Source: Maryland Lottery

$640 MILLION MEGA MILLIONS JACKPOT HIT IN MARYLAND

Saturday, March 31st, 2012

Winning Ticket Sold in Baltimore County one of several nationwide

Maryland sold one of the winning tickets for last night’s record-breaking $640 million Mega Millions jackpot. The lucky ticket was purchased at a retailer in Baltimore County. Lottery officials are waiting for information on jackpot winners from other Mega Millions states. The multi-state Mega Millions game is played in 44 states and jurisdictions – including Maryland, Virginia, Delaware and the District of Columbia. Last night’s winning numbers were 2-4-23-38-46 and Mega Ball 23.

“This is truly remarkable and historic,” said Maryland Lottery Director Stephen Martino. “We can’t wait to greet the winner of this world-record setting jackpot.”

Read more: http://mdlottery.com/640-million-mega-millions-jackpot-hit-in-maryland

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For anyone who cares.

Well, I have many friends in Baltimore County. We'll see tomorrow if I get to hit any of them up for a loan...

Source: Reuters

Lawyer says U.S. blocks investigation of Afghan massacre

SEATTLE | Fri Mar 30, 2012 8:00pm EDT

By Bill Rigby

SEATTLE (Reuters) - The lawyer defending the U.S. soldier accused of murdering 17 Afghan civilians claims U.S. authorities are blocking his ability to investigate the incident.

John Henry Browne, the lawyer for Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, said U.S. forces in Afghanistan have prevented his team from interviewing injured civilians at a hospital in Kandahar, and are allowing other potential witnesses to scatter, making it difficult to track them down.

"When prosecutors don't cooperate, it's because they are concerned about the strength of their case," said Browne at a press conference at his downtown Seattle office on Friday.

Bales was formally charged last week with the murders of eight adults and nine children in a pre-dawn shooting rampage in southern Afghanistan on March 11, which further eroded U.S.-Afghan relations already strained by a decade of war.

Read more: http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSBRE82T0ZX20120331?irpc=932

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/03/30/bachmann-not-true-that-people-go-without-insurance-because-of-the-cost/

Bachmann: ‘Not true’ that people go without insurance because of the cost

By David Edwards
Friday, March 30, 2012 12:02 EDT

Rep. Michele Bachmann insisted this week that the reason 40 million Americans “choose” not to buy health care insurance has nothing to do with the cost.

Speaking to Fox News host Sean Hannity after attending Supreme Court arguments on Wednesday, the former Republican presidential candidate said that the Obama administration was wrong to suggest that insurance could be regulated because everyone would eventually be in the health care market.

- snip -

“It’s still an opportunity that some people choose to engage in, but 40 million people do not.”

She continued: “And the premise was made that people don’t buy insurance because they can’t afford it. That’s not true. There are people who just decide they want to roll the dice and take their chances that they won’t need insurance.”

MORE

Source: Reuters

Wisconsin Governor Walker to face recall vote June 5

Fri Mar 30, 2012 11:24am EDT

MILWAUKEE (Reuters) - Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker will face a recall election on June 5 over a new law he championed that strips public sector unions of most power, becoming the first governor to face a no-confidence vote in nearly a decade.

The five-member Wisconsin Government Accountability Board, which manages elections, voted unanimously on Friday to certify more than 900,000 signatures calling for Walker's ouster, formally setting in motion the recall election.

A Democratic primary will be held on May 8 to choose Walker's opponent in the recall vote. The Democrat most likely to face Walker is Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett in a rematch of the 2010 election, narrowly won by Walker, although Barrett has not yet formally entered the race.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSBRE82T0UF20120330?irpc=932

Source: Daily News

Former co-worker: Zimmerman lost security guard job after he ‘snapped’

By David Edwards
Friday, March 30, 2012 9:25 EDT

The neighborhood watchman who in February shot 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was once fired from his job as a security guard for “being too aggressive,” according to a new report.

An unnamed former co-worker told the New York Daily News that George Zimmerman was paid under-the-table for providing security for illegal house parties between 2001 and 2005, but was let go because his anger issues “became a liability.”

“Usually he was just a cool guy,” the former co-worker explained. “He liked to drink and hang with the women like the rest of us. … But it was like Jekyll and Hyde. When the dude snapped, he snapped.”

“He had a temper and he became a liability,” he recalled. “One time this woman was acting a little out of control. She was drunk. George lost his cool and totally overreacted. … It was weird, because he was such a cool guy, but he got all nuts. He picked her up and threw her. It was pure rage. She twisted her ankle. Everyone was flipping out.”


Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/03/30/former-co-worker-zimmerman-lost-security-guard-job-after-he-snapped

Source: Kevin Gosztola / Peaceful Uprising Press Release

Unnamed Congressman Has Tim DeChristopher Moved into Solitary Confinement
By: Kevin Gosztola Wednesday March 28, 2012 1:17 pm

Tim DeChristopher

Environmental activist Tim DeChristopher, who was given a two-year sentence in prison for making fake bids in a Utah public land auction that was later found to be corrupt, has reportedly been moved to solitary confinement after a member of Congress contacted the Bureau of Prisons.

