Wednesday, July 16, 2014


News Clips For The Day


https://gma.yahoo.com/toddler-saves-elderly-man-locked-inside-hot-car-184542408--abc-news-topstories.html?vp=1

Toddler Saves Elderly Man Locked Inside Hot Car
By Yazhou Sun Good Morning America
July 16, 2014

A fast-acting 3-year-old came to an elderly man’s rescue in Tennessee after he spotted the man trapped inside a hot car as temperatures inside the vehicle reached over 120 degrees.

While waiting for his wife to come back from an event at the Vestal Baptist Church in Knoxville last Saturday, Bob King, 68, found himself trapped in his car after the doors automatically locked.

“We’ve been having trouble with the door on this car since we bought it,” King told ABC News.

After numerous cancer treatments and having suffered from two strokes in the past six months, Bob King was described as “in very bad shape” and “could barely see anything” by his wife, Jenny King.

He frantically grabbed the car door, but was too weak to push it open. King panicked.

Without a car key, he couldn’t turn the air conditioning on. It was 91 degrees outside that day -- and the temperature inside the car had reached over 120 degrees.

That’s when King spotted 3-year-old Keith Williams walking past the car. King knocked on the car window repeatedly and Keith stopped.

“I hollered at him and he just looked at me kind of funny and I said ‘Get help, get help,’” King said.

Coincidentally, Keith’s mother, Jessie Williams, had educated him about hot car safety just days before this happened. The toddler, who was barely three feet tall, was not strong enough to open the car door by himself. So he ran over to Pastor Jack Greene, who was volunteering at the benefit event, to get help.

“I was talking to someone and little Keith came behind me and kept saying, ‘Locked, locked, locked,” Greene told ABC News.

Greene didn’t sense something was wrong, but then Keith started patting and pulling his hand, and kept saying “hot, hot.”

“I told the gentleman: ‘Excuse me for a minute’ and I followed him [Keith] out,” Greene said.

“When I saw Bob in the car, I said to myself: “Oh my Lord,’” Greene said.

After a few tries, Greene finally opened the door. As soon as the door opened, King fell out of the car seat and almost hit his head on the pavement.

“His whole body was raining sweat. His face was red like a pickled beet,” Greene said.

“I asked him three times: ‘Are you OK Bob?’” Greene said.

Scared that King would get a stroke, Greene asked if he needed an ambulance.

“Just give me a minute,” King told Greene.

Greene brought King inside the church where there was air conditioning, fed him water and fanned him until King looked better.

King said he would have had waited for another 20 minutes before his wife came back, and he is thankful that Keith, or “little preacher” as Greene lovingly called him, came to his rescue.

“I am very impressed and I’m proud that he would know what to do,” Keith’s mother, Jessie Williams told ABC News.

“He [Keith] said: ‘I saved life’ after I brought Bob inside,” Green said. “He is such a good kid. He is an inspiration and blessing to us.”





When I searched Google for the words “Two Year Old Calls 911” I got half a dozen entries, plus 10 pages of other hits. Clearly a very young child is much more capable than I had thought. I have seen news articles of animals calling 911 – once a cat and once a dog. Recently a service dog did it, and barked into the telephone receiver while the operator traced the call. Some telephones have buttons which when pushed will call emergency services. Just think what an animal as intelligent as a chimpanzee could do! There is the gorilla Binti Jua who, with her own baby on her back, picked up a three year old who had fallen into the ape enclosure and carried him to the door of the exhibit for the attendants to retrieve, cradling him for some five minutes before running away. That is from chicago.cbslocal.com/ August 16, 2011.

This little boy, when he didn't make Pastor Greene understand the situation with saying “Lock,” switched to “Hot” and panted to illustrate. Luckily his mother had told him recently about hot car dangers, and when Mr. King shouted to him to get help he grasped the danger and ran for help. “'I am very impressed and I’m proud that he would know what to do,' Keith’s mother, Jessie Williams told ABC News. 'He [Keith] said: ‘I saved life’ after I brought Bob inside,' Green said. 'He is such a good kid. He is an inspiration and blessing to us.'”





