Vanity thy name is Hamad

Of all of the most ridiculous waste of money in the name of ego and self-aggrandizement.

I weep for the folks dying in Somalia and everywhere else because of lack of food or medicines, while this fellow attempts to carve his name in the sands of time.

Don't get me wrong, I am as much a free-market fellow as the next but have a sense of propriety at least.


Sandwriting
Billionaire sheikh carves out his name in desert so big it can be seen from space
The Sun -

Workmen scoured "HAMAD" into the sand on the orders of Abu Dhabi's ruler Sheikh Hamad Bin Hamdan Al Nahyan.

The name is two miles across — with letters a kilometre high. It is so huge that the "H", the first "A" and part of the "M" have been made into waterways.

The mega-rich sheikh, 63 — president of the oil-rich United Arab Emirates — boasts a £14billion fortune that is second only to the Saudi king's.

The rest of the story:

A different kind of convicted drug pusher

Wow, $2.5 Million in fraudulent billing to Medicaid!

That's a whole lot of fraud going on.  Restitution of some of it has started.

Good job Susan Reed and the Bexar County DA's Office!

Pharmacist agrees to additional insurance fraud convictions

Prosecutor says the plea deals settle restitution.
By Craig Kapitan - Express-News

A local pharmacist ordered last year to serve 20 years in prison for defrauding Texas' Medicaid program returned to the same courtroom Tuesday, this time pleading no contest to illicit business practices concerning two other insurance providers.

Marcelleus Anunobi, 47, also agreed to forfeit $163,000 from investment accounts as well as his rare coin collection, which was seized by the government last year and appraised at $250,000.

Anunobi, whose trial began a year ago, operated Advanced Doctor's Prescribed Pharmacy on Medical Drive in 2007 and 2008.

The rest of the story:

A pretty clear and unequivocal message sent

Well they won't be doing that no more.

Now will they?

Two former city officials executed for bribery as China beefs up anti-corruption fight

Xinhua News -


BEIJING, July 19 (Xinhua) -- Two former vice mayors of east China's cities of Hangzhou and Suzhou, Xu Maiyong and Jiang Renjie, were executed Tuesday morning for bribery, the Supreme People's Court (SPC) said.

The SPC approved the executions after reviewing both cases, Sun Jungong, a spokesman for the SPC, said during a press conference held in Beijing on Tuesday.

Xu used his official power to interfere with project contracts and to help companies and people obtain land, promotions and tax breaks while acting as chief of the Xihu District government, Party secretary of the district and mayor of Zhejiang Province's city of Hangzhou, Sun said.

The rest of the story:

What in the world??

What was he thinking and/or how much had he been drinking?

What kind of an idiot does this?  I mean really?

I hope they can save the boy's fingers.

Man cuts son's thumb sawing off cast: Cops

NBCMiami -

A man was charged with aggravated child abuse after cutting off the top of his son’s right thumb while attempting to saw off the teen's cast, authorities said.

Lawrence Roberts, 33, arrived at his son’s house in a white pick-up truck around 11 a.m. on Sunday, the arrest report said. The 15-year-old boy lives with his mother and other siblings at the home in Coral Springs, authorities said.

Upon arriving, Roberts pulled out a 10-inch circular saw from his work truck, the report said. For unknown reasons, he then attempted to cut the teen’s purple cast off his right hand, authorities said.

The rest of the story:

The Good Sheriff

What?

He took him in and is now housing him and feeding him.

I'd say he was being a Good Samaritan.

Police: Drunken man arrested at sheriff's church

Associated Press-

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Authorities in Tennessee say a drunken man was arrested after wandering into a church where the sheriff had been worshipping.

Sheriff David Andrews said 42-year-old Gregory Blaine Wade of Cookeville showed up Wednesday at the Jefferson Avenue Church of Christ just as a service was ending.

According to the Cookeville Herald-Citizen, an arrest report said Wade became argumentative, was unsteady and had a 40-ounce bottle of beer in his backpack. He was charged with public intoxication.

A spokeswoman at the Putnam County Jail said Monday that Wade was sentenced to 10 days in jail. He remains behind bars. There was no record that he has an attorney.

BOLO

Call the NBPD at 830-221-4100 if you have any information or have seen them.


Police: Man wanted for kidnapping, steals pick-up in New Braunfels
By Dalondo Moultrie - New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung
 
NEW BRAUNFELS - A Minnesota man who allegedly kidnapped his estranged wife hours after being released from jail brought the woman to New Braunfels over the weekend and stole a pickup truck from an auto dealer in town, police said.

According to police in New Braunfels and Virginia, Minn., Timothy Glen Caskey, 40, gave his driver's license and pretended to take the truck for a test drive but never returned, leaving behind the truck he used to kidnap 45-year-old Roberta Lynn Caskey.

The rest of the story:

Driven to suicide?

Wow.

This sounds like this would be some case.

Prosecutor suicide sparks Russian criminal case

by Tom Washington - The Moscow News

Chief prosecutor Yury Chaika and his second in command Vitkor Grin await the Investigative Committee as a criminal case opens up over their subordinate Vycheslav Sizov’s suicide. 

It comes as a second round in the acrimonious fall out between prosecutors and investigators which saw Chaika and his Investigative Committee counterpart Alexander Bastrykin hauled into the president’s office.

Now investigators must find out whether or not he was driven to shoot himself in the head while at his office last week.

Top brass under the hammer

An investigation is now under way for ‘intentional infliction of grievous bodily harm of a victim, leading to his death,’ and Chaika, Grin and other senior figures are all under the investigators’ spotlight.

