Election Day: Romney or Obama? As campaigning ends, voters render verdict

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It’s Nov.6…have you voted yet?

Good Day World!

The campaigning is over.

After months of intense — and often negative — campaigning between President Barack Obama and his Republican opponent, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, voters headed to polls across the country today to render their verdict in America's presidential election.

The election would settle the question of which man would lead the United States for the next four years, but a great deal of uncertainty awaited the winner of the election. Either Obama or Romney will almost immediately have to face the so-called “fiscal cliff,” the cocktail of automatic spending cuts (especially to defense) and tax hikes set to take effect at the beginning of the year unless Congress acts.

1st Election Day votes cast at midnight -- and it's a tie in Dixville Notch

Those challenges, the prospect of a “grand bargain” to address mounting national debt, and a variety of other issues confronted both the candidates and the tens of millions of voters expected to cast ballots today. (read the rest of the story here)

Buying the Presidency: Election's biggest corporate donor an enigma with $5.3 million in contributions

Tomorrow we’ll find out if the Super PACs have bought the election for Mitt Romney. Both he, and other Republicans have been supported by 85% of the Super PACs this year. Rich businessman and anonymous donors with secret agendas have gone all out to purchase the presidency. Here’s some interesting facts about the impact Super PACs have had on the electoral process.

The biggest corporate contributor in the 2012 election so far doesn’t appear to make anything — other than very large contributions to a conservative super PAC.

Specialty Group Inc., of Knoxville, Tenn., donated nearly $5.3 million between Oct. 1 and Oct. 11 toFreedomWorks for America, which is affiliated with former GOP House Majority Leader Dick Armey.

FreedomWorks’ super PAC has spent more than $19 million on political advertising, including $1.7 million on Oct. 29 opposing Tammy Duckworth, a Democrat running for Congress in Illinois against Tea Party favorite Joe Walsh, a first-term incumbent.The buy was more than four times greater than the group’s previous largest single expenditure.

Specialty was formed only a month ago. Its “principal office” is a private home in Knoxville. It has no website. And the only name associated with it is that of its registered agent, a lawyer whose phone number, listed in a legal directory, is disconnected. Specialty is the biggest and most mysterious corporate donor to super PACs, but it is not unique.

A new analysis by the Center for Public Integrity and the Center for Responsive Politics shows that companies have contributed roughly $75 million to super PACs in the 2012 election cycle.

Super PACs, which were created in the wake of the controversial U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision in 2010, can accept donations of unlimited size from corporations, unions and individuals. They spend the funds mostly on negative advertising.

The centers’ analysis found that 85 percent of money from companies flowed to GOP-aligned groups, 11 percent went to Democratic groups and the remainder went to organizations not aligned with either party.Prior to Citizens United, corporate spending on candidate advertising was not allowed. The decision raised fears that massive donations from corporate treasuries would flood the election in 2012.

In fact, the largest amounts have come from wealthy businessmen. However, about 11 percent of the $660 million raised by all super PACs through mid-October has come from company treasuries — mostly privately held businesses, sometimes organized as limited partnerships or limited liability companies. Yet a few high-profile companies haven’t been afraid to jump into the partisan fray.

In mid-October, oil and gas giant Chevron donated $2.5 million to a super PAC close to House SpeakerJohn Boehner, R-Ohio, called the Congressional Leadership Fund, which has aired a bevy of adsattacking Democratic House candidates.

Oxbow Carbon, the energy company owned by billionaire William Koch, the lesser-known brother of conservative industrialists David and Charles Koch, and Contran Corp., the business of Republican super donor Harold Simmons of Texas, have both steered significant sums to the coffers of super PACs.

Oxbow Carbon has donated $4.25 million to GOP super PACs, making it the No. 2 corporate donor to super PACs, while Contran, No. 3, has donated more than $3 million to Republican-aligned groups.

Another top corporate donor is a retirement community in central Florida known as The Villages — a Republican stronghold where Paul Ryan held his first campaign rally the day after GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney named him as his running mate.

