Here’s what should really get them posted forever in a hall of fame for stupid criminals: they put their names and the address of the drug house on the fliers.
No really… go here and check it out.
Photo: They had a lot more than heroin to offer. There was marijuana, a sawed-off shotgun, thousands of dollars in cash, and the materials for a methamphetamine lab inside the home.
Just when things were starting to look up — federal mediators! Marathon bargaining sessions! Small concessions from both sides! — it’s starting to look very, very grim for NBA fans once again.
According to Yahoo! Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski, talks between the owners and the players have stopped, and the lockout has suffered what Wojnarowski calls a “huge setback”:Talks on a 50-50 BRI split broke down, and labor talks have ended, source tells Y! No new meetings scheduled. Huge setback in this lockout
No matter what their supposed purpose, there’s something inherently sinister about a secret society. Though most are formed with relatively realistic political and religious goals in mind, their focus on mystery and secrecy has made them the target of countless criticisms and conspiracy theories involving everything from aliens and the occult to world domination. Of course, the reality is usually much more innocuous, but that doesn’t mean that the groups don’t have some fascinatingly weird practices, or that they haven’t had an impact on world events.
With this in mind, the following are ten
Skull and Bones
Famous Members
George H.W. Bush, George W.Bush, John Kerry
Ivy League Colleges are known for their many secret societies and student organizations, and of these Yale’s Skull and Bones is probably the most famous. The society taps new students for membership every spring, and the only real prerequisite for membership is that the initiate be a campus leader. As such, athletes, members of the student council, and fraternity presidents are often considered. Skull and Bones counts among its membership U.S. Presidents, Senators, and Supreme Court Justices, which has lead many to argue that the group works as some kind of underground organization for the high-powered political elite. There is no denying that the club is well funded: an alumni organization called the Russell Trust Association bankrolls its activities, and the group supposedly owns an island in upstate New York.
Secret Practices
Skull and Bones’ membership is no longer kept secret, but their practices still are. The order meets twice a week, but just what goes on at their meetings has never been revealed. To the disappointment of conspiracy theorists, what rumors have come out are relatively innocuous. The group has supposedly taken part in a number of pranks, and was once even sued by chairman of the Apache tribe, who claimed the Bonesmen were in possession of the skeleton of Geronimo. Beyond this, the group is known for allegedly forcing new members to relate their sexual history to the rest of the society, and for giving out nicknames to each initiate. In a widely reported rumor, President George H.W. Bush was supposedly known as “Magog,” a name given to the Bonesman with the most sexual experience
Go here to read about the other nine secret societies.
Deposed Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi has been killed, the Libyan prime minister confirmed Thursday, following news of his capture and reports of his death.
The ousted dictator died of wounds suffered in his capture near his hometown of Sirte, according to a senior National Transitional Council military official and a government minister. "He was killed in an attack by the fighters. There is footage of that," the NTC's information minister, Mahmoud Shammam, told Reuters.
The military official, Abdel Majid Mlegta, told Reuters that Gadhafi was taken at dawn on Thursday as he tried to flee in a convoy that NATO warplanes had attacked.
UPDATE:
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
A thief used a crane to lift a Jeep Wrangler off of a northern Indiana car lot over the weekend, local media reported. Surveillance camera footage at LaPorte Chrysler showed someone driving a truck carrying a crane onto the lot, then circling around to park next to the 2008 Wrangler, Chicago NBC station WMAQ reported. Then the thief hooked the Jeep with the crane and loaded it onto a trailer.The entire operation, which occurred at 6:40 a.m. Sunday, took all of six minutes, according to WMAQ.
Don't touch! Study confirms your worst fears about public potties
No. 1: A new study on the germ orgies going down in America’s public restrooms truly puts the “P” in repulsive, repugnant and “Hey, how awesome are my Depends?”
No. 2: If you can, maybe just hold it until you get home.
Yes, we’re talking about relieving those two basic bodily functions and doing so in some of most bacteria-bedecked spaces anywhere. As long suspected, bathroom surfaces in U.S. restaurants, airplanes, stores, hospitals and other busy locales are often heavily contaminated with illness-causing microbes – and, in some cases, the bug colonies are even too large to measure, according to a paper to be presented Friday to the Infectious Diseases Society of America in Boston.
Time to walk on down the road…
Twenty brands of dietary supplements touted as so-called natural weight loss aids have been found to contain a prescription drug pulled from the market for safety concerns, the Food and Drug Administration warned today.
