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Saturday, March 10, 2007

Six-year-old Christopher Michael Barrios, Jr. has been missing since Thursday night. He was last seen near his home in the Canal Mobile Home Park just north of Brunswick, Georgia.

He is a hispanic/black male, 3’06” – 4’00”, and 60-70 lbs. He has short black hair and brown eyes, and was last seen wearing a blue or green long sleeve shirt with a white T-shirt underneath and long black pants. He also was wearing white tennis shoes with a blue stripe on the side with a velcro closure on top.

Police say neighbors spotted a white car driving slowly in the area, but they are not sure if the car has anything to do with Christopher’s disappearance.

If you know anything about this you are asked to call the Glynn County police at 912-554-7803 or First Coast Crime Stoppers at 1-866-845-TIPS (1-866-845-8477). There is a $27,000 reward for the return of the missing boy.

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Zach Scruggs, a lawyer for United States Senator Trent Lott, says that State Farm Insurance Company is destroying records related to claims for damage from Hurricane Katrina.

The records allegedly contain information saying that State Farm fraudulently denied insurance claims made by its policy holders, including Lott, that had homes there were damaged or destroyed when Hurricane Katrina came ashore on the Gulf Coast.

Scruggs said that Lott has “good faith belief” that many employees of the insurance company in Biloxi, Mississippi are destroying engineer’s reports that were inconclusive as to whether or not water or wind was the main cause of damage to the buildings affected by the hurricane.

Lott is among thousands of home and/or business owners who had their property damaged or destroyed during the hurricane and had their claims denied because State Farm claimed that their policies don’t cover damage caused by floods or water that was driven by the wind.

State Farm has not issued a statement on the matter so far.

Monday, December 3, 2007

At Thanksgiving dinner David Shankbone told his white middle class family that he was to interview Reverend Al Sharpton that Saturday. The announcement caused an impassioned discussion about the civil rights leader’s work, the problems facing the black community and whether Sharpton helps or hurts his cause. Opinion was divided. “He’s an opportunist.” “He only stirs things up.” “Why do I always see his face when there’s a problem?”

Shankbone went to the National Action Network’s headquarters in Harlem with this Thanksgiving discussion to inform the conversation. Below is his interview with Al Sharpton on everything from Tawana Brawley, his purported feud with Barack Obama, criticism by influential African Americans such as Clarence Page, his experience running for President, to how he never expected he would see fifty (he is now 53). “People would say to me, ‘Now that I hear you, even if I disagree with you I don’t think you’re as bad as I thought,'” said Sharpton. “I would say, ‘Let me ask you a question: what was “bad as you thought”?’ And they couldn’t say. They don’t know why they think you’re bad, they just know you’re supposed to be bad because the right wing tells them you’re bad.”

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Today’s ruling from Thailand’s Constitutional Court sees the Prime Minister, Somchai Wongsawat, removed from office, barred from politics, and the People’s Power Party (PPP) dissolved. The allegations leading to this were of vote buying in the last election.

The decision has already eased tension in the country, with the anti-government People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) announcing they will end their siege of Bangkok’s two main international airports. Red-shirted pro-government protesters were dismayed at the court’s decision. Initially they blockaded the Constitutional Court buildings to try and prevent the case being heard; following its relocation they moved on to the Administrative Court to protest a decision they claim is anti-democratic.

In addition to the PPP being disbanded and outlawed, two other parties in the ruling coalition were found guilty. The Chart Thai and Matchimathipataya parties were also outlawed and, between the three parties, 109 members barred from all involvement in the electoral process – including the right to vote. Among those disenfranchised were three ex-Prime Ministers. Those remaining from the executive of the outlawed parties have stated their intention to reform under a new name and attempt to continue in government.

Prior to the PAD announcing that their airport blockades would end, another grenade attack at one of the airports killed one and injured around 20 other protesters. Yesterday saw the PAD announce plans to abandon the Government House compound they have occupied since August. Following numerous grenade attacks on their encampment there, they elected to move to the airport protest sites and leave what has become a regular target; it is expected to take until Thursday to remove all belongings accumulated at the key site since the August invasion.

