FBI agents could be seen late Thursday night removing items from the New Boston, TX home of a man that is said to be a person of interest in the ricin letter case.New York Daily News – by Jennifer Fermino , Rocco Parascandola AND Corky Siemaszko

The Texas man being grilled in connection with the ricin-laced letters mailed to President Obama and Mayor Bloomberg is married to an actress who played a zombie in “The Walking Dead.”

Nathan Richardson, 33, was unmasked Friday by a local paper as the man in FBI custody — and the husband of flame-haired beauty Shannon Rogers Guess.   Continue reading “Texas man held by FBI in Obama threat, Bloomberg ricin letter cases revealed”

New York Post – by DAVID SEIFMAN

Mayor Bloomberg got huffy and puffy today discussing medical marijuana, describing efforts to legalize it as one of the greatest scams in history.

“Medical, my foot,” the mayor said, clearly not referring to an ailment of his own.

“There’s no medical. This is one of the great hoaxes of all time.”   Continue reading “Bloomberg huffs, puffs at plan to legalize pot: ‘Greatest hoaxes of all time’”

New York Times – by FELICITY BARRINGER

The loss of tropical rain forests is likely to reduce the energy output of hydroelectric projects in countries like Brazil that are investing billions of dollars to create power to support economic growth.

That is the conclusion of a group of experts whose findings, released Monday, run counter to the conventional understanding of deforestation’s impact on watersheds.   Continue reading “Fewer Rain Forests Mean Less Energy for Developing Nations, Study Finds”

Live Science – by Stephanie Pappas

The deforestation of the Brazilian rain forest has created a hidden consequence: The seeds of palm trees have evolved rapidly to be smaller.

The change is the result of a domino effect that begins with human agriculture and hunting, which have devastated large bird populations in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil. With these birds, which include colorful toucans and cotingas, locally extinct or barely hanging on, the palm trees have no way to disperse their largest seeds. As a result, seed sizes are smaller in parts of the rain forest where large birds are missing, finds a new study detailed in the May 31 issue of the journal Science.   Continue reading “Brazil’s Atlantic Forest Deforestation Is Causing Rapid Seed Evolution, Study Shows”

Bloomberg RicinHuffington Post – by COLLEEN LONG

NEW YORK — Two threatening letters containing traces of the deadly poison ricin were sent to Mayor Michael Bloomberg in New York and his gun-control group in Washington, police said Wednesday.

The anonymous letters were opened in New York on Friday at the city’s mail facility in Manhattan and in Washington on Sunday at an office used by Mayors Against Illegal Guns, the nonprofit started by Bloomberg, police said.   Continue reading “Michael Bloomberg Ricin Letters: Parcels Addressed To NYC Mayor Intercepted, Police Say”

This photo provided by Camp Lejeune Marine Base shows Lance Cpl. Esteban J. Smith. The 23-year-old Marine died Sunday, May 26, 2013, in a gunfight with Texas authorities after a shooting rampage that left one person dead and several hospitalized. Authorities believe Smith fatally stabbed his wife, Rubi Estefania Smith of Bakersfield, Calif., in a Jacksonville, N.C., motel room near Camp Lejeune before the shooting rampage. Photo: Camp Lejeune Marine BaseYahoo News

EDEN, Texas (AP) — A man suspected in a West Texas shooting rampage that left one woman dead and five others wounded was a Marine who was wanted for questioning in a slaying in North Carolina, officials said Monday.

The rampage Sunday morning ended when Esteban J. Smith, 23, of the Camp Lejeune Marine Corps Base, N.C., died in a gunfight with an agency trooper and a state game warden, said Tom Vinger, spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety.   Continue reading “Officials: Gunman in Texas rampage was Marine”

Lawrence MulqueenHuffington Post – by JIM FITZGERALD

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — A man who was turned in to police by his landlady admitted in court Tuesday that he made death threats on Facebook against top-tier politicians in New York and Washington, predicting a “dirt nap” for them and writing, “I cannot wait to start killing the scum.”

Lawrence Mulqueen, 50, pleaded guilty to federal charges in exchange for an agreement from prosecutors to recommend a sentence of 12 to 18 months.   Continue reading “Lawrence Mulqueen Pleads Guilty To Threatening Politicians’ Lives On Facebook”

Yahoo News – by Tariq Malik | SPACE.com

Three planets will perform a rare celestial dance in the sunset sky tonight (May 26), a cosmic show that stars Jupiter, Venus and Mercury.

Weather permitting, the three planets will shine together in a triangle formation low in the western sky in a planetary meet-up known as a conjunction. But there is more to the night sky sight than meets the eye.   Continue reading “Rare 3-Planet Sight Tonight: See Jupiter, Mercury and Venus Together”

Ista Pharmaceuticals SettlementHuffington Post – by Jonathan Stempel, Reuters

Ista Pharmaceuticals Inc pleaded guilty on Friday to charges it used kickbacks and improper marketing to boost sales of a drug meant to treat eye pain and agreed to pay $33.5 million to settle criminal and civil liability, the U.S. Department of Justice said.