Search for Lois Lerner's lost emails leads to NSA
By REBECCA KAPLAN CBS NEWS July 16, 2014

The House Armed Services Committee has come up with a creative approach to look for emails from embattled former Internal Revenue Service (IRS) official Lois Lerner that were apparently lost in a computer crash: they're asking the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Defense Department.

The panel approved a resolution Wednesday authored by Rep. Steve Stockman, R-Texas, that directs the Secretary of Defense to send the House of Representatives "copies of any electronic communication in the possession of the Secretary, the Director of the National Security Agency, or any office that reports to the Secretary or the Director that was transmitted to or from any electronic mail account(s) used by former Internal Revenue Service Exempt Organizations Division Director Lois Lerner at any time between January 1, 2009, and April 30, 2011."

The IRS said last month that it could not locate many emails sent and received by Lerner - the official at the heart of the controversy over the agency's targeting of conservative groups - because her computer crashed in 2011. They were ultimately able to generate 24,000 emails from 2009 to 2011 by finding message where she had copied other employees.

The resolution hopes that perhaps the NSA - which apparently collected as many as 56,000 emails and other communications from Americans who had no connection to terrorism prior to 2013 - might have picked up some of the lost communications.

IRS Commissioner John Koskinen was asked in a hearing last month whether his agency's emails were exempt from monitoring by the FBI and NSA. He said he was unaware of any NSA collection, but said the emails could still be in their possession if it had taken place.

Although Democrats have been critical of the GOP's extensive investigation of the IRS controversy, they are not standing in the way of the new approach. The top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, Rep. Adam Smith of Washington, said that he thought it was "highly unlikely" they would find any emails but did not object.

"I hope we can dispose of this quickly and move on," he said.

Stockman, the author of the resolution, is also pushing the House to vote to arrest Lerner and put in her jail after she was held in contempt of Congress in May for failing to testify in front of the House Oversight Committee. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said at the time that it was up to Attorney General Eric Holder, not the House, to pursue any further punishment.




“The panel approved a resolution Wednesday authored by Rep. Steve Stockman, R-Texas, that directs the Secretary of Defense to send the House of Representatives 'copies of any electronic communication in the possession of the Secretary, the Director of the National Security Agency, or any office that reports to the Secretary or the Director that was transmitted to or from any electronic mail account(s) used by former Internal Revenue Service Exempt Organizations Division Director Lois Lerner at any time between January 1, 2009, and April 30, 2011.'... The top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, Rep. Adam Smith of Washington, said that he thought it was "highly unlikely" they would find any emails but did not object.” Rep. Steve Stockman has also asked for Lerner to be arrested for failure to testify, after which she was charged with Contempt of Congress, but Boehner says it's up to AG Holder to do that, rather than the Congress.

I'm sure they hope to find some proof that Obama conspired with Lerner to single out conservative organizations on their request for tax exemption, but Lerner says that all organizations that do a substantive amount of political activity were scrutinized. Some of those were liberal groups.





Arizona protesters mistake busload of YMCA campers for immigrant children
CBS/AP July 16, 2014

ORACLE, Ariz. -- Protesters waved "Return to Sender" signs, shoved a group of mariachi musicians and waited for a bus of immigrant children that the local sheriff told them would arrive. At one point, they briefly halted a bus before realizing it was carrying children from a YMCA.

According to USA Today, Arizona Rep. Adam Kwasman was among those who thought that the bus of YMCA campers was full of migrant children, tweeting: "Bus coming in. This is not compassion. This is the abrogation of the rule of law."

He later deleted the tweet and apologized for the mistake.

The bus of Central American children never arrived, ending a day of protest in a small Arizona town that drew more than 100 people on both sides of the immigration debate.