Developer H. Gary Morse created The Villages more than 50 years ago, and this election cycle, more than a dozen companies connected to Morse and The Villages have collectively steered $1.6 million to GOP super PACs. That’s in addition to the $450,000 that Morse and his wife, Renee, have donated from their personal funds.

Notably, Morse is also the Florida co-chairman of the Romney campaign, and during the Republican National Convention, Morse’s Cayman Island-flagged yacht, named “Cracker Bay,” was the site of a soiree for some of Romney’s top donors and fundraisers.

Other high-profile corporate donors include:

• The Apollo Group, a for-profit education company, which gave $75,000 to the pro-RomneyRestore Our Future and another $5,000 to JAN PAC, the super PAC of Arizona’s Republican Gov. Jan Brewer;
• Convenience store giant 7-Eleven, which donated $25,000 to Hoosiers for Jobs, a super PAC that supported Sen. Dick Lugar, R-Ind., during his failed primary campaign;
• Hamburger chain White Castle, which gave $25,000 to the Congressional Leadership Fund;
• Defense contractor B/E Aerospace, which gave $50,000 to Restore Our Future;
• Payday lender QC Holdings, which gave $25,000 to Restore Our Future; and
• Weaver Holdings, the parent company of the Indiana-popcorn company known for its brands “Pop Weaver” and “Trail’s End,” sold by Boy Scouts across the country, which has donated $2.4 million to American Crossroads, the super PAC founded by GOP strategists Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie.

Only a few other Fortune 500 companies have joined Chevron, which ranks third on the elite list behind only Exxon Mobil and Walmart, in making contributions to super PACs, and none has given as much as the energy giant.

Caesar’s Entertainment Corp., for instance, ranked by Fortune at No. 288, has given $150,000 toMajority PAC, a group that is spending to help Democrats retain the majority in the U.S. Senate.

“Fortune 500 companies are the least likely to be the ones who will be out in front giving publicly,” said Rick Hasen, a law professor at the University of California-Irvine. “They want to have influence over elections and elected officials, but they don't want to alienate customers.”

By category, companies in the finance, insurance and real estate sector donated more than $15 million, “general business sector” firms gave about $14 million and energy sector companies contributed more than $11 million, according to the analysis.

Unions, by contrast, have donated about $60 million to super PACs, from their treasuries or political action committees.

The top union donors include the National Education Association ($9 million), the United Auto Workers ($8.6 million) and the AFL-CIO ($6.4 million). All of these groups have spent heavily on Democratic candidates.

Money 'hiding in plain sight'
Additional corporate money may be flowing through politically active nonprofits that don’t disclose their funders.

“I strongly suspect that most of the corporate money is hiding in plain sight in trade associations like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce,” said Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, a professor at the Stetson University College of Law.

For its part, the Chamber — which collects dues from companies such as Aetna, Chevron, Dow Chemical and Microsoft — has reported spending more than $35 million on political ads, which have overwhelmingly favored Republican politicians.

Facts about Specialty Group Inc. are scant.

Records filed with the Tennessee Secretary of State’s office show it registered on Sept. 26, listing 61-year-old attorney William S. Rose, Jr., as its agent. Rose’s $634,000 home — about a 30-minute drive from downtown Knoxville — is listed as its “principal office.” Yet the company’s money has made a huge impact.

After the cash infusion from Specialty, FreedomWorks produced numerous advertisements, including one that blasts Duckworth as a crony of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who was impeached and sentenced to 14 years in federal prison following a corruption scandal.

Duckworth is a double amputee and Iraq War veteran. She headed Illinois’ Department of Veteran Affairs and later served in President Barack Obama’s U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

FreedomWorks’ new ad features grainy footage of Duckworth and audio of her saying, “Gov. Blagojevich has charged me with the mission of taking care of my buddies, and that is what I’m doing.” But it leaves out the fact that when she said “buddies,” she was referring to other veterans and members of the military.

FreedomWorks for America treasurer and legal counsel Ryan Hecker says the organization only supports candidates who are “ethically right.” Anton Becker, Duckworth's campaign press secretary, says it’s conservative outside groups who are peddling "lies."