Products marketed under names like “A-Slim 100% Natural Slimming Capsules,” “P57 Hoodia,” “PhentaBurn Slimming Capsules,” and “Dream Body Slimming Capsules,” were found to contain sibutramine. That's actually the medication more commonly known under the brand name Meridia -- a prescription weight-loss drug that was removed from the U.S. market last October because it was linked to heart attacks and stroke.
According to the FDA warning, “the product poses a threat to consumers because sibutramine is known to substantially increase blood pressure and/or pulse rate in some patients and may present a significant risk for patients with a history of coronary artery disease, congestive heart failure, arrhythmias, or stroke. This product may also interact in life-threatening ways with other medications a consumer may be taking."
Click here for a full list of products listed in the FDA warnings.
A deportation officer with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement led Arizona state police and federal agents on a high-speed desert chase in his government vehicle, throwing bundles of marijuana out of the window as he fled, the Department of Public Safety said Wednesday.
The deportation officer, identified as Jason Alistair Lowery, 34, had been under surveillance for more than month after a known smuggler who had been arrested gave authorities a tip about the officer in an effort to get lenient treatment, Department of Public Safety Officer Carrick Cook told The Associated Press. Lowery, who lives in the Phoenix suburb of Chandler, does not yet have an attorney.
DPS and federal agents tried to pull Lowery over Tuesday after he picked up a load of marijuana in the desert with his unmarked ICE pickup truck, Cook said. The officer fled, leading agents on a 45-minute chase at speeds of up to 110 mph as he threw 10 of the 14 bundles of pot that he had in the truck out of the window, he said. "He got pretty desperate," Cook said.
The chase began in the Vekol Valley about 45 miles south of Phoenix and ended just south of Sacaton, about 20 miles as the crow flies northwest from where the chase began. It ended when Lowery's truck rolled over and he gave himself up. DPS believes Lowery was taking the marijuana to a man working for a drug cartel whose house served as the nexus of the drug distribution.
Lowery was booked into Pinal County jail on charges of smuggling and felony flight and was turned over to ICE custody Wednesday morning. The sheriff's office also booked the man who was to receive the marijuana, identified as 33-year-old Joshua Duane Powell of Arizona City.
At Powell's home, police found 14 rifles and guns in the trunk of his car, seven of which had been reported stolen, according to a DPS document. The document also said that Powell had been out on a $25,000 bond stemming from a separate investigation last month in which multiple bulletproof vests, weapons, stolen night-vision equipment, hundreds of rounds of ammunition and various drugs were found in his home.
"Since his release only a few weeks ago, (Powell) has amassed a small arsenal of weapons and has proven to continue involvement in the illicit drug trade," the document said. Powell does not yet have an attorney and he has declined interview requests from the news media.
ICE spokesman Vinnie Picard declined to say how long that Lowery had worked for the agency or other details about him or the case. "ICE is cooperating with federal and state authorities in this matter," Picard said in a statement. "We hold our officers and agents to the highest levels of responsibility and are committed to supporting the agencies investigating this incident."
By AMANDA LEE MYERS The Associated Press
The US government today announced that it is changing its symbol from an EAGLE to a CONDOM, because it more accurately reflects the government's political stance....
A condom allows for inflation, halts production, destroys the next generation, protects a bunch of dicks, and gives you a sense of security while you're actually being screwed!
It just doesn't get more accurate than that!
Coffee’s on. C’mon in and have a cup with me. It’s another day in paradise. After scanning headlines this morning, I came up with these three stories to share. Enjoy.
Accused New York thieves have been using a Hollywood-born strategy to rob dozens of small stores, telling police they were inspired by the 2010 movie "The Town" to splash bleach on the crime scenes, according to the police.
In what were dubbed the "splash-and-dash" robberies, the suspects would throw bleach over cash machines and cash drawers in a bid to erase their DNA evidence, the New York Police Department said. They targeted dozens of corner stores, discount stores and pizzerias, netting $217,000 in the past year, police said.
An ice cream vendor who peddled prescription painkillers from the same truck he sold frozen treats to kids, was sentenced on Tuesday to three and a half years in prison.
The sentence was part of a plea deal struck by Louis Scala, 30, the head of a $1 million drug-trafficking ring run out of his Lickety Split truck, prosecutors said. He pleaded guilty in August to one count of conspiracy and one count of criminal possession of a controlled substance. Scala, 30, obtained the drugs with a prescription pad stolen by an accomplice from a Manhattan doctor's office. Through a network of more than two dozen runners, he was able to get nearly 43,000 oxycodone pills between July 2009 and June 2010, with a street value of $20 apiece, prosecutors said.
