Saturday, July 14, 2007

Political analysts widely regard Fred Thompson as a potential, if not likely, candidate in the United States presidential election in 2008. Thompson is a lawyer, lobbyist, character actor and former Republican Senator for Tennessee now residing in McLean, Virginia near Washington D.C.

A recent article in The New York Times (NYT) labelled his wife, Jeri Kehn Thompson as a “trophy wife” and a potential liability in the 2008 race. The NYT article described her as having “youthfulness, permanent tan and bleached blonde hair” and wonders if “so-called values voters” would “accept this union.”

Thompson and Kehn, married in June 2002, when he was 60 years old and she 35.

Television commentator and former Republican congressman Joe Scarborough compared Kehn to a stripper and asked if “she works the pole.”

According to the Associated Press, “trophy wife” originally “meant the second (or third) wife of a corporate titan, a woman who was younger, beautiful and — equally important — accomplished in her own right.”

ABC News says that the current definition of “trophy wife” suggests Donald Trump‘s ex-wife Marla Maples and the late Anna Nicole Smith as examples.

However, ABC News also questions whether Kehn fits this definition. “Though she’s blond, beautiful and nearly 25 years younger than her husband, Kehn Thompson, a political media consultant who previously worked for the Senate Republican Conference and a prestigious Washington law firm, doesn’t appear to fit the typical description,” wrote Emily Friedman.

Karen O’Connor, a political scientist and the director of the Women & Politics Institute at American University, said Thompson may lose support from Republican women, a group he needs. It may also make it difficult to gain the support of the “value voters”, already skeptical after the report that he lobbied for an abortion-rights group.

“You have a situation where a candidate happens to have an attractive wife, therefore it’s open season for smutty thoughts and lowbrow humor, and no concern for the fact that this is a wife and mother, a professional woman?” said Mark Corallo, a former Justice Department official who is a consultant and the chief media adviser to the Thompson campaign. “One picture on the Internet and all of a sudden she’s reduced to being a bimbo?”

Monday, July 16, 2007

In two separate incidents, men posing as members of the New York Police Department (NYPD), have invaded homes in the New York City area. In both cases, they robbed the residents, but in the most recent, they sexually assaulted a woman.

On Saturday, July 14, at 1:09 a.m. EDT (UTC-4), four men knocked on the door of a Yonkers, New York, apartment. The 33-year-old male that lives there opened the door, as the men outside wore NYPD hats and t-shirts, and had badges hanging around their necks.

The men promptly ordered the male victim to the floor. “When this guy pushed me, he had a gun in my face,” the victim said. “I could see the other guy. He motioned to the others, come on, let’s go, let’s go.” The intruders shouted “Where are the drugs?” as they ransacked the apartment.

Two of the men entered the bedroom and sexually assaulted the 30-year-old female. The couple has a five-year-old child, who was sleeping in another bedroom. “The more I resisted, the more he began to hit me,” the woman said. She said she was sexually assaulted by two of the men while her boyfriend was bound and guarded.

Police said the men then left with a cell phone, a laptop computer, a diamond ring and a gold chain. Police do not believe that they were real officers. As of this afternoon, no arrests have been made.

On Thursday, July 5, shortly after six p.m. in the East New York neighborhood of Brooklyn five men knocked on the door claiming to be “the police.” When the victims opened the door, they pushed their way in demanding the family give them drugs and money.

When police responded to a call reporting a robbery, they found the family, husband, wife and their daughter, tied up. The man suffered a head injury when he was pistol-whipped. Police say the robbers got away with a camera, jewelry, and US$5,000 in currency.

Neighbors told NY1 that they were stunned. “Frightened. Make you think twice before you want to open the door, you know,” said one of the neighbors. “Now you be asking for all this ID and stuff and even still you’re going to wonder, are they for real? So it’s kind of scary.”

There is no word about whether the two cases are connected. Yonkers is on the border of New York City, but is outside the jurisdiction of the NYPD.

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, California have confirmed the existence of the superheavy element 114 — otherwise known as ununquadium — ten years after its first observation by Russian scientists. Containing 114 protons, this is the heaviest element detected in multiple laboratories and another step towards the theorised island of stability, the “holy grail” of such research.

The elusive element was first detected in 1998 at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Dubna, Russia, when a plutonium target was bombarded with calcium ions accelerated in a cyclotron. Until now no other groups had been able to confirm the Russian team’s results. “It’s unusual for important results like the Dubna group’s claim to have produced 114 to go unconfirmed for so long,” said Ken Gregorich, part of the Berkeley team.

Nuclear reactions producing the element occur only rarely, and once produced it decays quickly. The Berkeley experiment was run for eight days almost continuously and only two nuclei of element 114 were detected during this time. Each was a different isotope, both with 114 protons but one with 172 neutrons and one with 173. The team had to use sophisticated gas-filled separators to find these among the many other products of the collisions. To make sure their analysis of the data was correct, it was run through two independent computer programs written by different members of the team.

Both isotopes of 114 observed decayed to element 112 in less than a second. The superheavy elements are typically short-lived, but theorists predict a so-called “island of stability”, a group of elements that are much more stable because they contain “magic numbers” of protons and neutrons. According to Gregorich: “Based on the ideas of the 1960s, we thought when we got to element 114 we would have reached the Island of Stability”. But more recent theories suggest that heavier elements may be needed. “The work we’re doing now will help us decide which theories are correct and how we should modify our models,” Gregorich continued.