When asked for details about Specialty Group and the source of its contributions, Hecker expressed ignorance, and doubted that voters care about where the money came from.

“We are in compliance with the law, and we are doing what we can to report to the Federal Election Commission,” he said. “If there’s an issue with Specialty, it’s their issue. It’s not our issue.”

Andrea Fuller of the Center for Public Integrity contributed to this report. This story is a collaboration between the Center for Public Integrity and the Center for Responsive Politics. For up-to-date news on outside spending in the 2012 election, follow our Source2012 Tumblr and the hashtag #Source2012 on Twitter.

Idaho scientist seeks to launch aerial Bigfoot search with blimp

  Good Day World!

An Idaho scientist shrugging off skeptical fellow scholars in his quest for evidence of Bigfoot has turned his sights skyward, with plans to float a blimp over the U.S. mountain West in search of the mythic, ape-like creature.

Idaho State University has approved the unusual proposal of faculty member Jeffrey Meldrum, an anatomy and anthropology professor ridiculed by some peers for past research of a being whose existence is widely disputed by mainstream science. Now Meldrum is seeking to raise $300,000-plus in private donations to build the remote-controlled dirigible, equip it with a thermal-imaging camera and send it aloft in hopes of catching an aerial glimpse of Bigfoot, also known as sasquatch.

Meldrum, author of "Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science," said the undertaking represents a giant leap in the quest for an animal he believes may have descended from a giant ape that once inhabited Asia and crossed the Bering land bridge to North America.

"The challenge with any animal that is rare, solitary, nocturnal and far-ranging in habitat is to find them and observe them in the wild; this technology provides for that," he said.

Decades of alleged sightings, elaborate hoaxes and the discovery of huge footprints in the forests of the Pacific Northwest and elsewhere have led to beliefs that Bigfoot is a man-like ape, an ape-like man or a figment of the popular imagination.

Most scholars discount Bigfoot as a phenomenon borne of myth and perpetuated by a mix of fakery and misidentification of real animals. They contend that science demands a high standard of evidence that has not been achieved in the case of sasquatch.

No fossils or other physical evidence has been unearthed to suggest that the largest primate ever known migrated from Asia to the Americas, and no Bigfoot has been captured or killed, skeptics argue.

"There is no Bigfoot," said University of Iowa anthropologist Russell Ciochon. Believers describe an enormous, fur-bearing figure that walks upright in the remote high country of mostly Western states. The blimp-based search - dubbed the Falcon Project - was the brainchild of William Barnes, a Utah man who said he encountered Bigfoot in 1997 in northern California.

Barnes said he watched an immense, hairy creature that was otherwise "well-manicured" approach his tent before striding up a rocky ledge. Years later, he approached Meldrum, well known in Bigfoot circles, about his idea for an airship expedition.

Barnes and Meldrum hope the Falcon Project will take flight next spring. They envision a months-long expedition that will survey swaths of remote forest across parts of the Pacific Northwest as well as northern tiers of California and Utah. The aerial evidence is to be dispatched to teams on the ground that would seek to trace evidence or "try to make contact," Meldrum said.

Financial support for the venture has been slow in coming, with Meldrum failing so far to raise a single dollar for the effort. But he told Reuters he was in talks with two cable channels vying for rights to produce a new weekly TV series following the Falcon Project from its inception.

Indigenous peoples from Asia to North America possess lore about colossal creatures akin to apes that live in extreme alpine environments, shun contact with humans and are variously identified as the yeti, Bigfoot, the wild man or mountain man, said William Willard, professor emeritus of cultural anthropology at Washington State University. While powerful, those myths have no scientific validity, he said. (Source)

Time for me to walk on down the road…

AS IT STANDS: Why NRA members should vote to re-elect President Obama

                  

    By Dave Stancliff/for the Times-Standard
  Let’s look at a great American manufacturing and sales success story that has played out in the last four years.