The unit of eye care company Bausch & Lomb pleaded guilty to conspiracy to offer kickbacks to induce physicians to prescribe Xibrom, a drug meant to treat pain after cataract surgery, and conspiracy to promote that drug for unapproved uses, including after Lasik and glaucoma surgeries.   Continue reading “Ista Pharmaceuticals To Pay $33.5 Million To Settle Claims Company Paid Doctors To Push Drug”

<p> In this May 23, 2013 photo, security officers walk away from the entrance of the Barrick Gold Corp's Pascua-Lama facilities, in northern Chile. Chile's environmental regulator blocked Barrick Gold Corp.'s $8.5 billion Pascua-Lama project on Friday, May 24, 2013, and imposed its maximum fine on the world's largest gold miner, citing "very serious" violations of its environmental permit as well as a failure by the company to accurately describe what it had done wrong. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)Yahoo News – by Luis Andres Henao and Michael Warren

EL CORRAL, Chile (AP) — The Diaguita Indians live in the foothills of the Andes, just downstream from the world’s highest gold mine, where for as long as anyone can remember they’ve drunk straight from the glacier-fed river that irrigates their orchards and vineyards with its clear water.

Then thousands of mine workers and their huge machines moved in, building a road alongside the river that reaches all the way up to Pascua-Lama, a gold mine being built along both sides of the Chile-Argentine border at a lung-busting 16,400-feet (5,000 meters) above sea level.   Continue reading “Chile’s Indians take on world’s largest gold miner”

Capital New York – by DANA RUBINSTEIN

Mayor Michael Bloomberg now owns 13 properties around the world, including three pieces of property in Southampton.

In addition to the $20 million, 35-acre Ballyshear estate he bought in 2011, he has acquired an adjacent home and, separately, a neighboring 4.8 acre piece of “vacant unimproved land.”    Continue reading “Bloomberg Grows his Hamptons Estate, Reveals Overseas Bank Accounts”

Quartz – by Tim Fernholz

New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg told the head of a taxicab fleet that he plans to “f#@king destroy” the city’s taxi industry when he leaves office on January 1. Bloomberg’s frustration with New York’s yellow cabs and their drivers stems from their unwillingness to adopt new technology such as accepting electronic passenger hails from smartphones, and their resistance to one of the mayor’s pet projects, a redesigned Taxi of Tomorrow.   Continue reading “How exactly would Mike Bloomberg “f#@king destroy” the taxi industry?”

Huffington Post

Here’s a fact that may make your blood boil: Nearly 8,000 Occupy Wall Streetprotesters have been arrested in association with the activist movement, while not one banker has been prosecuted for the actions that lead up to the country’s financial meltdown.

The website OccupyArrests.com has tracked 7,736 in 122 cities nationwide since theOccupy movement began in September 2011.   Continue reading “Occupy Arrests Near 8,000 As Wall Street Eludes Prosecution”

‘DOCK’ WORKERS: A crew yesterday moves bike racks on West 22nd.New York Post – by JULIA MARSH and MATTHEW

The president of the city firefighters’ union blasted the bike-share program yesterday, calling the placement of the racks a hazard to emergency responders — as the city continued to shuffle racks around in response to community outrage.

“The bike racks present challenges to firefighters and frankly, trying to get around the city now is harder than ever before,” Uniformed Firefighters Association President Steve Cassidy said at a press conference in Manhattan.   Continue reading “Firefighters blast bikes in hazard spots”

New York Post – by BOB FREDERICKS

The taxi magnate who said he was subjected to a profanity-laced rant by Mayor Bloomberg has filed a federal lawsuit charging the mayor with threatening him and siccing TLC inspectors on his fleet in retaliation for his opposition to the “Taxi of Tomorrow” plan.

The suit, filed in Manhattan federal court late yesterday, accuses Bloomberg and TLC chief David Yassky of ordering inspectors to dump a blizzard of bogus tickets – totaling about $3.5 million – on cabs operated by Taxi Club Management CEO Gene Freidman.   Continue reading “Taxi big adds new charges to suit against Bloomberg after mayor’s profanity-laced tirade”

We got back in town to find one of these taking away a 1/2 block of parking on our street. They are Everywhere! Parking was bad before, now its next to impossible. Not to mention all the added congestion the riders will add to the streets.

New York Post – by Bob McManus

Here come Mike’s bikes!

New York’s long-stalled bicycle-share program kicks off next weekend, Memorial Day, with more than 5,000 of rent-by-the-ride two-wheelers standing by for anyone with a valid credit card and an appetite for adventure.   Continue reading “Bike share will make NYC more chaotic and less safe — not that Mayor Bloomberg cares”

Monroe Township, N.J., Officer's House FirebombedCBS New York

MONROE TOWNSHIP, N.J. (CBSNewYork/AP) – Police on Wednesday were searching for the suspect who firebombed an officer’s home.

As CBS 2’s Alice Gainer reported, a $20,000 reward was being offered for the arrest and conviction of the person responsible for the firebombing, as authorities try to figure out who targeted the officer and why.   Continue reading “$20,000 Reward Offered After New Jersey Cop’s House Is Firebombed”

CABOTAGE: Cab king Gene Freidman says Mayor Bloomberg (above) threatened him in a curse-filled rant over losing a court fight on new city taxis.New York Post – by Emily Smith

Mayor Bloomberg went on a spitting-mad rant against a city cab-fleet boss who won a court victory over Hizzoner’s planned “Taxi of Tomorrow” — vowing to “destroy your f–king industry” when he leaves office, The Post has learned.

A fuming Bloomberg made the threat against Taxi Club Management CEO Gene Freidman at Madison Square Garden’s private 1879 Club during last Thursday’s Knick playoff game, a witness said yesterday.   Continue reading “Mike unleashes a ‘hail’ storm”