It brings into sharp relief the recent debacle between prosecutors and investigators and gives investigators a strong hand in what could spark a new exchange of hostilities.

The rest of the story:

Superman in Jeans and a T-Shirt??

I.....am.....speechless.

They have messed with Superman.

Bird? Plane? Superdude!

Jeans, tee in new #1
By DAREH GREGORIAN - N.Y. Post

Here's the cover to the first "Action Comics" No. 1 in 73 years -- and the latest version of Superman is part E.T., part Paul Bunyan and even a little Bruce Springsteen.

"This is a young Superman who still believes a better world for everyone is possible," said writer Grant Morrison, who'll be chronicling the Man of Steel's days as the world's first superhero when DC Comics relaunches its entire line of comics in September.

The Post got a sneak peek ahead of this week's San Diego Comic-Con.

While most of the titles, including "Batman" and "Green Lantern," will showcase DC's iconic heroes when they're well into their careers, "Action Comics" shows the earliest adventures of Superman, who's initially a bluejeans-and-T-shirt-wearing crimefighter with a small red cape.

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What in the hell?

If my son bought this for my 6 year old granddaughter I would personally drive up to Maryland and hit him upside the head.

What parent would buy this?

This is just plain crazy.

BTW note the look of sheer happiness on the face of the little "breast-feeding" girl.  Doesn't she look happy?

New Doll That Teaches How To Breast Feed Causing Controversy

CBSNewYork -

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – A new doll hitting stores in the U.S. is causing some controversy with parents. It’s called The Breast Milk Baby and it claims it teaches young girls how to breast feed.

The doll is made by Berjuan Toys, a company out of Spain. It comes with a special halter top that has two flowers where nipples would be. When a little girl puts on the top and holds the baby doll up the flowers, it makes suckling sounds.

The company says the doll is a top-selling toy in Europe and on its website, says the toy ”lets young girls express their love and affection in the most natural way possible, just like mommy!”

The rest of the story:

Don't tell a lie! Especially to the police

See?

See what happens if you lie.

Woman who reported attack is arrested, charged

By Claire Cardona - Express-News

A woman who San Antonio police believe lied about a disturbance at a Northwest Side house was arrested early Sunday after a four-hour standoff.

Ladonna Lynn Farmer, 47, was charged with making a false report to a police officer and is being held on $5,000 bail.

SWAT units Saturday night surrounded her home in the 8700 block of Thatch Drive after Farmer called authorities saying her common-law husband attacked her with a knife.

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....and who cares?

BFD.

Its a slow news day apparently.

All I can say is she better find someone like the McNamara/Troy medical practice from Nip/Tuck to give her a makeover and fast.

Casey Anthony released from jail; where will she go to now?

Orlando Sentinel -

A local television station is reporting Casey Anthony boarded a plane that left Orlando Executive Airport just after 3 a.m. about three hours after she was released from Orange County custody.

WFTV news, the local ABC affiliate, reported 25-year-old Anthony was aboard a single-engine turbo plane that did not file a flight plan to conceal their departure from the private airport. There is no word on the flight's final destination.

Central Florida News 13 has had reporters stationed at the airport since Anthony's release who are reporting they have seen no signs that she has left the city.

The rest of the story:

What if they gave an election and nobody came?

Or even bothered to run?

No one bothers to run in small NC town's election

Associated Press -

TAR HEEL, N.C. (AP) — The races for mayor and three commission seats are wide open in the small North Carolina town of Tar Heel — because no one bothered to run.

No one has registered as a candidate for the fall elections in the Bladen County town. The story was first reported by WECT-TV.

The ballots will be printed with blank spaces for voters to write in their choices.

The rest of the story:

White girls gone bad

The Aryan Sisterhood.

Featherwoods not Peckerwoods.

Aryan women weave a tapestry of bad deeds

By Dane Schiller - Houston Chronicle

Fraught with a wild temper unleashed by a wicked methamphetamine addiction, April Flanagan was sent to prison just months ago for conspiring to help blow the heads off a disgraced Aryan gang member and his girlfriend in East Texas.

The order came from an Aryan Brotherhood of Texas leader who wanted the man “in intensive care or dead by midnight.”

Across the state in Lubbock, Chasity Clark is accused of helping her husband, a general in an arm of the same gang, run an organized criminal enterprise and ditching gang computer files before police could confiscate them.

The rest of the story:

He's a Pastafarian!

That's using your noodle!!

Man tests law by claiming to be a 'pastafarian'

Associated Press -

VIENNA (AP) — Niko Alm wanted to test an Austrian law saying that head coverings would only be allowed in official documents for religious reasons.

So the tongue-in-cheek atheist applied for a new driver's license in his country with a photo of himself wearing a pasta strainer as headgear. Alm said he was a "pastafarian" and that the headpiece was required by his religion.

The application process took three years, but Alm said Thursday that he's now got his new license.

The rest of the story:

To protect and serve

With all due respect.

Were they angry because the girls weren't selling donuts too?

Police in Ga. shut down girls' lemonade stand

Associated Press -

MIDWAY, Ga. (AP) — Police in Georgia have shut down a lemonade stand run by three girls trying to save up for a trip to a water park, saying they didn't have a business license or the required permits.

Midway Police Chief Kelly Morningstar says police also didn't know how the lemonade was made, who made it or what was in it.

The girls had been operating for one day when Morningstar and another officer cruised by.

The rest of the story: