Fox News

NAPERVILLE, ILL. –  Dozens of former elected officials in suburbs surrounding Chicago are collectively receiving tens of thousands of dollars a year in pension benefits, even though they mostly worked part time.

Besides the question of whether part-time work as an alderman, mayor or clerk deserves such benefits, critics say the payouts are an unfair burden on local taxpayers. Some say they also demonstrate a failure of the state’s pension reform plan to go far enough in easing a crisis that has left Illinois mired in debt.   Continue reading “Part-time Illinios workers receiving lifetime pensions”

Piggy BankTime – by Dan Kadlec

To better enable Americans to save for retirement, President Obama said he would order a new “starter” savings plan called MyRA geared at low-income households. It’s a fine idea. But as with any personal savings account, you must be able to fund it for it to matter. That may be the biggest problem with the program.   Continue reading “The Problem With President Obama’s ‘MyRA’ Savings Accounts”

Happy Meal heroinUSA Today- by Michael Winter

Drive-through customers at a Pittsburgh McDonald’s who asked for “a toy” got a little something extra with their Happy Meal — heroin, local authorities said Wednesday.

Officers arrested 26-year-old Shania Dennis after buying the drug at the McDonald’s where she worked, in the city’s East Liberty section, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported. Officers from the Allegheny County District Attorney’s narcotics unit found 10 bags of heroin in a Happy Meal box and recovered 50 more bags from Dennis.   Continue reading “McDonald’s worker busted for Happy Meal heroin”

ObamaHistoricPresidentBlogsense by Barb – by Daniel S. Hudson

Corey James wrote “Quit trashing Obama’s accomplishments. He has done more than any other President before him. He has an impressive list of accomplishments:

Black Agenda Report – by Glen Ford

“Believe it,” said the current Prevaricator-in-Chief, in the conclusion to his annual litany lies. President Obama’s specialty, honed to theatrical near-perfection over five disastrous years, is in crafting the sympathetic lie, designed to suspend disbelief among those targeted for oblivion, through displays of empathy for the victims. In contrast to the aggressive insults and bluster employed by Republican political actors, whose goal is to incite racist passions against the Other, the sympathetic Democratic liar disarms those who are about to be sacrificed by pretending to feel their pain.   Continue reading “American State of the Union: A Festival of Lies”

Birther Report – by Adrien Nash

Mohammed Subud & Barry Obammy…related? His mother as well as Loretta Fuddy were both members of the Subud cult. The question is “when did Dunham first meet Muhammed? 1960? or later?

I copied and reversed Subud’s eye and replaced Obama’s which was squinting. (the middle version is a different photo) — …    Continue reading “Q&A: Does This Explain Obama’s Phony Birth Certificate; Who’s Your Daddy!?”

Pot head: Obama and his 'Choom Gang' of privately-educated friends used to score drugs off Ray. Ray was murdered seven years after the gang left school by his lover for a myriad of bizarre and frankly petty reasonsDaily Mail – by RICHARD ALLEYNE IN HONOLULU, HAWAII

President Obama’s high school pot dealer who he thanked in his yearbook for the ‘good times’ was beaten to death by his lover after a series of fights over flatulence and drugs, MailOnline can reveal today.

Raymond Boyer, known as ‘Gay Ray’ to Obama and his marijuana smoking ‘Choom Gang’, was bludgeoned to death with a hammer seven years after he sold the future president and his friends drugs.   Continue reading “Obama’s high school pot dealer who he thanked for the ‘good times’ was beaten to death with a hammer by his gay lover”

juan13n-1.jpgNew York Daily News – by ANNIE KARNI

Rose Gill Hearn, who served as Commissioner for the Department of Investigation under former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, has joined Bloomberg’s new eponymous consulting firm, the Daily News has learned.

The pro-bono consulting group, Bloomberg Associates, is expected to visit international cities to give advice on issues the billionaire former mayor focused on in New York City during his 12 years in office: public health, economic development and environmental policy, among other issues.   Continue reading “Former DOI Commissioner Rose Gill Hearn Joins Bloomberg Associates”

chick-fila2.jpgFox News – by Todd Starnes

A snowstorm in the South is about as rare as a glass of unsweetened tea at a church supper. Folks around Birmingham, Ala. weren’t all that worried though. The storm was only supposed to dust the city – not even enough powder for a Southern snowman.

