Category Archives: National

San Marcos, Texas police seek suspects

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63f3f70debcdcda0955119146d5e0b01_500SAN MARCOS, Texas — Police in San Marcos have released composite sketches of three men they say kidnapped a woman and her four-year-old child, then sexually assaulted and beat the woman.
The incident happened around 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 6 on the east end of McKie Street near the I-35 access road, west of the highway.

The woman was driving on McKie when her vehicle was bumped from behind by another vehicle. When she got out to check for damage, she was forced into the back seat of her own vehicle by two suspects and a third followed.
The woman’s head was covered and she was taken to an unknown location where police say she was sexually assaulted, strangled, and eventually lost consciousness.

The unconscious victim and her child were later left in their vehicle parked on the side of a road outside of San Marcos. When she regained consciousness, she was able find her way home where she called police.
SMPD says investigators are following numerous leads, and tips continue to come in on the case, but they hope the drawings will help further develop tips on the suspects.

The suspects are described as follows:
Suspect 1: Hispanic male, possible nickname “Dago,” late 30s to early 40s, medium olive complexion, six feet tall, stocky build, shaved or bald heat, dark eyes, small goatee, possible diamond stud earring in left ear, tattoos of crosses on left and right forearms, wearing white shirt with blue trim and blue jeans.

Suspect 2: Hispanic male, possible nickname of “Chico,” 18 to 20 years old, light olive complexion, 5’8” to 5’10” in height, thin build, closely cropped black hair, dark eyes with long eyelashes, slightly protruding ears, possible diamond stud earring in left ear, tattoo of cursive writing at base of neck, wearing loose fitting white T-shirt and blue jeans.

Suspect 3: Hispanic male, late 30s, dark olive complexion, 5’6” to 5’7” in height, medium build, thick arched eyebrows, slight acne scars, hair styled into a “faux-hawk,” wearing gray T-shirt and blue jeans.

PLEASE CALL the San Marcos Police Department –
Criminal Investigation Division at 512-753-2300 if you recognize these individuals.
After 5 p.m. call San Marcos police at 512-753-2108.
Or call Crime Stoppers at 512-353-TIPS or 800-324-8477.

NOTE: RACIST REMARKS/COMMENTS WILL NOT HELP & ARE UNWELCOME HERE, SO PLEASE REFRAIN!!

Hollywood Reporter: Animals were harmed

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Photo taken of a horse named Glass on the set of the Hallmark Channel movie Love’s Resounding Courage shortly after the animal was impaled in an accident. He was soon euthanized.

Photo taken of a horse named Glass on the set of the Hallmark Channel movie Love’s Resounding Courage shortly after the animal was impaled in an accident. He was soon euthanized.

American Humane Association monitor Gina Johnson confided in an email to a colleague on April 7, 2011, about the star tiger in Ang Lee’s Life of Pi. While many scenes featuring “Richard Parker,” the Bengal tiger who shares a lifeboat with a boy lost at sea, were created using CGI technology, King, very much a real animal, was employed when the digital version wouldn’t suffice. “This one take with him just went really bad and he got lost trying to swim to the side,” Johnson wrote. “Damn near drowned.”

King’s trainer eventually snagged him with a catch rope and dragged him to one side of the tank, where he scrambled out to safety.

“I think this goes without saying but DON’T MENTION IT TO ANYONE, ESPECIALLY THE OFFICE!” Johnson continued in the email, obtained by The Hollywood Reporter. “I have downplayed the f— out of it.”

As a representative of the American Humane Association — the grantor of the familiar “No Animals Were Harmed” trademark accreditation seen at the end of film and TV credits — it was Johnson’s job to monitor the welfare of the animals used in the production filmed in Taiwan. What’s more, Johnson had a secret: She was intimately involved with a high-ranking production exec on Pi. (AHA’s management subsequently became aware of both the relationship and her email about the tiger incident, which others involved with the production have described in far less dire terms.) Still, Pi, which went on to earn four Oscars and $609 million in global box office, was awarded the “No Animals Were Harmed” credit.