Not just a little “Mom and Pop” feel-good propaganda piece either. No. Let’s look at a business that has shown unparalleled growth during the last four years.
 The statistics alone will give you goose bumps:
  For the first time since 1993, there has been growth in this industry. Retailers can’t keep up with the demand for this industry’s product. One of the biggest manufacturers in the country actually had to quit taking orders for a while because of it’s massive backlog. It was the first time in that company’s history such a thing happened.
  The demand and pace for the products of this industry has never been greater. The sheer volume of orders is staggering. For example, two manufacturers, that have 30 percent of the whole industry wrapped up, have been running production lines around the clock, hiring workers and operating at maximum capacity since 2008.
   One manufacturer, unlike many others in the country during these last four years, has seen an 86 percent growth spurt in the last four years. And it’s only projected to get better, if you can imagine.
  The manufacturer is pouring millions into research and development with big expectations for the future. For the industry it’s like a dream come true. At one point, prior to the last presidential election, stagnant sales were hindering growth.
  That’s all changed. The future has never been brighter for the firearms industry.
  That’s right, companies like Sturm Ruger-Co., Inc. and Smith and Wesson are thriving and setting records. Ammunition manufacturers are experiencing a golden age in sales and profit. Gun store owners are expanding their businesses during these good times.
  Without a doubt, the gun and ammunition manufacturers of America owe President Obama big time. Jim Barrett, an industry analyst at C.L. King and Associates Inc. in New York, recently told the Associated Press that the driver behind the record sales is President Obama.
 Why, you ask? It’s really quite simple. The National Rifle Association (NRA) has been telling their members since the 2008 election that Obama is going to take away their guns one day. Just like that. Storm troopers are going to come into their homes and disarm them. Here today, gone tomorrow.

   One problem with that scenario: it didn’t happen. If anything, Obama’s election has stimulated sales - not curtailed them. That detail doesn’t seem to faze the NRA leadership, however.
They’re using the same fear tactic this time around, and claim Obama will surely ruin the industry if re-elected because it would be his last hurrah in politics and he’s been lying in wait for the chance to cripple American’s second Amendment rights all along.
  The NRA, fatter today than ever before from donations that have poured in during the last four years of fear-mongering, wants a Republican in the Oval Office. I think they’re making a big mistake attacking President Obama. It’s like hunting down the golden goose.
  In the first place, there’s no way President Obama will ever get Congress to agree to any laws that would hurt, or in any way impede the firearm industry. Republicans and Democrats are both too afraid of the NRA’s power to sway votes. The firearm industry has become America’s sacred cow.

  Which leads me back to why the NRA is playing the fear game again, this time around. It seems senseless, but to some extremists it’s all they have. Fund raising is an important part of maintaining the NRA’s political profile, and if they don’t have a “red letter” issue to rally around, donations could fall off.
  That’s really too bad when you think about it. Everyone wants to stimulate the economy and promote American manufacturing, and the NRA wants you to vote for Romney instead of Obama - who would easily guarantee four more years of thriving gun and ammunition sales!
   As It Stands, if you’re a member of the NRA who cares about seeing American manufacturing thrive then cast your vote to re-elect President Obama! 

Don’t Forget…’Fall back’: The science of daylight saving time

If colorful leaves and the occasional snowstorm weren't a sign that summer has slipped away, daylight saving time officially ends this Sunday.

At 2:00 a.m. that day, the clocks will "fall back" an hour, meaning brighter mornings but darker evenings for most Americans. (Hawaii and Arizona don't participate in this annual ritual.)

Daylight saving time was first suggested by Ben Franklin, who seemed to mean it as a joke. He wrote in 1784 that Parisians' night-owl ways could perhaps be cured by forcing them to live by the sun's light. (Franklin suggested that cannons at sunrise might do the trick.)

But no one put daylight saving into place until World War I, when Germany instituted the biannual time change to save fuel for the war effort. Britain soon did the same. In 1918, when the United States joined the war, daylight saving time soon followed. After the war ended, however, Congress got rid of the time change. Farmers hated it, because they had to do their jobs by the sun no matter the time on the clock. When Woodrow Wilson tried to defend daylight saving time, Congress actually went over his head, overriding his veto of their repeal.

