Today I saw two of them, at the last minute change lanes to make turns. One a left from the far right lane on a busy city street, and the other to make a right turn, in front of me in the right lane. Both drivers had something in their hands. I know this is extremely dangerous because these people got to make that turn when they want to. Nothing else matters. Not waiting to the next street and make a couple more turns to up for missing a turn. Or the next exit on an expressway. I saw one a few months ago, who came within 3 feet of knocking over a man driving a bicycle. That man driving the bicycle was totally within the law.

I have seen more of this in the last 3 years, then in the last 20. These idiots do not look to see if there is someone in that lane, they just move . Lot of summer driving coming up, and traffic police only rarely stop people texting. Perhaps police are stopping more, but there are so many that is almost impossible to stop them. At least there is a stigma to "drunk driving" I am really concerned because someone here at DU is going to get hurt or worse. Please be aware of the other driver, he/she often is not aware of you/me. Oh, and I might add that many people walking are too busy texting to look up. Watch for them too.
Thanks

Source: Talking Points Memo

Catherine Thompson – April 30, 2014, 9:19 AM EDT...

An editor with Scientific American magazine said Wednesday he was shot down by a Fox News producer when he said he wanted to talk about the impacts of climate change.


Michael Moyer appeared on "Fox & Friends" on Wednesday morning to talk about tech trends for the next decade. He tweeted that he suggested the number one trend for the future would be climate change impact but was told to choose another topic instead.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Fox & Friends producer wanted to talk about future trends. I said #1 will be impacts of climate change. I was told to pick something else.

— Michael Moyer (@mmoyr) April 30, 2014
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

A recent study by the Union of Concerned Scientists found that while misinformation about climate change was more or less common among cable news channels, Fox News led the pack by airing misleading coverage 72 percent of the time. The network's denial of global warming has been a subject of late night mockery, from Jon Stewart to "Saturday Night Live."



Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/scientific-american-editor-fox-news-climate-change

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Absolute Proof.....Fox News Has No Clothes...Now...When this gets out, and it will...Fox News Will Be Shown To All, Even those that watch it..
How Absurd It Is.

Source: New York Times

KABUL, Afghanistan — An Afghan police officer shot and killed three American doctors at a hospital here on Thursday, according to Afghan police officials.

The attack took place at the Cure International Hospital in Kabul, a 100-bed facility that specializes in treating disabled Afghans and has a maternal care unit with support for premature births. The police officer had recently been assigned to guard the hospital.

Sediq Seddiqi, a spokesman for the Ministry of Interior, said the Afghan guard was shot and wounded in the incident and was being treated in the hospital under guard. However, another Afghan official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the officer tried to shoot himself with his own weapon after the attack.

Mr. Seddiqi said the motive for the attack was unknown. A police official identified the killer as Ayudin, from Laghman Province, a two-year veteran of the police force in Kabul; like many Afghans, he goes by only one name.


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/25/world/asia/foreign-doctors-killed-by-guard-at-afghan-hospital.html?hp&assetType=nyt_now

The Nation
John Nichols,
April 16, 2014


http://www.thenation.com/article/179382/could-unknown-civil-libertarian-unseat-susan-collins#

The woman who could be the future of progressive politics in America is sitting at the back table of an Indian restaurant in Portland, Maine. It’s early evening, she’s got a list of names, and she’s wearing out her cellphone. US Senate candidate Shenna Bellows doesn’t do downtime. While she waits for a meeting, the upstart Democrat makes the calls she says will upset an entrenched Republican incumbent. These aren’t the kinds of calls most candidates make: to big donors in distant cities with agendas even more distant from the concerns of the people she hopes to represent. Bellows is calling the people: nurses and teachers, lobster-boat captains and farmers, students and union activists. And she’s asking them to counter not just big money but a broken politics that values party labels and personalities more than ideals and movements.

Bellows knows she can’t match the millions her opponent, three-term Senator Susan Collins, has banked—or the millions that wealthy donors are ready to spend in Maine and other states to make Mitch McConnell the Senate’s next majority leader. The Democrat is satisfied if the Mainers she calls give $5. That’s because Bellows isn’t really dialing for dollars. She’s dialing for activists. “We had over 200 volunteers gathering signatures in Maine to put me on the ballot. They were talking to friends and family members about who I am and what our campaign represents,” she explains. “We then invited the signature-gatherers to speak on my behalf at Democratic caucuses. So we had 100 volunteers speak at 150 different caucuses across the state. This is the movement that we are building: a movement for social justice, environmental justice and economic justice. And it’s working.”

This did not really happen here...but..
these types of accidents have happened, and will happen. This was taken from a longer film about this issue, and it was put up to get the word out, cause people didn't watch the entire drama/documentary. Only 4min 16 sec..