More at the Hollywood Reporter

Walnuts Are Drugs, Says FDA

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The real dangerous nuts come in JC Penny three-piece suits.

This is an example of an agency completely out of control abusing their unconstitutional authority, if true. Do you feel safe now?

by MICHAEL TENNANT

Shelled_walnutsSeen any walnuts in your medicine cabinet lately? According to the Food and Drug Administration, that is precisely where you should find them. Because Diamond Foods made truthful claims about the health benefits of consuming walnuts that the FDA didn’t approve, it sent the company a letter declaring, “Your walnut products are drugs” — and “new drugs” at that — and, therefore, “they may not legally be marketed … in the United States without an approved new drug application.” The agency even threatened Diamond with “seizure” if it failed to comply.

Diamond’s transgression was to make “financial investments to educate the public and supply them with walnuts,” as William Faloon of Life Extension magazine put it. On its website and packaging, the company stated that the omega-3 fatty acids found in walnuts have been shown to have certain health benefits, including reduced risk of heart disease and some types of cancer. These claims, Faloon notes, are well supported by scientific research: “Life Extension has published 57 articles that describe the health benefits of walnuts”; and “The US National Library of Medicine database contains no fewer than 35 peer-reviewed published papers supporting a claim that ingesting walnuts improves vascular health and may reduce heart attack risk.”

This evidence was apparently not good enough for the FDA, which told Diamond that its walnuts were “misbranded” because the “product bears health claims that are not authorized by the FDA.”

More at Realfarmacy.com

Aryan Brotherhood targeting black teens who beat WWII vet to death: cops

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Kenan Adams-Kindard and Demetrius Glenn, both 16, are accused of murdering Delbert Belton in Spokane, Wash. But the boys are in protective custody after cops got word the Aryan Brotherhood is offering a $10,000 bounty on the teens.

vet22n-5-web

Delbert Belton died after two teens jumped him in a parking lot, police say.

Two Washington state teens accused of beating an 88-year-old World War II veteran to death are in the crosshairs of the Aryan Brotherhood.

The white supremacist group reportedly put a $10,000 bounty on Spokane teens Kenan Adams-Kinard and Demetrius Glenn, both 16 and black and both accused of murder, according to the Spokane Spokesman-Review.

The boys are alleged to have beaten Delbert Belton to death outside his car in the parking lot of a city ice rink in August.

More at New York Daily News

Pentagon requests plan to close stateside commissaries

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commissaryTasked by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to find ways to preserve force readiness amid sharply falling budgets, his comptroller and the Joint Staff have asked the Defense Commissary Agency (DeCA) for a plan to close all stateside base grocery stores, say military resale community sources.

Time will tell if this is just the loudest warning shot yet fired by a department desperate for budget relief, or if stateside commissaries, still enormously popular with military families and retirees, are viewed by current military leaders as a costly relic burdening a financially stressed force.

Under Secretary of Defense Robert Hale, the department’s top financial adviser, and Air Force Lt. Gen. Mark F. Ramsay, director of force structure, resources and assessment for the Joint Staff, reportedly requested the plan in a meeting with military personnel policy and commissary officials.

More details at Stars and Stripes.

Wisconsin family opens 50-year old bomb shelter

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Blast from the Past


NEEHAH, WISCONSIN—Although this is a story from May of this year, it represents another story of life imitating art. Sort of.

The Zwick family knew that the previous owner had built a bomb shelter when they moved in over ten years previous. It was not until 2010, however, that they decided to open the 50-year-old, eight-foot by ten-foot chamber to see what was inside. Unlike Blast From the Past, the family did not find a family living inside waiting for the fallout from the Cuban missile crisis to subside. Surely fortunate as well, they did not find the bodies of a family who were waiting for the fallout from the Cuban missile crisis to subside.

The Mail Online reported:

“We assumed it was just this empty space,” homeowner Carol Hollar-Zwick told the Appleton Post-Crescent.

The boxes, old military ammunition crates, contained markings that suggested there might be explosives inside, so the family called the local branch of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

Agents opened the crates to find… Hawaiian Punch.

