Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Hotel Waited Hour to Report Alleged Strauss-Kahn Crime

Hotel Waited Hour to Report Alleged Strauss-Kahn Crime - CNBC

New York investigators are questioning why the Sofitel hotel in New York waited an hour to call police after International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn left the hotel in a hurry on Saturday following an alleged sexual assault of a chambermaid.

IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn
Jewel Samad | AFP | Getty Images

A law enforcement source told Reuters that investigators believe that the Sofitel maid entered Strauss-Kahn's penthouse suite shortly after midday.

By 12:29 p.m. or 12:30 p.m. (1630 GMT), hotel video and witness accounts show that Strauss-Kahn left the hotel without visiting the front desk to check out, and he hailed a New York "Yellow Cab" taxi. Investigators believe the maid almost immediately reported the alleged assault to several other members of the hotel staff, the source said.

Atmosphere Above Japan Heated Rapidly Before M9 Earthquake 

Atmosphere Above Japan Heated Rapidly Before M9 Earthquake - Technology Review

Infrared emissions above the epicenter increased dramatically in the days before the devastating earthquake in Japan, say scientists.

KFC 05/18/2011

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Geologists have long puzzled over anecdotal reports of strange atmospheric phenomena in the days before big earthquakes. But good data to back up these stories has been hard to come by.

In recent years, however, various teams have set up atmospheric monitoring stations in earthquake zones and a number of satellites are capable of sending back data about the state of the upper atmosphere and the ionosphere during an earthquake.

Last year, we looked at some fascinating data from the DEMETER spacecraft showing a significant increase in ultra-low frequency radio signals before the magnitude 7 Haiti earthquake in January 2010

Today, Dimitar Ouzounov at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Centre in Maryland and a few buddies present the data from the Great Tohoku earthquake which devastated Japan on 11 March. Their results, although preliminary, are eye-opening.

They say that before the M9 earthquake, the total electron content of the ionosphere increased dramatically over the epicentre, reaching a maximum three days before the quake struck.

At the same time, satellite observations showed a big increase in infrared emissions from above the epicentre, which peaked in the hours before the quake. In other words, the atmosphere was heating up.

These kinds of observations are consistent with an idea called the Lithosphere-Atmosphere-Ionosphere Coupling mechanism. The thinking is that in the days before an earthquake, the great stresses in a fault as it is about to give cause the releases large amounts of radon.

The radioactivity from this gas ionises the air on a large scale and this has a number of knock on effects. Since water molecules are attracted to ions in the air, ionisation triggers the large scale condensation of water.

But the process of condensation also releases heat and it is this that causes infrared emissions. "Our first results show that on March 8th a rapid increase of emitted infrared radiation was observed from the satellite data," say Ouzounov and co.

These emissions go on to effect the ionosphere and its total electron content.

It certainly makes sense that the lithosphere, atmosphere and ionosphere are coupled in a way that can be measured when one of them is perturbed. The question is to what extent the new evidence backs up this idea.

The Japan earthquake is the largest to have struck the island in modern times and will certainly turn out to be among the best studied. If good evidence of this relationship doesn't emerge from this data, other opportunities will be few and far between.

Ref: arxiv.org/abs/1105.2841: Atmosphere-Ionosphere Response to the M9 Tohoku

Sources: IMF Head Strauss-Kahn May Leave Rikers Island Thursday On $1 Million Bail

Sources: IMF Head Strauss-Kahn May Leave Rikers Island Thursday On $1 Million Bail « CBS New York
IMF Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn Arrested (credit: Emmanuel Dunand-Pool/Getty Images)

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) – Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the head of the International Monetary Fund who was arrested in New York for alleged sexual assault, has a court hearing scheduled for Thursday morning to seek his release on bail.

A court administrator says the hearing concerns a special application on behalf of Strauss-Kahn. Citing a source, CBS 2′s Tony Aiello reported that the IMF chief could be out of prison by Thursday by posting $1 million bail and subjecting himself to electronic monitoring while remaining in New York City.

A judge had held Strauss-Kahn without bail on Monday. He has been charged with attempted rape, sex abuse, a criminal sex act, unlawful imprisonment and forcible touching, punishable by five to 25 years in prison.

Click here to read the criminal complaint against Strauss-Kahn.