Source: Reuters

By Lucia Mutikani

WASHINGTON Thu Apr 17, 2014 8:59am EDT


(Reuters) - New applications for unemployment benefits held near their pre-recession levels last week, offering further evidence of the economy's underlying strength.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits ticked up 2,000 to a seasonally adjusted 304,000 for the week ended April 12, the Labor Department said on Thursday. They stayed close to a 6-1/2 year low touched the prior week.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast first-time applications for jobless benefits rising to 315,000.

U.S. Treasury yields hit session highs on the data, while stock index futures and the dollar were little changed.


Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/17/us-usa-economy-idUSBREA3F0U920140417

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http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/17/business/when-liking-a-brand-online-voids-the-right-to-sue.html?hp&_r=1

By STEPHANIE STROM
APRIL 16, 2014

Might downloading a 50-cent coupon for Cheerios cost you legal rights?

General Mills, the maker of cereals like Cheerios and Chex as well as brands like Bisquick and Betty Crocker, has quietly added language to its website to alert consumers that they give up their right to sue the company if they download coupons, “join” it in online communities like Facebook, enter a company-sponsored sweepstakes or contest or interact with it in a variety of other ways.

Instead, anyone who has received anything that could be construed as a benefit and who then has a dispute with the company over its products will have to use informal negotiation via email or go through arbitration to seek relief, according to the new terms posted on its site.

In language added on Tuesday after The New York Times contacted it about the changes, General Mills seemed to go even further, suggesting that buying its products would bind consumers to those terms.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Corporations out to screw the consumer's rights. !!!!!

Source: Talking Points Memo

– April 15, 2014, 7:22 PM EDT

An Alaska Republican state lawmaker apologized after calling breastfeeding "smart and sexy" in a press release publicizing her resolution.

The Republican House majority sent out a press release Monday titled "Smart and Sexy: Legislature Encourages Hospitals to Promote Breastfeeding," according to political blogger Amanda Coyne.


On Tuesday, Rep. Shelley Hughes (R) issued an apology for the press release, according to the Huffington Post.

"My intent was to draw attention to this incredibly important issue. Unfortunately, this is not the kind of attention I hoped to receive. I take full responsibility for the headline. I apologize for the poor choice of words, and am sorry if I offended anyone," she said in a statement.


Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/alaska-lawmakers-apology-breastfeeding-comment

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http://news.yahoo.com/huge-big-boy-steam-locomotive-coming-back-life-073258235.html

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — In its prime, a massive steam locomotive known as Big Boy No. 4014 was a moving eruption of smoke and vapor, a 6,300-horsepower brute dragging heavy freight trains over the mountains of Wyoming and Utah.


It's been silent for half a century, pushed aside by more efficient diesels, but now it's coming back to life. The Union Pacific Railroad is embarking on a yearslong restoration project that will put No. 4014 back to work pulling special excursion trains.

"It's sort of like going and finding the Titanic or something that's just very elusive, nothing that we ever thought would happen," said Jim Wrinn, editor of Trains, a magazine that covers the railroad industry.

"Something that's so large and powerful and magnificent, we didn't think any of them would ever come back," he said.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________

No one who knows about steam locomotives could have believed that one of these huge "Big Boys" would ever run again. An amazing project.

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/04/14/3426222/militia-rancher-behind-bars/

Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy speaks like a man from another century. In an interview with conservative radio host Dana Loesch, Bundy claims that “this is a sovereign state of Nevada.” Though he swears that he will “abide by all of Nevada state laws,” he adds that “I don’t recognize [the] United States Government as even existing.”

Last week, that idiosyncratic belief nearly triggered a violent conflict with federal officials. For two decades, those officials have tried and failed to keep Bundy from illegally grazing his cattle on federal land. They’ve obtained three court orders — one of them as long ago as 1998 — requiring Bundy to remove his cattle from federal land. The more recent orders, both from 2013, gave Bundy 45 days to comply or else “ _______________________________________________________________________

(from the article.. see all at link

1) Contempt of Court:
The normal sanction when a person subject to a court order refuses to comply with it is contempt of court. Contempt, according to a manual provided to federal prosecutors, is “an act of disobedience or disrespect towards the judicial branch of the government, or an interference with its orderly process.” By law, federal courts may “punish by fine or imprisonment, or both” when someone engages in “[d]isobedience or resistance to its lawful writ, process, order, rule, decree, or command.”

2) Criminal Charges for Threats To Federal Officers

Federal law provides that anyone who “threatens to assault, kidnap, or murder, a United States official, a United States judge [or] a Federal law enforcement officer . . . with intent to impede, intimidate, or interfere with such official, judge, or law enforcement officer while engaged in the performance of official duties, or with intent to retaliate against such official, judge, or law enforcement officer on account of the performance of official duties” may be fined or imprisoned for up to 10 years (although a threat to assault carries a maximum sentence of only 6 years). So, if Bundy or his supporters threatened federal officials or law enforcement officers who were enforcing the court order against him, they could have committed a serious crime.