the fall, but the plans were announced late Tuesday because so many publishers already are clamoring to sign up, said Steven Brill, co-chief executive of the new venture, called Journalism Online. “The interest in this came together a lot more quickly than we anticipated,” said Brill, the founder of Court TV and American Lawyer magazine. “We are dancing as fast as we can now.”

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