Strauss-Kahn is accused of trying to rape a housekeeper at a Midtown luxury hotel. The 32-year-old single mother from West Africa says Strauss-Kahn sexually assaulted her when she entered what she thought was an empty penthouse suite at the Sofitel Hotel.

The French politician has been placed on a suicide watch while being held in at Riker’s Island. That includes having to wear shoes without laces, a jumpsuit instead of drawstring pants and being placed under increased observation.

“When you come into the system, you are evaluated by doctors, psychologists and they deem it necessary to put a suicide watch on him,” explained Norman Seabrook, president of the New York City Corrections Officers Benevolent Association. “So he’s watched and monitored 24-hours a day.”

Seabrook, who is also a corrections officer at Rikers Island where Strauss-Kahn is being held, says the IMF chief is being treated just like other inmate.

Meanwhile, grand jurors were meeting at Manhattan Criminal Court Wednesday considering indictments against Strauss-Kahn. The 23 grand jurors were expected to hear from all available witnesses, including the alleged victim herself, her co-workers, security officers from the hotel and the medical personnel who examined her at St. Luke’s Hospital.

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said authorities were still working the case.

“Detectives investigating this case found the complainant to be credible,” Kelly said.

Two law enforcement officials told the Associated Press on condition of anonymity that investigators were using a piece of hotel room carpet to create a forensic trail in the case.

The officials say the carpet was cut from a place where the maid says she spit after being forced to have oral sex with Strauss-Kahn.

Investigators believe the carpet may contain the financial leader’s semen, which would be crucial forensic evidence that would back up the charges.

Since his arrest, reports began to develop that the accuser was HIV positive, the Post reported earlier this week that she lived in a Bronx apartment exclusively for adults with HIV or AIDS.

But her attorney Jeffrey Shapiro said Wednesday that she was only subletting that apartment and does not have HIV.

“She feels like she can’t go home, feels like she’s been excised from her life, doesn’t know what her future will bring and doesn’t know how she can ever resume a life, much less how to deal with having been assaulted and raped,” Shapiro said.

The defense has also floated a theory that any sex was consensual, something flatly rejected by Shapiro.

‘There was nothing about any aspect of this encounter between this young woman and the defendant which was remotely consensual,” he said.

Meanwhile, calls have intensified for Strauss-Kahn to step down as head of the powerful IMF.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Strauss-Kahn, “is obviously not in a position to run” the agency.

World Plantation with Travinyle1 05/18 by Commoncents Radio | Blog Talk Radio

World Plantation with Travinyle1 05/18 by Commoncents Radio | Blog Talk Radio

Geiger Counters, Dosimeters From US, France, Canada Still Sit In Narita Warehouse

Don't Tell Them And They Won't Know

By Tom Burnett
5-18-11
40,000 units of Geiger counters and dosimeters donated by the United States, France, and Canada after the Fukushima I Nuke Plant accident still sit in a warehouse at Narita International Airport, according to a Japanese blogger (yougen).
The blogger says in his/her post (in Japanese) these Geiger counters and dosimeters are under the jurisdiction of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency. Donations from foreign countries are handled by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Distributing the Geiger counters and dosimeters to the plant workers is done by the Ministry of Health and Welfare.
Distributing the Geiger counters and dosimeters to civilians is done by the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency under the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.
This blogger attacks a Representative from Japan Communist Party because the Representative asked the Ministry of Health and Welfare why the Ministry hadn't distributed the donated Geiger counters and dosimeters to the residents in Fukushima. According to the blogger, this Representative is totally out of the line for asking the "wrong" ministry - it is METI's NISA in charge of civilians! How dare she asks such a stupid question!
I thought that was very strange, but the main point of his/her post is that the donated radiation measurement devices still sit in a warehouse.
Beside the Geiger counters and dosimeters, mountains of ramen noodles, water bottles, sneakers, blankets, underwear, socks, canned food, rice, mattresses, soap may be sitting at official distribution centers. Never mind that there are still many, many people living in shelters with scant food and water. Bureaucrats do what they gotta do, and that is to do what they are told to do by the book and nothing else.
http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2011/05/geiger-counters-dosimeters-from-us.html
Full story...
Geiger Counters, Dosimeters from US, France, Canada Still Sit in Narita Warehouse
http://drtom.posterous.com/

Does a CIA “Asset” Own the Bin Laden Compound? :

Does a CIA “Asset” Own the Bin Laden Compound? :

New American
By Joe Wolverton, II
May 18th, 2011

Apart from the extreme height of the walls and the barbed wire with which they were topped, there was nothing particularly distinctive about the compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, where Osama bin Laden was reported to have lived and died.