Getting everyone on the same page
So how is it that we're dutifully turning our clocks forward and back these days? World War II. Again, American officials instituted daylight saving time to save energy for the war. But post-World War II, the United States was less rural than post-World War I. This time around, people supported keeping daylight savings so they could enjoy the summer sun after working hours.

For a few years, the country fell into chaos. Some towns kept daylight savings, while others ditched it. According to David Prerau, author of " Seize the Daylight : The Curious and Contentious Story of Daylight Saving Time" (Thunder's Mouth Press, 2005), One 35-mile (56-kilometer) bus ride from Moundsville, W.Va., to Steubenville, Ohio, took riders through no less than seven different time changes.

So in 1966, Congress passed the Uniform Time Act, stipulating that while states were not required to implement daylight saving time, they had to chose — no more patchwork time zones. The federal government also took on the responsibility of choosing the "spring forward" and "fall back" days for changing clocks.

     Today's daylight savings
At first, daylight saving took up much less of the year than it does today. But Congress expanded the length of the daylight saving period in the 1970s and 1980s, and finally lengthened it all the way from March to November in 2007.

Daylight saving time has its advantages, such as more post-work daylight in the summer. But the switch can be tough on the body clock. The hour shift can interfere with sleep, especially for night owls, according to a 2007 study in the journal BMC Biology. A 2008 study published in the journal BMC Physiology suggest that people who like to burn the midnight oil have the most trouble shifting forward in the spring, while early risers struggle to "fall back" in autumn. (source) by Stephanie Pappas - follow her on Twitter @sipappas or LiveScience @livescience.

NFL may regret going forward with Steelers-Giants on Sunday

      Good Day World!

Immediately after Hurricane Sandy hit the New York/New Jersey area, members of PFT Planet who live in that particular area of the globe raised concerns about proceeding with Sundays’ Steelers-Giants game at MetLife Stadium.

The NFL has been steadfast in its position that the game will go forward on Sunday, as scheduled.

But should it?  With the Steelers having to travel to New York on game day because their hotel doesn’t have power and no other accommodations could be secured, the Steelers are at a competitive disadvantage, albeit as former Bucs and Colts coach Tony Dungy told PFT last night not a major one.

What about the folks who paid for tickets who don’t have power or who otherwise have more significant concerns right now than spending all day at MetLife Stadium?  Or the folks who can’t get to the game because they have no gas and no way to get any?

Dan Patrick has suggested moving the game to Monday night, which could help locally.  But league logistics make it very hard to move the game to a new time slot.  For starters, CBS won’t want to lose its doubleheader game, especially since there’s no other game scheduled for 4:25 p.m. ET.

The best solution could have been moving the game to Pittsburgh.  Heinz Field would sell out instantly for the Giants “home” game, and folks in New York wouldn’t have to make the difficult choice between not getting value for the money spent on tickets and further inconveniencing themselves by trying to get to the game.

Sure, it would be unfair to the Giants to lose a home game.  But the Giants picked up an extra home game in 2005, when the Saints couldn’t host New York after Hurricane Katrina.

There’s no clear right answer to this one, but it’s hard not to think that playing the game in New Jersey as scheduled is the wrong answer.  What do you think? (source)

Time for me to walk on down the road…

The Lakers aren’t dead yet…they’re just having a slow start!

As a Laker fan for 50 years, I’m concerned that the Lakers don’t look like a team yet. It’s the first time in 34 years the Lakers have started out 0-3. Their cross-town rivals – the Clippers - roughed them up tonight. What really bothers me is that Steve Nash was hurt in their second game and was out for tonight’s encounter.

Already, questions arise as to Nash’s overall health. I was counting on “Mr. Assist” to smooth over the new look Lakers. As great as they are, Dwight Howard, Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol can’t carry the team – they need help. Their bench looks like another “do-nothing group” that will never outscore an opponent’s bench.