Somchai, brother-in-law to the fugitive ex-PM Thaksin Shinawatra, has been a target of the PAD since he assumed the office following his predecessor being ousted over a conflict of interest issue. The PPP and Somchai are seen as a proxy for Thaksin and his banned Thai Rak Thai party, which the military overthrew in a bloodless coup in 2006.

Thursday, March 24, 2005

San Jose, California — A woman eating a bowl of chili at a Wendy’s restaurant bit into a chewy bit that turned out to be a human finger. She immediately spat it out, warned other patrons to stop eating, and upon recognizing the object as a finger, vomited.

“I’m more of a Carl’s Jr. person,” the 39-year-old Las Vegas woman, Anna Ayala, told Knight Ridder. She said this incident was her first visit to a Wendy’s restaurant. Ayala described how she found the finger, “Suddenly something crunchy was in my mouth,” she continued, “and I spit it out.”

According to Devina Cordero, 20, after Ayala found the finger, she ran up to her and Cordero’s boyfriend and said, “Don’t eat it! Look, there’s a human finger in our chili.”

“We went up to the counter and they told us it was a vegetable,” Cordero continued. “The people from Wendy’s were poking it with a spoon.”

The restaurant is located at 1405 Monterey Highway, just south of downtown San Jose.

Wikinews reporter David Vasquez drove his car up to the drive-thru menu and found that chili was still on the menu, at a price of US$1.19 for a small serving. He also witnessed workers unloading supplies from a semi-trailer truck in the restaurant’s parking lot, and carting them into the back door of the establishment.

According to Ben Gale, director of environmental health for Santa Clara County, the finger did not come from any of the employees at the restaurant. “We asked everybody to show us they have 10 fingers and everything is OK there,” he said. The found portion of the finger likely belonged to a woman because of its long and manicured fingernail, also found in the food.

Officials seized the food supply at the restaurant and are tracing it back to the manufacturer, where they believe the finger may have gotten mixed in with the raw ingredients used to prepare the chili. The restaurant’s operators were later permitted to re-open after preparing new chili prepared from fresh ingredients.

As this story was filed, there was no mention of the incident on the Wendy’s corporate web site. Wendy’s issued a statement through a spokesman.

“Food safety is of utmost importance to us,” said Wendy’s spokesman Joe Desmond. He referred to the incident as an “unsubstantiated claim.”

“We are cooperating fully with the local police and health departments with their investigation. It’s important not to jump to conclusions. Here at Wendy’s we plan to do right by our customers,” Desmond said.

According to county health officials, the unfortunate woman who bit into the finger is doing fine, despite her initial reaction. Officials also noted that the finger would have been cooked at a high enough temperature to destroy any viruses.

The Santa Clara county medical examiner reported that the finger had a solid fingerprint, although investigators did not say if a search of fingerprint databases would be performed to find the owner of the finger.

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Former Salt Lake City mayor and human rights activist Rocky Anderson took some time to discuss his 2012 U.S. presidential campaign and the newly-created Justice Party with Wikinews reporter William S. Saturn.

Anderson served as mayor of Salt Lake City for eight years (2000–2008) as a member of the Democratic Party. During his tenure, he enacted proposals to reduce the city’s carbon emissions, reformed its criminal justice system, and positioned it as a leading sanctuary for refugees. After leaving office, Anderson grew critical of the Democratic Party’s failure to push for impeachment against President George W. Bush, and for not reversing policies on torture, taxes, and defense spending. He left the party earlier this year and announced that he would form a Third party.

Anderson officially established the Justice Party last week during a press conference in Washington D.C.. He proclaimed “We the people are powerful enough to end the perverse government-to-the-highest-bidder system sustained by the two dominant parties…We are here today for the sake of justice — social justice, environmental justice and economic justice.” The party promotes campaign finance reform and is attempting to appeal to the Occupy Wall Street movement. It is currently working on ballot access efforts, and will hold a Founding Convention in February 2012 in Salt Lake City.