Located in the area of town known as Bilal Town, the now infamous walled three-story dwelling seems to more or less blend in with the other middle-class homes as revealed in the myriad satellite photos published in the aftermath of the events of May 1. The neighborhood is home to merchants, office workers, and more than a few refugees from Afghanistan.

There was even a garden growing within the walls of the compound. Reporters found cabbages and potatoes, along with other vegetables. There was one crop, however, that wasn’t exactly designed to be chopped and served on a salad.

According to a report filed by CNN’s Nic Robertson, he found rows of marijuana growing among the other greenery. Not exactly a competitor to Pakistan’s huge cash crop of poppy, some speculate that the plant was used by Osama bin Laden to relieve the pain that comes from the various ailments from which he was believed to have suffered.

In light of the reports of a cache of pornography that was also discovered among bin Laden’s effects, the picture that emerges is one of a man who was not quite the zealous, Islamo-facist the government of the United States formerly forwarded as the ultimate “enemy of the state” and “public enemy number one.”

Putting aside the questionable plants growing in the garden and the questionable choice of viewing material hidden inside the house, there’s something much more sinister about the house where Osama bin Laden allegedly met his demise.

An article published by India Today describes a feature of the house that deserves much more attention than marijuana or pornography.

Quoting another piece published in Toronto’s Globe and Mail, the paper reports:

Hizbul Mujahedeen, a militant group active in Kashmir, owned the mansion in the scenic town of Abbottabad where Osama bin Laden was killed by US forces, a Canadian newspaper has reported, claiming that Pakistan is hushing up the issue of the ownership of the compound.

There are indications emerging that the terror mastermind was sheltered by one of the militant groups that has enjoyed tolerance, if not support, from Pakistani military intelligence services, Globe and Mail reported.

The paper quoted a Pakistani police officer familiar with bin Laden’s compound to say the house was used by Hizbul Mujahedeen. The group’s chief Syed salahuddin is based in PoK capital Muzaffarabad.

Globalsecurity.org defines Hizbul Mujahideen thus:

Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM) is one of the largest terrorist groups operating in Jammu and Kashmir and stands for the integration of J&K with Pakistan. Since its formation the HuM has also wanted the islamization of Kashmir.

The HM was formed in 1989 in the Kashmir Valley with Master Ahsan Dar as its chief. Dar was later arrested by security forces in mid-December 1993. It was reportedly formed as the militant wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) at the behest of the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan’s external intelligence agency, to counter the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), which had advocated complete independence of the State. Many of the early Hizb cadres were former JKLF members.

In June 1990, the HM ‘Constitution’ was approved and Mohammed Yusuf Shah, popularly known as Syed Salahuddin, was appointed Patron and Hilal Ahmed Mir as Amir (chief). Apparently, differences between JeI elements and the non-JeI faction started developing within the HM which led to a split with one faction being led by Salahuddin whereas the other was led by Hilal Ahmed Mir (killed in 1993).

Hizb-ul-Mjuahideen is headquartered at Muzaffarabad in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK), and with an estimated cadre strength of at least 1500, is presently headed by Syed Salahuddin. The patron of HM in PoK is Ghulam Nabi Nausheri.

Compare this information with the more detailed accounts of the origins of Hizbul Mujahedeen and its sister organizations contained in Michel Chossudovsky’s report, 9/11 ANALYSIS: From Ronald Reagan and the Soviet-Afghan War to George W Bush and September 11, 2001, and the story of the former’s alleged ownership of the house where bin Laden was hiding takes on a different, darker aspect.

The account related in that report draws lines connecting Hizbul Mujahedeen (and several other supposed al-Qaeda affiliates) to the CIA. From the report:

These various “terrorist” organizations were created as a result of CIA support. They are not the product of religion. The project to establish “a pan-Islamic Caliphate” is part of a carefully devised intelligence operation.

Read Entire Article

Expert calls for research into safety of anthrax vaccine in children

Expert calls for research into safety of anthrax vaccine in children | Bio Prep Watch

by Ted Purlain on May 2, 2011


Lurie_3

Nicole Lurie

Nicole Lurie, the assistant secretary for preparedness and response at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, recently asked the National Biodefense Science Board to investigate the safety concerns of collecting data on the effects of the anthrax vaccine absorbed vaccine in children.