All of which begs the question; how do you get better than the Lakers are on paper? Just look at the talent they have. I’m going to come out and say – without hesitation – “The Princeton Offense” that Mike Brown is trying to sell…STINKS! Pee…you! Yuck!

And where is the defense? The Lakers have been out hustled for three straight games. Flat out. Ouch! How are they going to win games, let alone their division or (fading image) a championship? I’m trying not to panic, after all, it’s still early in the season.

Just looks like it’s going to be a long season for loyal fans like me.

Abandoned Texas pooch found with coffee can around her neck slowly recovering

Two dogs found abandoned off of Interstate 20 and St. Augustine Road in the southeast section of Dallas on Sunday have authorities concerned that the one German shepherd mix found with a coffee container around her neck may have been an innocent victim of animal cruelty. Discovered on Sunday, the emaciated dog with infected cuts around her ears and neck likely wore the metal can as a cruel collar for at least a month.

On their Facebook page, the Animal Allies of Texas described the dog's injuries as life threatening. The can cut into the dog's ear, jawbone, neck, and chest. Every time she moved, the sharp metal edges cut into her body making her life one of intense agony.

View slideshow: Abandoned Texas pooch found with coffee can around her neck slowly recovering

According to wfaa.com, the Dallas Animal Services, who named the dog Java cut off the can, and veterinarian Dr. Kathryn Sarpong of the Metro Paws Animal Hospital stated the four-inch deep, maggot infested wounds were so severe Java needed surgery to cleanse and close her injuries.

ava was transferred to Animal Allies of Texas, in Garland who are caring for her and another German shepherd mix found in the same area guarding Java. He appears healthy and has been named Joshua.

Earlier today, Java who has been renamed Olivia by the Animal Allies of Texas were pleased that the sweet dog survived surgery and was doing better. The dog coordinator at the rescue stated the only parts of Olivia's body that weren't injured were her nose and the front of her head; everywhere else she was riddled with abrasions and cuts.

Olivia is also heart worm positive. If you would like to help with Olivia's medical expenses, please click here to donate.

Get well soon Olivia. If you have any information as to Olivia's owner or other information that will help authorities find the person(s) responsible for such a horrible crime, please call Dallas Animal Services at (214)-670-8312.

Nov. 2-4 : Lords of the Gourd Compete for Punkin Chunkin World Title

     Good Day World!

 Look, up in the sky! It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a ... well, if you’re in Bridgeville, Del., this weekend, it’s probably an 8- to 10-pound pumpkin that’s been launched into the wild blue yonder by a catapult, air cannon or other mechanical contraption.

It’s all part of the 27th annual World Championship Punkin Chunkin event, Nov. 2–4. With teams using more than 100 unique apparatuses to launch globular projectiles a half-mile or more, it’s also our pick as November’s Weird Festival of the Month.

"It’s the combination of creativity and the oddity of it," said John Huber, president of the World Championship Punkin Chunkin Association (WCPCA), of the event’s appeal. "It’s problem-solving, it’s creative thinking, it’s artistic. You look at these machines and you just go, 'wow'."

Those machines include catapults powered by ropes and garage-door springs, high-speed centrifugal launchers and cannons that feature massive tanks of compressed air and barrels stretching 100 feet or more.

Each one is the result of countless hours of research, construction and

pre-competition testing. “Everyone who competes has built something from scratch,” said Daniel Collins, part of Team Chucky — which currently holds the world record in the Adult Torsion (rope-powered) Catapult category, with a launch of 3,636.39 feet.

“People spend an inordinate amount of time doing this,” he told NBC News. “It becomes an obsession.”

That obsession is apparently rather widespread. “We have farmers to dentists to chemical engineers,” said Huber, who happens to be a nuclear engineer. Not surprisingly, perhaps, he’s also a competitor, whose team — Team Hypertension — has built a spring-loaded catapult that sits on a 14,000-pound trailer and generates 30,000 pounds of force.

“We've invested $75,000 in this thing and it’s just to throw a pumpkin,” he said.