Sheriff Paul Babeu is credited with stirring up the anti-immigrant protesters through social media postings and a press release and by leaking information about the migrants' arrival to a local activist. The Sycamore Canyon Academy acknowledged that it had an agreement with the Department of Health and Human Services to take in a "small number" of immigrant children from Central America, but it did not specify how many and when they would arrive.

"All this was done in secrecy, and that's where a lot of people are upset," Babeu said Tuesday. "My concern (is) where's the federal government? Why are they not here? Why did they not hold a town hall to answer some of these questions?"

He addressed both sides of the protesters, asking them to remain civil, abide by the law and keep the roads cleared. Immigrant rights activists questioned Babeu about agitating protesters when he should be bringing order as the county's top lawman.

Babeu said he was simply informing the public and was at the site to make sure the protests on both sides were peaceful.

The protests came as the government released new numbers that show how many immigrant families and children have been pouring into the country in recent months. The Border Patrol says 55,420 family members have been caught at the border from October through the end of June, a nearly 500 percent increase from the same period in the previous year. The number includes adults apprehended with their young children, and most of them were caught in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas. In addition, the Border Patrol says 57,525 unaccompanied children have been apprehended through the end of June.

The dueling groups in Oracle had a combined 130 people at the peak of the protests, including about 80 rallying against the shuttling of immigrants and 50 in favor. Pro-immigrant supporters held welcome signs with drawings of hearts.

Emily Duwel of Oracle said she did not want her town to be misrepresented by what she said was a minority of people who were against the children being housed here.

"I'm just concerned about these children who have had to escape worlds of incredible violence," Duwel said.

A spokesman for the federal Department of Health and Human Services said the agency would not identify the locations of shelters for migrants to protect their identities and safety.

Babeu has generated controversy in the past over his immigration rhetoric. When five bodies were found in a burned-out SUV in his county in 2012, Babeu quickly declared that the killings appeared to be the work of a drug cartel. A few days later, it was learned that it was a murder-suicide of a suburban Phoenix family and not drug-related.

A massive surge in unaccompanied children crossing the border illegally began more than a month ago, turning the issue into a major political debate in Washington and in cities across the U.S. In a state known for its strict immigration laws, including SB1070, which many call the "show me your papers" law, attitudes are just as contentious.

"We are not going to tolerate illegals forced upon us," protester Loren Woods said.

The fallout began in late May when reports surfaced that immigration officials were dropping off hundreds of women and children at Phoenix and Tucson Greyhound bus stations after they had been caught crossing the border illegally. Within a week, immigration authorities were flying hundreds of children who had crossed the border into Texas alone to be processed at various immigration facilities.




Protesters stood with signs and “waited for a bus of immigrant children that the local sheriff told them would arrive.” This local Sheriff is aiding and abetting the protesters activities, right? He should be trying to keep the peace, not foster conflict. “Arizona Rep. Adam Kwasman was among those who thought that the bus of YMCA campers was full of migrant children, tweeting: "Bus coming in. This is not compassion. This is the abrogation of the rule of law." He later deleted the tweet and apologized for the mistake.”

Sheriff Babeau stated in defense of the anti-immigrant protesters that the Federal government's failure to hold a town hall meeting to notify the citizens of the immigrants who were due is the cause of the local resentment. “He addressed both sides of the protesters, asking them to remain civil, abide by the law and keep the roads cleared. Immigrant rights activists questioned Babeu about agitating protesters when he should be bringing order as the county's top lawman.” Babeau defended his actions, saying that he was merely informing the public. He has, however, been criticized in the past over his anti-immigration comments.

The protesters “shoved a group of mariachi musicians,” as the bus approached. Sooner or later there will be serious violence as a bus comes in, possibly with some children hurt.. As the law reads now, the unaccompanied children from nations that do not border the US have to be taken to holding places and processed, including trying to find family members who are already in this country for them to go to. Only if they can't be placed here with a family can they be sent back to their home country. At least that's my understanding of it.