Peaceful Uprising, a climate change activism group which DeChristopher co-founded, states in a press release posted on March 27:

On the evening of Friday March 9th, Tim DeChristopher was summarily removed from the minimum security camp where he has been held since September 2011, and moved into the FCI Herlong’s Special Housing Unit (SHU). Tim was informed by  Lieutenant Weirich that he was being moved to the SHU because an unidentified congressman had called from Washington DC, complaining of an email that Tim had sent to a friend. Tim was inquiring about the reported business practices of one of his legal fund contributors, threatening to return the money if their values no longer aligned with his own.  According to Prison officials, Tim will continue to be held in isolated confinement pending an investigation. There is no definite timeline for inmates being held in the SHU — often times they await months for the conclusion of an investigation.

In the SHU, Tim’s movement and communications are severely restricted. In the past two weeks, he has been allowed out of his 8 X 10 cell (which he shares with one other inmate) four times, each time for less than an hour. The SHU could have been designed by Franz Kafka. Tim is allowed one book in his cell, and four in his property locker.  His writing means are restricted to a thin ink cartridge which makes correspondence extremely difficult.  He can still receive mail from the outside, but has no other form of communication other than 15 minutes of phone calls per month.

Read more: http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2012/03/28/unnamed-congressman-has-tim-dechristopher-moved-into-solitary-confinement

Source: Raw Story

New York Assembly’s election panel approves bill to condemn Citizens United ruling

By Eric W. Dolan
Tuesday, March 27, 2012 22:26 EDT

The New York Assembly’s Election Law Committee on Tuesday approved a resolution to call upon the United States Congress send to the states for ratification a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.

The resolution was introduced by Assemblyman James Brennan (D). It mirrors a similar resolution passed by the New York City, Albany, Danby and Ithaca.

“More and more Americans are becoming alarmed by the threat to our democracy as super PACs swamp our upcoming national elections,” Brennan said. “Overturning Citizens United must become a national movement.”

The controversial Citizens United ruling struck down key provisions of the federal McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform law and gave rise to super PACS, officially known as independent-expenditure only committees.


Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/03/27/new-york-assembly’s-election-panel-approves-bill-to-condemn-citizens-united-ruling

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/03/27/recording-of-boston-police-nets-man-170000-settlement

Recording of Boston police nets man $170,000 settlement

By Stephen C. Webster
Tuesday, March 27, 2012 15:52 EDT

The City of Boston settled a lawsuit recently filed by Simon Glik, an attorney who was arrested in 2007 as he recorded police using force to subdue another man.

The settlement total came to $170,000, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Massachusetts, which represented Glik in the case. He was initially charged with a felony, under laws meant to ban illegal wiretapping, but the charge was dismissed.

“The law had been clear for years that openly recording a video is not a crime. It’s sad that it takes so much for police to learn the laws they were supposed to know in the first place,” Glik said in an ACLU media advisory. “I hope Boston police officers will never again arrest someone for openly recording their public actions.”

- snip -

Glik isn’t the only American to face arrest for recording police officers in public. Others have been taken into custody in states like Florida and Illinois. A federal jury in Oregon, as well, awarded minor damages to a man who was arrested for filming an officer in 2009.

MORE AT LINK

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/limbaugh-advertiser-tells-megyn-kelly-coordinated-effort-to-ruin-my-company-is-internal-american-terrorism

Limbaugh Advertiser To Megyn Kelly: Coordinated Effort To Ruin My Company Is ‘Internal American Terrorism’

VIDEO
by Alex Alvarez | 3:39 pm, March 26th, 2012
» 199 comments

On Monday afternoon, America Live host Megyn Kelly spoke with Mark Stevens, the founder of the global marketing firm MSCO and an advertiser for Rush Limbaugh‘s radio program who says his company has been targeted by people who want to put him out of business for his connection to the outspoken conservative host.

Earlier, Limbaugh had addressed the matter on his show, where he said that Stevens believes there is a coordinated attack on his business spearheaded by a group he wouldn’t name, but that Limbaugh was happy to — Media Matters.

Stevens, for his part, firmly intends to “double down” against what he describes as an act of “internal American terrorism.”

“You don’t have to strap on a suicide bomber’s belt to engage in terrorism,” he told Kelly, “Terrorism derives from the term ‘to invoke fear in people.’ They’ve called my people and my company, they’ve called the women at my company, and told them they’re women haters, the most horrible terms. They’ve told me — these are tens of thousands of emails, by the way, most of them are positive but the small group — they’ve told us that we’re under surveillance. The email subject line says ‘citizen of the internet,’ ‘police of the Internet,’ ‘Mark, you’re in danger,’ ‘your house is going to be surrounded by buses,’ ‘your business is going to be destroyed,’ ‘your people are in trouble.’ This is terrorism. Why don’t we start calling it what it is?”

MORE

CAUGHT ON TAPE: Top Fundraiser Explains Exactly How To Buy Access To The UK Prime Minister

Joe Weisenthal | Mar. 25, 2012, 9:06 AM | 1,903 | 11

The UK is being rocked by a scandal whereby a top Conservative Party fundraiser -- Peter Cruddas -- was caught on tape explaining how much it would cost in donations to get direct access to Prime Minister David Cameron.

The video was made by The Times of London, which posed as a large donor, while secretly filming Cruddas.

From TheJouranl.ie:

In the footage filmed by Sunday Times reporters posing as potential donors, Cruddas is heard saying that a £250,000 donation would grant “Premier League” access to Cameron

- snip -

Here's the must-watch video. And realize that this is basically how all politics works. Cruddas just unfortunately spelled it out to clearly.