It all comes together on a field at Royal Farms in Bridgeville, where the competitors — 115 this year, says Huber — set up along a mile-long firing line. Some of the launchers are so big they arrive on flatbed tractor-trailers and have to be assembled on site.

At that point, it’s all about winching ropes, stretching springs, aiming cannon barrels and loading slings, buckets and barrels with the appropriately-plump projectile. Firing one at a time across an open field, the results are tallied by ATV-riding spotters, who presumably manage to avoid the incoming ordnance.

“They measure the point of impact,” said Huber. “Trust me, with these distances, the pumpkins leave a hell of a crater.” Meanwhile, back behind the firing line — and protected by a high backstop — spectators can cheer on their favorites, enjoy live music and browse booths selling food, crafts and clothing. There’s also a chili cook-off and pageant competitions for ages 4 to 18-plus.

It’s all in good fun, but also for a good cause. As a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, the WCPCA donates a large share of the proceeds from the event to several charities and scholarship programs. With 75,000 to 100,000 spectators over the course of the three-day event, Huber says those donations run to the “hundreds of thousands of dollars every year.”

As for this year’s event, it’s expected to go on despite any after-effects of Hurricane Sandy and with the usual degree of friendly competition. Collins, for example, has set his sights, not on his fellow catapulters, but on the biggest guns in the game: the air cannons, one of which holds the overall world record of 4,483.51 feet.

“They used to laugh at us but last year we beat 44 percent of them,” he said. “Now they’re looking over their shoulders. It’s only a matter of time.” - Rob Lovitt is a longtime travel writer who still believes the journey is as important as the destination. (Source) Top two photos Courtesy World Championship Punkin Chunkin Association. Bottom photo by Joanne Coward.

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Consumer Alert: Beware of charity scams in wake of Superstorm Sandy

    Good Day World!

Watch out: The scammers trying to cash in on Superstorm Sandy are on their way. The destruction caused by this storm gives the bad guys a major opportunity to steal your money or personal information.

Symantec, the firm, reports the first wave of Sandy-related spam has been sent. The messages have subject lines such as: “Help Sandy Victims and get $1000 for Best Buy!,” and “Deposit Processing Open Today (Frankenstorm doesn’t stop us).”

These phishing expeditions are designed to snag your credit card, debit card or numbers.

Based on previous disasters, Symantec predicts a rash of cyber-attacks that start with links to fake news stories, photos and videos. These will be distributed via Facebook posts and tweets, Internet searchers, text messages and email.

Resist the urge to click on these unknown links or you could download some nasty malware onto your computer or smart phone.

Charity scams 
This is an emotional time for people all across the country. You want to help, and con artists hope to take advantage of that. They make phone calls and pretend to be a bona fide charitable organization. They set up websites that look like reputable charities. It’s very easy to do.

The online security firm Avast! reminds us that back in 2005, after hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit the Gulf Coast, there were at least 15 bogus websites designed to look like the American Red Cross site. Donors who took the bait gave their personal information, such as numbers and PayPal passwords, to the online crooks.

“Charity scams are among the most despicable scams out there,” said John Breyault, director of fraud.org, the National Consumers League’s Fraud Center. “Not only are consumers victimized when they give money to the scammers, but the people who need help to rebuild their lives don’t get that money.”

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine has warned residents of his state to be cautious if they receive calls to make a donation to the storm relief effort.

“Unfortunately, there are some who might use our generous nature to take the donations for themselves, not for those in need,” he said.

A charitable request might be a scam, DeWine advises, when the caller:

• uses high pressure tactics to solicit an immediate donation.
• is hesitant or unable to answer questions.
• asks for the check to be made payable to a person instead of a charity.
• offers to pick up your check immediately, rather than waiting for you to mail it off.
• promises a in exchange for a donation.

Bennett Weiner, chief operating officer of the BBB Wise Giving Alliance, urges donors to take their time and do their homework before responding to any solicitation.

“You want to know what they do, what relief activities your contribution is going to fund,” he said. “You can’t assume based on the name alone what activities your generosity is going to support.”