Among other issues, Anderson discussed climate change, health care, education, and civil liberties. He detailed his successes as mayor of Salt Lake City, stressed the importance of executive experience, and expressed his views on President Barack Obama and some of the Republican Party presidential candidates. He spoke in depth about former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, with whom he worked during the 2002 Winter Olympics, and fellow Utahan, former governor and U.S. ambassador to China Jon Huntsman, Jr..

Friday, August 31, 2012

London, England — Last night at London’s Paralympic Basketball Arena, the Brazil women’s national wheelchair basketball team kept it close in a game with the Australia women’s national wheelchair basketball team before losing 52–50 to Australia. Brazil trailed by four with 32.3 seconds left in the game, narrowed the gap to two points with 1.3 seconds left but were unable to score in the final second.

4.5 point player Lia Maria Soares Martin dominated for Brazil, scoring over half the team’s points with 27 total. She led her team on defense with half the team’s rebounds, pulling down 14 of them. The Belém native 24 year old who will celebrate her 25th birthday during the Paralympics plays club basketball for All Star Rodas, Belem.

Brazil played aggressive basketball, with five players earning personal fouls including Soares Martin with 4, Debora Crislina Guimaraes de Costa and Lucicleia da Costa e Costa with 3 each, and Cleonete de Nazare Santos and Cintia Mariana Lopes de Carvalho with 1 each. The Brazilians pinched Australian players several times by trying to force them to go over their wheelchairs and lose their balance. Sportsmanship was still on display, with the Brazilians helping to set Australia’s Kylie Gauci upright after Gauci’s wheelchair tipped over.

Brazil competed in the 2008 Summer Paralympics where they did not win a single match. They are scheduled to play the next game of their London campaign this Saturday against Great Britain.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

The remaining members of the Expedition 25 crew are set to launch to the International Space Station on Thursday at 7:10 pm EDT from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, which will return the station to its full complement of 6 persons. They will launch in the Russian Soyuz TMA-01M vehicle and dock on Saturday. According to Space Fellowship there is only one Soyuz capsule currently docked to the station, for emergency escape.

Currently there are three astronauts on the station: Commander Doug Wheelock and Flight Engineers Shannon Walker and Fyodor Yurchikhin. The additional crew scheduled to join them are Flight Engineers Oleg Skripochka, Alexander Kaleri, and Scott Kelly.

The three crew now on the station were part of Expedition 24; the other half of that Expedition crew have returned to Earth. When the three now on the station are replaced, the three now about to join them will become half of Expedition 26.

While the astronauts wait for their counterparts’ arrival, they continue work on the station. Wheelock and Walker both participated in an experiment to study the long term effects of exposure to microgravity on crew members. Wheelock was collecting biological samples to place into the Human Research Facility which is a science rack in the station’s Destiny module. Meanwhile, Flight Engineer Fyodor Yurchikhin was working in the Russian segment of the station, swapping mechanical gear and installing new software. He also updated the station’s inventory management system.

The crew is also doing daily exercises to strengthen their muscles and bones to compensate for the effects of microgravity. The exercise machines include a cycle ergometer, a treadmill, and a device that simulates free-weights on Earth and pistons in vacuum cylinders.

Thursday, February 24, 2005

A paste containing synthetic tooth enamel can seal small cavities without drilling. Kazue Yamagishi and colleagues at the FAP Dental Institute in Tokyo say that the paste can repair small cavities in 15 minutes.

Currently, fillers don’t stick to such small cavities so dentists must drill bigger holes. Hydroxyapatite crystals, of which natural enamel is made, bond with teeth to repair tiny areas of damage.

Yamagishi and colleagues have tested their paste on a lower premolar tooth that showed early signs of decay. They found that the synthetic enamel merged with the natural enamel. The synthetic enamel also appears to make teeth stronger which will improve resistance to future decay. As with drilling, however, there is still the potential for pain: The paste is strongly acidic to encourage crystal growth and causes inflammation if it touches the gums.

The paste is reported in the journal Nature.