The U.S. government currently stockpiles AVA in order to potentially provide post-exposure care for at-risk populations in the case of an anthrax attack.

In a letter written to the chair of the NBSB, Dr. Patricia Quinlisk, and its members, Lurie said that recent national-level exercises highlighted the need to address particular questions regarding a lack of available data.

There is currently no safety, immunogenicity or efficacy data in pediatric and special populations that would allow the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to evaluate the drug for its utilization under an Emergency Use Authorization.

In the case of an emergency, adults could receive the countermeasures under the less stringent EUA status, while an investigational protocol would still need to be developed for its use in children and special populations. This would present an array of logistical, clinical and communication challenges during a public health crisis.

Lurie concedes that the simple solution is to gather the data in pediatric and special populations ahead of an urgent need, but acknowledges that there are legitimate concerns regarding the risk of testing AVA with no clear benefit at the time of conducting the study.

The NBSB has been asked for its recommendations on the best course of action to prepare for the use of AVA in a specifically pediatric population.

Lurie is primarily interested in the NBSB’s evaluation of the risks and benefits of conducting AVA safety studies in children before or after an emergency, to what extent there are ethical concerns regarding an attempt to gather enough data to permit the vaccine’s use under an Emergency Use Authorization, what planning needs to be in place to perform an investigational protocol after an attack and how the government should approach discussing the issue with parents and public health officials.

The next NBSB public meeting begins on September 22, and Lurie hopes to hear the board’s recommendations at that time.

IMF chief gets new bail hearing, mug shot released

IMF chief gets new bail hearing, mug shot released, IBN Live News
Reuters | 03:50 AM,May 19,2011