Obama did warn other nations within the last two months that the children won't be allowed to become citizens. Still, there is a delay before they are sent back, and meanwhile their numbers accumulate ever more as they continue to come. There are only so many places to hold them, as some 70,000 have been predicted to come by the end of the year. It really is a terrible problem, and even if the flood of children did begin before Obama made his change to the rules, he is still going to be blamed for the whole problem by the right. And he did, it seems clear, receive Governor Perry's warning letter two years ago and didn't take action to solve the problem then. However the root of the problem is the 2008 Republican backed bill that Bush signed into law. See the following statement from the Oklahoma City News on the history of the law.

http://newsok.com/obama-gets-blame-but-2008-bill-set-procedures-for-dealing-with-young-illegal-immigrants/article/4983675 –

“Procedures for helping young unaccompanied illegal immigrants are based in part on legislation approved by Congress in 2008, yet some lawmakers who did not object to the measure then are against the procedures now.

“Gov. Mary Fallin and Rep. Tom Cole, R-Moore, were members of the U.S. House when the bill passed without objection.

“The William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 also passed the U.S. Senate by unanimous consent and was signed into law by President George W. Bush.

“The act was mainly intended to help human trafficking victims, but one part had provisions for unaccompanied illegal immigrants under age 18.

“The legislation said they must “be promptly placed in the least restrictive setting that is in the best interest of the child.” The U.S. Health and Human Services Department is to provide for their custody and care while deportation hearings are under way. The department is to attempt to find a parent or a sponsor in the United States while providing free legal representation and a child advocate.”





Sandra Bullock's chilling encounter at home detailed in court docs
CBS NEWS July 16, 2014

Court documents describe the chilling moments of a break-in at the home of actress Sandra Bullock last month, "The Insider" co-host Kevin Frazier reports.

In the early hours of June 8, Bullock woke up to loud banging inside her Los Angeles home.

According to the search warrant, Bullock, fearing for her safety, went to close her bedroom door. That's when she allegedly spotted a man in dark clothing in the hallway.

Bullock then locked herself in her room and dialed 911. As 39-year-old Joshua Corbett was taken into police custody, he screamed, "Sandy, I'm sorry. Please don't press charges."

Bullock never heard Corbett enter. She told police she had showered and went to bed and only awoke to the loud bangs. The police report does not say how long he was inside her home.

At the time of his arrest, Corbett was unarmed but allegedly carrying a handwritten letter where he wrote, "I'll be around as you know. I love you." It was signed, "Your husband, Joshua James Corbett."

He also wrote about her 4-year-old son, Louis, who was not home at the time of the incident.

Days later, he was charged with residential burglary and stalking. But after police conducted a search of his home, they uncovered an arsenal of weapons and charged him with 19 additional felonies.

This is not Bullock's first encounter with a stalker. In August 2010, the star filed a restraining order against a mentally ill man who had stalked her off and on for nearly a decade.

"You can't prevent people from doing crazy things. This happens. There are mentally ill people out there, and obviously celebrities have high exposure," Los Angeles criminal defense attorney Ninaz Saffari said.

Saffari said that while these crimes are not preventable, there are ways to protect victims. If Corbett is convicted of stalking, he may have to register as a sex offender, allowing Bullock to keep tabs on his whereabouts.

Corbett, who remains in prison, has pleaded not guilty to all charges. If convicted, he could spend more than seven years behind bars.




Joshua Corbett seems to be a mentally disturbed “fan” who has focused on Bullock much as Hinckley did on Jodie Foster. Both women are the epitome of moral and responsible fame, not deserving the stalking that has occurred. This man managed to get through a fairly complicated set of security devices at her home, according to the TV news. The article says of Corbett, “Days later, he was charged with residential burglary and stalking. But after police conducted a search of his home, they uncovered an arsenal of weapons and charged him with 19 additional felonies.”