Goodies from the past.

“It was all of what you would expect to find in a 1960s fallout shelter. It was food, clothing, medical supplies, tools, flashlights, batteries – items that you would want to have in a shelter if you planned to live there for two weeks.”

Everything remained remarkably well-preserved, thanks to the airtight containers the supplies were kept in.

The items were donated to the Neehan Historical Society which just happens to have an exhibit about the cold war fear of the bomb.

Matinee was another comedy about the cold war era featuring a bomb shelter. It was set in Florida at the height of the Cuban missile crisis.

Source: Mail Online

The last original Navajo Code Talker awarded Audie Murphy award.

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Chester Nez, the last of the original 29 Marine Navajo Code Talkers was given the Audie Murphy award on November 9. The risk of torture and death for these warriors was an everyday reality.

The Native Americans used the Navajo language to transmit coded messages concerning Japanese military operations.

“I was very proud to say that the Japanese did everything in their power to break that code but they never did,” Nez said in an interview with Stars and Stripes the day before the award ceremony.

The service of these brave men saved the lives of many Marines.

In politics, you better learn how to duck.

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Photo by: Emerald McIntyre

Photo by: Emerald McIntyre

They are on television. Their figures and products are lined along Wal-Mart aisles. And now, they may be in your politics.

Although prominent Republican Eric Cantor backed fellow Neil Riser, a political novice by the name of Vance McAllister took the special election for the 5th Congressional district in Louisiana.

He told local KNOE TV that “Washington may not be ready for me.”

His endorsements? Probably his biggest endorsement came from the “Duck Dynasty” family. His endorsement came from former starting quarterback for the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs Phil Robertson.


It is said that he kept Terry Bradshaw on the bench and now he did the same to McAllister’s political rival Neil Riser. With the word from Robertson, McAllister took 60% of the vote from his established political rival.

A handful of Washington GOP operatives tried to get one of the members of the Duck Dynasty family to run for the seat, but failed.

The seat became available for the special runoff election when former Rep. Rodney Alexander resigned on Sept. 26 to become secretary of the Louisiana Department of Veterans Affairs under Republican Governor Bobby Jindal.

SEE ALSO: Washington Times

House Republicans back new constitutional challenge to ObamaCare

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Forty House Republicans filed a brief last week in support of a legal challenge against ObamaCare that argues the law imposes billions of dollars in new taxes but did not originate in the House, as tax bills must under the Constitution.

Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) spearheaded the effort by filing a “friend of the court” brief on Friday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. That brief argued that ObamaCare violated the Origination Clause of the Constitution, which holds that all bills for raising revenue “shall originate in the House.”

The brief recounted how ObamaCare was ultimately passed — the Senate took an unrelated bill that gave tax breaks to certain veterans and added what ultimately became the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA).

“If the Senate can introduce the largest tax increase in American history by simply peeling off the House number from a six-page unrelated bill which does not raise taxes and pasting it on the ‘Senate Health Care Bill,’ and then claim with a straight face that the resulting bill originated in the House, in explicit contravention of the supreme law of the land, then the American ‘rule of law’ has become no rule at all,” the GOP brief said.

Read more at The Hill

3 children who were victims of Texas sex ring taken from foster parents after new abuse claims

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HOUSTON – Three children who were victims of a swinger’s club in a small East Texas town have been removed from the custody of their foster parents after accusing their caretakers of physical and emotional abuse, a child welfare official said Wednesday.

A judge in Wood County on Tuesday ordered that the three siblings — a 13-year-old girl, 14-year-old boy and a 16-year-old girl — plus a 17-year-old boy be placed in the temporary custody of Child Protective Services, said Shari Pulliam, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services.

The siblings had been living with John and Margaret Cantrell, who is the person who had first alerted authorities about the swinger’s club in Mineola, located about 80 miles east of Dallas. The couple had been taking care of the children since 2005. The 17-year-old boy was adopted by the Cantrells.

Sarah King, an attorney for the Cantrells, declined to comment Wednesday. No charges have been filed against the couple.

More at FOX News