By Michelle Nichols and Noeleen Walder NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York court will hear a fresh request on Thursday to release IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn from custody on bail after he was charged with trying to rape a hotel maid. Strauss-Kahn has been held at New York's Rikers Island jail since Monday, when a judge denied an earlier request from his lawyer to free him on a $1 million bond. Strauss-Kahn had been considered a leading contender for the French presidency. "Yes there will definitely be a bail hearing tomorrow," Manhattan District Attorney's Office spokeswoman Erin Duggan told Reuters. Court documents released on Wednesday included a mug shot taken over the weekend of Strauss-Kahn, who has denied the charges, show the 62-year-old looking haggard, his eyes downcast and his shirt collar open. The photo may spark new criticism in France, where an opinion poll showed a majority of respondents believed Strauss-Kahn may have been the victim of a conspiracy to discredit him. The arrest dashed his prospects for the French presidency and raised broader issues over the future of the International Monetary Fund. Developing countries, looking to a succession, questioned Europe's hold on the IMF leadership. Strauss-Kahn left the Sofitel near Times Square in Manhattan around 12:30 p.m. (1630 GMT) on Saturday and roughly an hour later, hotel security called police to report an alleged sexual assault, a law enforcement source said. A lawyer for the maid, a 32-year-old widow from West Africa, said his client would testify before the grand jury later on Wednesday. In the U.S. legal system, a grand jury convenes in secret to hear evidence and decide whether to indict a defendant. The United States, the IMF's biggest shareholder, said Strauss-Kahn was unable to carry on being chief of the global lender from a jail cell, whatever the legal outcome. U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Tuesday called for an interim chief to be named, saying Strauss-Kahn "is obviously not in a position to run the IMF." Chile's Central Bank President Jose De Gregorio also weighed in, telling the Financial Times in an interview published on the paper's website that Strauss-Kahn should leave his post as IMF managing director. "I think he should resign," De Gregorio was quoted as saying by the paper. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said Europe would naturally put forward a candidate to replace Strauss-Kahn if he were to step down. Germany, which wants a European to keep the job, said the IMF should deal with its immediate leadership internally and that it is too early to discuss a successor to Strauss-Kahn. French officials said John Lipsky, the IMF's American number two official whose term ends in August, would represent the Fund at next week's Group of Eight summit in France. In Strauss-Kahn's absence, Lipsky is temporarily in charge of the IMF, which manages the world economy and is in the midst of helping euro zone states like Greece, Ireland and Portugal. EUROPE'S TRADITIONAL RIGHT China, Brazil and South Africa questioned Europe's traditional right to the top job but Europeans said it makes sense for them to retain the post while the Fund plays such a crucial role in helping to ease the euro zone debt crisis. A European has held the post of managing director since the IMF was created in 1945 and four of them have been French. Strauss-Kahn is expected to remain in New York's Rikers Island jail, known for gang violence, at least until his next court appearance on Friday, when his lawyers may again request bail. Any trial could be six months away. He is charged with sexual assault and attempted rape. If convicted, Strauss-Kahn could face 25 years in prison. The woman he is accused of assaulting is an asylum seeker from Guinea with a 15-year-old daughter. In the only public hint of Strauss-Kahn's possible line of defense, his attorney Benjamin Brafman told his arraignment hearing on Monday: "The evidence we believe will not be consistent with a forcible encounter." An opinion poll in France, taken before Strauss-Kahn's first court appearance on Monday and released on Wednesday, showed 57 percent of respondents thought the Socialist politician -- who had been front-runner for the 2012 election -- was definitely or probably the victim of a plot. Seventy percent of Socialist sympathizers took that view, the CSA poll found. Most French media have dismissed conspiracy theories. The poll findings highlight a cultural divide, with French Socialist politicians and commentators denouncing the public parading of Strauss-Kahn, unshaven and in handcuffs, before he had a chance to defend himself. U.S. media have criticized the French for a tradition of secrecy on politicians' sex lives and for showing more compassion for Strauss-Kahn than for the alleged victim, whose identity some French newspapers have published. 'RECOGNIZED COMPETENCE' The French daily Liberation said the IMF chief had told its editors in off-record comments last month that he had just the right qualities to lead France, notably a calm manner, in contrast to conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy. "Today I fit with everything the French people want -- recognized competence, calm, international experience," he was quoted as having said at an April 28 meeting. French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde is thought to be interested in the post but her prospects have been clouded by a decision this month by a Paris public prosecutor to recommend an inquiry into her role in awarding financial compensation to a prominent businessman in 2008. Emerging countries are starting to flex their muscle over who should succeed Strauss-Kahn, who had been expected to leave soon anyway to run for the French presidency. South African Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan and a senior Brazilian official, who asked not to be named, said the next chief should be from a developing country, pressing a case to give emerging economies a greater say in world affairs. That sentiment was echoed by Chile. "Without forgetting that there are people with much merit in industrialized countries, we also believe that there are people in the emerging world fully capable of leading the monetary fund," said Chilean Finance Minister Felipe Larrain. But Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega said the affair should not be used to press for changes in the way the IMF head is picked, telling GloboNews TV the discussion "is too premature at this point" and Strauss-Kahn was "probably one of the best IMF chiefs that we had in the past years." Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty also weighed in, saying IMF members were discussing what steps to take. He has declined to comment on media reports that Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney is being touted as a candidate for the top IMF job. (Additional reporting by Catherine Bremer in Paris, David Morgan and Lesley Wroughton in Washington, Michelle Nichols and Mark Hosenball in New York, Philip Blenkinsop in Brussels, Moises Avila in Santiago, Randall Palmer in Ottawa; Writing by Paul Taylor and Matt Daily; Editing by Will Dunham)


4 Months Until Post Office Defaults

Federal News Radio 1500 AM: USPS warns of default on retiree benefits
By Jared Serbu
Reporter
Federal News Radio

The U.S. Postal Service will begin to default on its financial obligations just over four months from now unless Congress takes action to relieve it of its obligation to pre-fund retiree health care accounts, its leader told lawmakers Tuesday.

USPS expects to post a net loss of $8.3 billion for this fiscal year, nearly as much as it lost last year. And with its $15 billion debt limit due to be reached this year, more borrowing is not an option, Postmaster General Pat Donahoe said in testimony before a subcommittee of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs committee.

"Despite our aggressive cost cutting and revenue generating efforts, we are in serious financial predicaments today," he said. "As things stand, we do not have the cash to make the $5.5 billion prepayment for future retiree health benefits due on September 30. And we may be forced to default on other payments. This could extend to operational expenses."

USPS contends the prepayment for future retirees is a financial obligation that none of its competitors, nor any government agency, has to live with. The requirement came along with a 2006 postal reform bill that was passed when mail volume was at its peak.

Officials say the payments were also based on what was then a much larger employee base. USPS has cut its workforce by 113,000 since then. Donahoe said in written testimony to the subcommittee on federal financial management that not only can USPS not afford the future retiree health bill this year, but that without Congressional action, it's inevitable that the organization will eventually default on payments to employees and suppliers as well.