He was apparently a very dangerous man, and it's not hard to imagine that if she hadn't awakened he might have put her life in great danger. This happened after she went through some ten years of stalking by another person. Not too many years ago when women alleged stalking, the police would simply say that they couldn't do anything about the perpetrator unless he mounted an assault. Stalking is now considered a sexual crime in itself, even without rape or an attack, as in the case of a so-called “peeping Tom.” That's good. Sexual criminals have a tendency to continue to escalate their activities until there is indeed a rape or worse. This man will be behind bars for something in the range of seven years, the article said. Hopefully when he gets out Bullock will be notified by the court so she can be prepared to protect herself. I don't often advise people to buy a gun, but I think if I were her I probably would, or at least a well-trained German shepherd. I like Sandra Bullock very much, so I do hope she doesn't come to harm.





Ku Klux Klan recruiting with candy in South Carolina
CBS/AP July 16, 2014

SENECA, S.C. -- Some residents in northwestern South Carolina say they found bags of candy on their street containing a piece of paper asking them to join the Ku Klux Klan.

Residents in an Oconee County subdivision found the bags Saturday night or Sunday morning.

CBS affiliate WSPA reports that the flyer says "Save Our Land, Join The Klan."

It has a phone number that led to an automated message discussing KKK efforts against illegal immigration. The station reported that the message also says "If it ain't white, it ain't right. White power."

Robert Jones told WHNS-TV that he's the imperial klaliff of the Loyal White Knights and said the effort was part of a recruiting event they hold three times a year.

Oconee County resident Bo Morris said he thought it was "unacceptable" to see the bags and fliers in his neighborhood.

Last year, sheriff's officials in the Atlanta area launched an investigation after fliers inviting residents to join the KKK were placed outside homes.



Bags of candy left by the KKK – is that to induce children to be interested? KKK leader Robert Jones called the bags “part of a recruiting event they hold three times a year.” This candy bag included a telephone number which, when called, gives a recorded message talking about illegal immigration. It seems they are no longer after black people, or not solely at any rate. “CBS affiliate WSPA reports that the flier says "Save Our Land, Join The Klan." The station reported that the message also says "If it ain't white, it ain't right. White power."

Bo Morris, who lives in the area, called the message “unacceptable,” and I wouldn't have expected the KKK to target a middle class neighborhood. A few years ago there was another such incident in New York state, though. Fliers had been left on people's lawns, so they are approaching the middle class. I wonder how many neighbors would have responded positively to the situation. Some of the stances of the Tea Party make me think that some of their members may be receptive to this kind of thing. I don't want to relive the terrorism of the KKK's cross burnings and marches. I am a loyal American and a patriot, but they do not represent my viewpoints at all, and hopefully not anyone I know.





Jellyfish: Beautiful, dangerous, delicious
CBS NEWS July 13, 2014

Summer is a congenial time to take a dip in the ocean, unless that is, you encounter one of the creatures Martha Teichner has to show us:

There's something out there in the water, just waiting to get you.

No, not a shark -- a whole lot more likely, a jellyfish.

An estimated 150 million people are stung by jellyfish every year around the world, according to a paper published by the Journal of Travel Medicine. The stings are anywhere from just irritating to deadly.

Endurance swimmer Diana Nyad was stung repeatedly by the venomous box jellyfish during her attempts to swim from Cuba to Florida.

Another type of box jelly, called the irukandji, from Australia, is the size of your thumbnail. If he stings you, you've had it.

"I've heard it described as, if it doesn't kill you, you want to die, it's so excruciatingly painful, and it lasts for 10, 12, 15 hours," said Mark Shick, a collection manager at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago.

Is there any antidote? No.

But Shick says, "Jellies don't want to sting us. They don't actively hunt people. They're just floating around, doing their thing, trying to catch food, and you just have to bump into one. So I think they're misunderstood.

And, he added, "They're quite beautiful."