The Berkeley group’s results have been reported in the journal Physical Review Letters.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

The development application for a McDonald’s restaurant at Minyama, on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast in Australia, has been rejected by the Sunshine Coast Regional Council.

“We knocked back a Hungry Jack’s on Nicklin Way because of the nuisance code,” said divisional councilor Chris Thompson. “We already have a 24-hour McDonald’s at Mooloolaba, only one kilometre away, and there are already [anti-social] issues at that site.”

Local residents previously vowed to fight any McDonald’s development at the proposed site due to the risk of anti-social behavior. Protest group spokesman John Meyer-Gleaves was “over the moon”.

“It’s not often you knock Maccas [McDonald’s] over,” he said.

Mayor Bob Abbot said Minyama was in some ways more suitable than Mooloolaba. However, he was concerned about the proximity to a residential estate.

The rejection is expected to be ratified at an ordinary meeting of the council on Thursday.

“It needs to be endorsed or ratified by council at its ordinary meeting on Thursday and then it will become a statutory decision of council,” Chris Thompson said. “I’m reasonably pleased with the outcome.”

Sunday, July 10, 2016

On Thursday, five police officers were killed and seven were injured after a sniper attacked a public protest march in downtown Dallas, Texas. Sources indicate at least three other people were taken into custody for questioning relating to the attack. The march was held to protest the shooting deaths of Alton Sterling in Louisiana and Philando Castile in Minnesota during engagements with police officers.

Police identified 25-year-old Micah Johnson as the suspect. Johnson had previously served in the US army, and police reported he said he wanted to exact revenge upon police officers after news of Sterling and Castile’s deaths. Ammunition and weapons were found inside Johnson’s home. Dallas Police reported the policemen were shot at from a height. Officials said two civilians were also injured in the attack.

Micah Johnson served for the United States Army Reserve from 2009 until early 2015, including a tour of Afghanistan. Johnson had no criminal record. His attack was reported to be a lone mission.

After the attack earlier on Thursday, police killed Micah Johnson in El Centro College’s parking lot by a bomb explosion.

Hillary Clinton, 2016 United States presidential election candidate and favorite for the Democratic nomination this July, said, “There is too much violence, too much hate, too much senseless killing, too many people dead who shouldn’t be. No-one has all the answers. We have to find them together.”

After Johnson was killed, Mike Rawlings, Dallas’ mayor, said “We believe now the city is safe”.

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

File:UNHCR.svg

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) echoed criticism from other human rights groups yesterday as its new report called on Australia to cease the practice of holding asylum seekers in an uncertain status in its offshore facilities.

The UNHCR spent three days in January at an Australian facility located on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea. Following Australian mandatory policy, the more than two hundred detainees held there were detained upon requesting asylum. More than 30 children are being held at this Australian facility. The UNHCR report raised the crowded conditions at the camp as a cause for concern, as well as the impact isolation could have on the children. Australia has another facility for asylum seekers on the island of Nauru. The UNHCR report made clear Australia does not have a process for clearing the asylum seekers, which means their detention in the camps is indefinite and a violation of international human rights.

Caught in the middle of the debate is the new immigration minister Brendan O’Connor. O’Connor was named immigration minister this weekend. The following night, a boat load of 60 refugees who were approached near Christmas Island sought asylum. Monday, the UNHCR issued its report. Union leaders, amongst them Brendan’s brother Michael O’Connor who is national secretary of the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union, are calling for and end to current migration deals.

A report from Monash University found immigrants have taken 200,000 jobs created during the last two years, depressing employment of young, lower skilled Australians. Polls show a 70 percent majority of Australians stand opposed to the growth in population that will result from immigration.

Amnesty International points out that those migrants held in offshore processing facilities are not typical immigrants but rather asylum seekers. It says the latter category accounts for only three percent of Australia’s influx from immigration. Moreover, Amnesty International says the practice of offshore facilities for asylum seekers runs afoul of Australia’s own international agreements, such as the UN Refugee Convention, and laws, Australian Migration Act 1958.

In August, Prime Minister Julia Gillard indicated in talks with Nauru and Papua New Guinea that Australia was interested in quickly processing the asylum seekers.

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Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Ford Motor Company said on Tuesday that its sales in the United States rose 43% in February compared to the same period last year, as the automaker outsold rivals Toyota and General Motors.

Ford said that total sales improved to 142,285 units, compared to 141,951 units sold by GM. Additionally, Ford said that its share of the total US car market rose to 17%, up from 14% a year ago. The increase was better than analysts had predicted, and Ford’s stock rose to a five-year high in morning trading, before declining later in the day. Ford’s sales were significantly influenced by a 74% increase in fleet sales to businesses. Rental car agencies alone accounted for around 30,000 units sold. Sales to retail consumers increased only 28%.

The increases were led by sales of two sedans, the Fusion and Taurus, which rose 166.5 and 93.3% respectively, although sales of other models such as SUVs and pickup trucks also increased. Both models were significantly redesigned last year, and analysts said that improved quality from such cars were driving the increases.

Other companies also reported February sales today, nearly all reporting sales gains as well, although none as large as those of Ford. Toyota was the sole exception to the sales gains, as their sales declined 8.7%, as the company was faced with a global recall during the month that led to a temporary stoppage of production for some models.

“The strength of our new products … are resonating with customers,” said Ken Czubay, Ford’s vice president of sales and marketing. However, he believed that traditional Toyota customers were not buying rival autos, but rather awaiting the results from the recalls.