So when the first snowflakes began to fall, no one paid all that much attention. But then, the flakes kept falling. Before too long folks in places like Hoover and Inverness realized it was much more than a dusting. By that point, it was too late for anyone to do anything.   Continue reading “Chick-fil-A gives free food to motorists stranded in Southern snowstorm”

Reuters / Sarah ConardRT News

At least 11 protesters were arrested outside of Monsanto’s headquarters on Tuesday as they rallied in favor of shareholder resolutions that would require the company to alter its approach to genetically-modified organisms.

More than two-dozen protesters, one of which was a Monsanto shareholder himself, endured cold temperatures in Creve Coeur, Missouri as they pushed the biotech company to work with the federal government towards efforts to label food featuring genetically-modified organisms (GMO). Another resolution, meanwhile, would have required Monsanto to provide a contamination report on non-GMO crops.   Continue reading “Monsanto protesters arrested outside shareholder meeting”

Cities: Bloomberg 2, water, 2012The Guardian – by Beth Gardiner

From his high-profile smoking and transfat bans to the creation of new parks and bike lanes, Michael Bloomberg‘s 12 years as mayor were a time of innovation and change in New York. Besides such high-profile measures, there were also less visible efforts, like the drafting of a long-term resiliency plan for city.

Fresh out of office, the billionaire businessman, never short of ambition, has broadened his sights to the lives of city-dwellers around the world. With migration to cities increasing nearly everywhere, the data-driven Bloomberg believes improving conditions in big urban areas is the best way to make an impact on the largest number of people. Bloomberg is redeploying many top members of his mayoral team to Bloomberg Associates, a consultancy that will, free of charge, advise cities on how best to tackle their problems, adapting and applying the approaches he used to make New York greener and more livable.   Continue reading “Can Michael Bloomberg’s New York manifesto change the world?”

Members of the House of Representatives enter the US Capitol on Sept. 30, 2013 in Washington, DC [AFP]Raw Story – by Agence France-Presse

The US House approved a five-year, nearly $1 trillion farm bill Wednesday reforming the federal government’s crop subsidy system but cutting food stamps to pare the deficit.

The mammoth bill, which has been some three years in the making and endured more than one collapse in negotiations in 2013, enjoyed bipartisan support in passing 251-166.   Continue reading “House passes bill cutting $8 billion from ‘food stamps’ program”

Tech Crunch – by Catherine Shu

Google will buy London-based artificial intelligence company DeepMind. The Information reports that the acquisition price was more than $500 million, and that Facebook was also in talks to buy the startup late last year. DeepMind confirmed the acquisition to us, but couldn’t disclose deal terms.

The acquisition was originally confirmed by Google to Re/code.   Continue reading “Google Acquires Artificial Intelligence Startup DeepMind For More Than $500M”

Common Dreams – by Lauren McCauley

“What we know scares us, and we know there’s a lot more we don’t know,” a West Virginia environmental scientist said Wednesday after revealing he had found formaldehyde in water samples taken after officials had declared the water safe for drinking.

Scott Simonton, a Marshall University environmental scientist and member of the state Environmental Quality Board, told a joint legislative committee on water resources that he found traces of formaldehyde in water samples taken from a restaurant in downtown Charleston, the Charleston Gazette reported.    Continue reading “Showering in Formaldehyde? Fresh Fears in West Virginia”

Water is distributed to residents at the South Charleston Community Center in Charleston, West Virginia (Reuters / Lisa Hechesky) RT

A West Virginia state official told legislators on Wednesday that he “can guarantee” some residents are breathing in a cancer-causing substance due to the chemical spill that occurred earlier in January.

In a recent meeting with a state legislative committee on water resources, Scott Simonton of the West Virginia Environmental Quality Board said that his tests have detected formaldehyde in water samples contaminated by the recent Elk River chemical spill.    Continue reading “West Virginia official says residents are breathing cancer-causing agent after chemical spill”