Since it opened in 2011, the "Jellies" exhibit at the Shedd Aquarium has been seen by two million or so people a year, it's that popular.

Why "jellies," not jellyfish? Because they aren't actually fish.

So what are they? "They're a little bag of water that swims around, [is] the way to think of them."

Something like 97 percent water. They have no bones, and most, no brain or eyes. They've existed for at least 500 million years, and are found at every depth and temperature throughout the oceans. There's even a lake thick with them, in the Pacific Island country of Palau.

With all but a few varieties, the stingers are on their tentacles.

"On those tentacles they have what's called a nematocyst," said Shick, "Basically, it's kind of like a harpoon, very microscopic harpoon that's under pressure, and when it hits something, a little hair-trigger fires it off and it injects into whatever it hits."

An adult jelly (male or female) is called a medusa. But it starts life as an egg, which hatches into a hairy-looking larvae, which in turn attaches to something, and then becomes a microscopic polyp.

Polyps can multiply; when conditions are right, they start throwing off lots of babies.

"The top part is the bell," said Shick, describing a moon jelly, "and underneath they have the mouth, and you can see these really fine little filaments hanging out are tentacles where they would sting."

There are hundreds of varieties of jellies, in all shapes and sizes. Lion's Mane Jellies can grow to over 80 feet long.

And then there are Nomura's Jellies, as big as refrigerators at times. In 2009, there were so many in the Sea of Japan, they devastated the local fishing industry, and even capsized a fishing boat.

All those Nomura's Jellies are Exhibit A for a vocal group of researchers delivering a scary message, amplified by media coverage, that jellies are turning the seas into a giant, gelatinous soup -- the result of overfishing, pollution, climate change, even radiation.

They list dozens of incidents, like one in Israel in 2011, where tons of jellyfish clogged water intakes and shut down major power plants, as proof.

However, oceanographer Rob Condon, an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington's School of Marine Biology, says cries of an upcoming cataclysm are not true, based on the data.

"What you're doing is you're creating myth, and you're completely deviating from the whole scientific method and the whole scientific process."

Condon heads a worldwide study group doing the science, testing the effects of rising water temperatures and acidity on jellies, tracking their numbers over time.

Jellyfish populations rise and fall in roughly 20-year cycles, he says, and it's way too early to tell whether anything abnormal is actually happening.

"Jellyfish are not bad," said Condon. "The doom-and-gloom thing is overplayed. They're an integral part of marine and oceanic systems."

In Asia, people even eat them -- chopped up, turned into a salad. Some of the best ones come from coastal Georgia -- fat, squishy jellyballs.

Processor Golden Island International just ended its best season ever, shipping nearly 3 million pounds to China and Japan.

You might ask, aren't the tentacles toxic? No, not once the slime's been washed off.

But, if you should ever get stung, here's some advice from the experts: Douse the sting with vinegar. Peeing on it, an old wives' tale, doesn't work.

And another thing: More than nine million people may have seen this stunt on YouTube (left). Don't try it.




“Something like 97 percent water. They have no bones, and most, no brain or eyes. They've existed for at least 500 million years, and are found at every depth and temperature throughout the oceans. There's even a lake thick with them, in the Pacific Island country of Palau.”

One of my many videotapes of TV documentaries is of this lake in Palau. The camera shows them in their daily migration between the bottom and the top to catch the light. There are millions of them, proceeding up and down in the water, colorful and delicate. They are thought to have made it through small holes in the rock on the island which separates the lake from the ocean when they were tiny babies, and as adults they can't get out. The water must be partly salty, as I think they are a saltwater life form.

I would never eat one, but I know that the Chinese and Japanese eat more ocean life forms than most Americans would. Once I ordered “sea cucumber,” in a Chinese restaurant in New York and it tasted so bad (just like mud) that I couldn't swallow it and even got sick afterward. Maybe it was spoiled or something. I will never be that adventuresome again – no bugs or anything like that. I hope we never have famine in this country so that I have to retract that statement.