After the hearing, he told reporters that was a last resort, and skipping the retiree health payment this year would provide at least some breathing room.

"The last thing we would do would be to negatively disrupt the delivery of mail, because it's tremendously disruptive to American commerce," he said. "There's trillions of dollars that go through the mail. 52 percent of Americans still pay their bills through the mail versus online."

The postal service also wants Congress to refund up to $75 billion it says it has overpaid into the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS), and another $7 billion in overpayments into the Federal Employee Retirement System (FERS). It would use that money to finish off its retiree health benefit prepayments and pay down its accumulated debt.

But Donahoe said those were short term fixes. Longer term health for the postal service, he said, means more management flexibility, including the option to go from six-day to five-day delivery.

He said USPS is also working to cut more costs by removing excess capacity from the postal system, including the politically-sensitive subject of closing post offices themselves.

"In some small offices, we're looking at consolidation because what we're finding is that many of these offices don't even have an hour's worth of work in a day," he said. "If it's close to another office, a mile or so, we can consolidate. In other cases, many towns have three businesses: a general store, a gas station and a post office. What we're looking for is to talk to the general store or the gas station to take a contract to provide postal services. There are many options, and we want to hear from people, but we have to move on these things."

Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), the chairman of the subcommittee, has introduced legislation that would give the postal service what says it needs. It would allow USPS access to the excess FERS and CSRS funds it has paid so it can pay off its retiree health benefits once and for all.

Carper said it would also let USPS management run the organization with less Congressional interference.

School Suspends Girl Over Bin Laden Facebook Post

School Suspends Girl Over Bin Laden Facebook Post - Manchester News Story - WMUR Manchester
The mother of a Concord middle school student is decrying the school district after her daughter was suspended due to a Facebook post.

Kimberly Dell'isola said her daughter was suspended for five days after saying she wished Osama bin Laden killed her math teacher.

While she agrees the post was offensive, Dell'isola said her daughter's free speech should be protected.

"In hindsight, she's mortified that she said that, but she's a 13-year-old kid," Dell'isola said.


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She said she frequently checks her daughter's Facebook page, but she hadn't logged on the day of the incident.

Dell'isola said she didn't find out about the incident until she got a call from the school's principal.

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She said she agrees with the administrators at Rundlett Middle School that the post was wrong, but thinks the punishment is too harsh.

"You are denying her an education based on something she did at home. That's my business, not your business," Dell'isola said.

She said that while her daughter's profile did have privacy settings on, a parent of one of her daughter's friends reported the post.

"They asked her to open her Facebook and she complied because she generally does what she's told," Dell'isola said.

The mother holds that the issue is a parenting one, and not school related. She said she expressed that sentiment to Principal Tom Sica.

"He just said what she said was really awful. I started laughing and said I agree with you there, but how did it come to you deciding to throw her out of school," Dell'isola said.

She said that while her daughter's suspension is over, she has not returned to class out of fear of facing the teacher she made the comment about.

Dell'isola wants the school to remove her from the class and give her a private math tutor instead.

"She's anxious to go back and terrified to go back all at the same time," Dell'isola said.

Sica said he could not comment about the incident because of student privacy rights.

Read more: http://www.wmur.com/news/27931726/detail.html#ixzz1Milz8zWe

Medvedev warns West of new Cold War over missile deal

Medvedev warns West of new Cold War over missile deal - Yahoo! News

SKOLKOVO, Russia (AFP) – President Dmitry Medvedev warned Wednesday Russia could pull out a new nuclear disarmament treaty and enter a new Cold War with the West if the two sides failed to agree on a new missile defence shield.

Medvedev told reporters that the United States' decision to push ahead with the European shield despite Russia's objections will force Moscow "to take response measures -- something that we would very much rather not do."

"We would then be talking about developing the offensive potential of our nuclear capabilities. This would be a very bad scenario."

The Russian leader also reaffirmed any earlier threat to pull out of the new START disarmament agreement that entered into force this year if the missile shield is deployed and operated without the Kremlin's input.

"This would be a very bad scenario. It would be a scenario that throws us back into the Cold War era."

The Confederacy comes to Kentucky

The Confederacy comes to Kentucky - War Room - Salon.com

Sometimes, it can feel like little has changed since 1865. Like when my state considers honoring Jefferson Davis