To help the victims of Hurricane Sandy, Weiner suggests choosing an organization with some skill and experience in disaster relief activities, such as the American Red Cross.

“A start-up organization, or even an established charity that decides to get involved in relief work for the first time, may have great intentions, but may not necessarily carry it out very effectively,” he cautioned.

Protect yourself: Never make a donation by on a link in an email or text. Go to the site on your own. Be careful with web searches – names can be misleading – you could wind up on the wrong site.

Don’t allow yourself to be pressured into making a donation.

Don’t give your credit card information to an unknown caller. If you’re interested in the cause, ask to be sent information.

Stop, think and check them out. You can do that at sites such as: BBB Wise Giving Alliance and Charity Navigator.

Home repair scams
“After a spectacular storm like this, fraudsters will come out of the woodwork offering to repair damaged homes,” warned Susan Grant, director of consumer protection at the Consumer Federation of America. “They may take your money and just disappear. Or they may start the work and not finish it. Or they work may just be really shoddy quality.”

If you need repair work done and don’t have a trusted contractor, you want to find someone qualified to do the job. And in a situation like this, it won’t be easy. Try to stay calm, so you can deal with the situation rationally.

For major repairs, the Better Business Bureau recommends getting at least 3 to 4 estimates. They should be based on the same specs and materials. Get everything in writing. The contract needs to spell out when the job starts and will be completed, a payment schedule, what materials will be used and what sort of clean-up will be done.

Remember: never make a final payment until all the work is completed to your satisfaction.

Consumer Reports suggests:

• Try to deal with people who live and work in your community.
• Ask for copies of the contractor’s general liability and worker’s compensation insurance.
• Avoid paying more than the minimum in advance.

(article source)

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Selling a Right-Wing Bill of Goods: Menards Urges Workers To Take 'Civics Course' With Anti-Obama Content

    Good Day World!

If you live in the Midwest and you're working on a home-improvement project, you're as likely to do your shopping at a Menards store as at a Lowe's or Home Depot. With 270 stores and 40,000 employees , Menards is the third-largest home-improvement chain in the U.S., and one of the largest privately held corporations in the country. But Menards stores sell more than just lumber and building supplies; their employees are sold a bill of goods in the form of right-wing ideology.

This January, as the Iowa Caucuses were underway, Menards began encouraging employees to take an at-home online "civics" course that characterizes the economic policies of President Barack Obama as a threat to the success of businesses such as Menards, and by extension, to the employees' own well-being.

The course, titled "Civics 101: The National Self Governing Will In-Home Training," incorporates much of the material comprising the Prosperity 101 program that AlterNet, working in partnership with the Investigative Fund at the Nation Institute,  exposed last year -- a program concocted by Koch-linked political operatives Mark Block and Linda Hansen, late of the now-defunct Herman Cain presidential campaign. In March, Daniel Bice of the  Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that the FBI is investigating possible financial improprieties involving two non-profit organizations founded by Block that are linked to Prosperity 101, which is a for-profit venture.

Menards employees who sign up for the course are graded on their knowledge via a multiple choice pass-fail test, and those who pass the test are acknowledged in company publications and bulletins. While workers are not required to take the course, those who hope for promotions may feel pressure to do so, since it is clear that management is paying attention to who is or isn't taking the at-home classes, which are conducted on the employees' own time. The civics course is offered as part of a battery of courses, most of which pertain to products sold by the company, or other aspects of working at Menards.

AlterNet has obtained the online textbook for the Menards civics course. The third part of the textbook, subtitled " American Job Security ," imparts a message similar to the letter sent by Koch Industries CEO Dave Robertson to retirees and employees of the company's Georgia Pacific subsidiary, as well as the e-mail sent to employees of Rite-Hite, a Milwaukee equipment manufacturer, by company owner Mark White, urging them to vote for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. While the Menards course doesn't offer an explicit candidate endorsement, it describes Obama policies in threatening terms, while policies that echo Romney's proposals are portrayed in a positive and uplifting light. (Read the rest of the story here)

Time for me to walk on down the road…