Scala drove his Lickety Split truck through neighborhoods in Staten Island, selling ice cream to children while inviting adults into the back to buy pills.
An Australian woman said she thought she was about to die when a huge kangaroo attacked her while she was walking her dogs.
Janet Karson, of the southwestern Australian town of Deanmill, told The West Australian newspaper in a report published Wednesday that she was walking her dogs on Saturday when the kangaroo appeared. One of her dogs chased after it and she hurried to catch up. When she arrived, she said, the kangaroo had its claws locked onto her pet.
"I used a stick to lever its claws off my dog and then it reared up in front of me — it was huge," Karson told the newspaper. "All I can remember is its claws going to work on me and the smell of my own blood when my head fell on to its chest. I thought, 'That's it, I'm finished.' "It all happened so quickly — it was over in a few seconds."
Karson isn't sure if the dogs fought the kangaroo off her or if it decided to end the attack on its own. The mauling left her with cuts to her neck, ears and back. She said she needed 20 stitches to close the wounds to her ears. "I honestly believe it's a miracle I'm alive," she said.
Time to walk on down the road…
Nate Beeler / The Washington Examiner, Politicalcartoons.com
An orphaned Madagascar teal duckling (left) snuggles under orphaned kookaburra (a predator to the former).
Jennifer Holland is a senior writer for National Geographic magazine, specializing in science and natural history. She lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, with her husband, two dogs, and dozens of snakes and geckos; none of whom, to her dismay, have crossed the species barrier to befriend the others. More Photos Here
Experts have said for more than 100 years that post-impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh walked to a wheat field on July 27, 1890, shot himself in the chest with a pistol, then died two days later in his room at the age of 37. But a new book by Pulitzer Prize-winning authors Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith — who were honored in 1991 for a biography about American painter Jackson Pollock – argues the troubled artist might have been murdered.
Texas law enforcement officials say several Mexican drug cartels are luring youngsters as young as 11 to work in their smuggling operations.
Steven McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, told Reuters the drug gangs have a chilling name for the young Texans lured into their operations. "They call them 'the expendables,'" he said.
McCraw said his investigators have evidence six Mexican drug gangs -- including the violent Zetas -- have "command and control centers" in Texas actively recruiting children for their operations, attracting them with what appears to be "easy money" for doing simple tasks.
The Golden Arches pairs fattening food and slothful entertainment with a new network just for burger-scarfing Americans
McDonald's has long tried to smooth the rough, garish plastic edges of its restaurants to make them nicer places to hang out. The burger giant's latest gambit to get customers to while the day away under the Golden Arches? A new television network that will be beamed to widescreen HD screens visible to almost all dine-in customers. Reality TV mogul Mark Burnett, BBC America, and ABC are on board to provide locally tailored news and entertainment programming. The McDonald's Channel is being tested in California, with a national rollout in the works. Of course, the idea of mixing unhealthy Big Macs and brain-numbing TV hasn't escaped the notice of the commentariat. Here, some of the best zingers:
First Oprah, now Ronald?
Between this and the Oprah Winfrey Network, "the reprogramming of America just keeps getting scarier," says Amy Scattergood at LA Weekly. "Maybe soon we can simultaneously watch television and eat fast food every single waking moment."
Speaking of odd bedfellows
McDonald's TV is the brainchild of "the man who brought us Survivor and the people responsible for the Chicken McNugget"? says Tim Kenneally at The Wrap. "I'm watchin' it"!
Call it suicidal synergy!
Arguably, "anyone who is in a McDonald's has already given up on life, so they might as well be forced to watch more company propaganda," says Chris O'Shea at Mediabistro. Maybe they'll have a show called Guess What? I'm Stupid! where contestants explain to their loved ones why "eating three Filet-O-Fishes for lunch is fine even if their hearts do stop beating 'sometimes.'"
What else will be on McTV?
"You know, besides Super Size Me"? says Aly Semigran at Entertainment Weekly. How about a crime-buster show starring the Hamburgler, or "campaign commercials with Mayor McCheese against Herman Cain. Pizza vs. cheeseburgers: Make your vote count!"
Time to walk on down the road….
It's been nearly two decades since journalistic icon Dan Rather resigned from CBS after reporting a discredited story about then-Presid...
