U.S. News
Marcus Franklin
Associated Press
Tue, 02 Dec 2008 10:33 UTC
A man stabbed a city bus driver to death over being denied a free ride, then escaped on foot Monday in the first killing of an on-duty New York City bus driver in more than a quarter-century, authorities said.
The man got on the bus in Brooklyn shortly after noon, swiped an invalid fare card, sat down and asked for a free card to change routes.
Rob Kall
OpEdNews
Sun, 30 Nov 2008 10:00 UTC
An article in today's
Washington Post,
Acorn Watchers Wonder What Happened to Crop reports that in many parts of America, the acorns are gone and squirrells are acting as though they are starving. The article starts,
The idea seemed too crazy to Rod Simmons, a measured, careful field botanist. Naturalists in Arlington County couldn't find any acorns. None. No hickory nuts, either. Then he went out to look for himself. He came up with nothing. Nothing crunched underfoot. Nothing hit him on the head.
Then calls started coming in about crazy squirrels. Starving, skinny squirrels eating garbage, inhaling bird feed, greedily demolishing pumpkins. Squirrels boldly scampering into the road. And a lot more calls about squirrel roadkill.
Conrad Black
Times Online
Mon, 01 Dec 2008 22:46 UTC
I write to you from a US federal prison. It is far from a country club or even a regimental health spa. I work quite hard but fulfillingly, teaching English and the history of the United States to some of my co-residents. There is practically unlimited access to e-mails and the media and plenty of time for visitors.
Louis Porter
Vermont Press Bureau
Mon, 01 Dec 2008 17:56 UTC
Few people in Vermont remember Dr. Robert W. Hyde, but one of his former patients can't forget him. The doctor was involved in one of the nation's darkest chapters in medical science: In the 1950s, Hyde conducted drug and psychological experiments at a Boston hospital through funding that apparently originated with the CIA. Later, he became director of research at the Vermont State Hospital.
The patient, Karen Wetmore, is convinced that Hyde and other researchers subjected her and possibly other patients to experiments paid for by the CIA at the Waterbury facility.
In addition to her claim, new evidence, though incomplete, suggests that such tests might have been conducted at the Vermont State Hospital.
Bob Christie
Associated Press
Mon, 01 Dec 2008 09:57 UTC
© AP Photo/Dana Felthauser
The Apache County Court House is seen in thie Monday, Nov. 10, 2008 file photo in St. Johns, Ariz.
Phoenix - Prosecutors have offered a plea deal to an 8-year-old boy charged with murder in the shooting deaths of his father and another man in their eastern Arizona home, court records show.
Complete details of the offer weren't spelled out in a court filing posted Saturday on the Apache County Superior Court's Web site.
But County Attorney Criss Candelaria wrote that he has "tendered a plea offer to the juvenile's attorneys that would resolve all the charges in the juvenile court contingent on the results of the mental health evaluations."
The Daily Mail
Sun, 09 Nov 2008 17:54 UTC
US investigators believe an eight year old boy who shot his dad and another man dead could have been the victim of abuse. Vincent Romero, 29, and Timothy Romas, 39, were blasted at close range with a .22 hunting rifle by the youngster.
Police said the boy, who has not been named, did not shoot on the spur of the moment. Instead they believe he walked through the house picking out his two targets. Police found one victim just outside the front door and the other dead in an upstairs room.
The youngster faces two charges of premeditated murder and is being held at a juvenile centre near his home in St Johns, Arizona. The boy, who prosecutors say had never been in trouble before initially denied any involvement but later confessed to the killings.
Rocky Mountain News
Fri, 28 Nov 2008 19:39 UTC
After more than two years and an incredible $5 million, the investigation into the sex, drugs and payola scandal that rocked the Interior Department's Minerals Management Service has now ended in disciplinary action against employees in the Lakewood agency.
An Interior press release of Nov. 21 reports punishment spanning the spectrum - from a letter of warning and reprimand to outright termination.
The only problem is, after spending all those millions of dollars of taxpayer money, the public has no way of knowing whether those disciplined have been treated fairly or whether some have received unduly favorable treatment.
Associated Press
Wed, 26 Nov 2008 19:35 UTC
Woburn, Massachusetts - A court has rejected a new trial for a defrocked priest who was one of the central figures in Boston's clergy sex abuse scandal.
Paul Shanley is currently serving a 12- to 15-year prison sentence after being convicted in 2005 of repeatedly raping and fondling a boy at a Newton parish in the 1980s.
In his bid for a new trial, Shanley argued that his trial lawyer did not properly challenge the theory of repressed memory. The victim testified he did not remember the sexual abuse until 2002, when memories came rushing back amid media coverage of the scandal.
Chris Ayres
TimesOnline
Wed, 26 Nov 2008 19:20 UTC
© Associated Press
TV station co-anchors Larry Mendte and Alycia Lane
The egos and libidos of America's elaborately groomed TV news anchors have been revealed in excruciating detail by an e-mail snooping case that came to an end yesterday with one of them placed under house arrest.
Larry Mendte, 51, a former presenter of the nationally broadcast Access Hollywood show, was sentenced to three years probation and six months electronically monitored home confinement. His trial exposed serial newsroom philandering, workplace sabotage, staggeringly large salaries, jealous spouses, and, in the most notorious case, a news reader who e-mailed a revealing photograph of herself in a bikini to a married colleague.
Boston Globe
Sat, 22 Nov 2008 19:11 UTC
The FBI complaint against former state senator Dianne Wilkerson, who was arrested last month on federal bribery charges, cites unnamed "small-timers" who might also require greasing by business owners or developers. One such name surfaced yesterday when federal agents arrested Boston City Councilor Chuck Turner for allegedly taking a $1,000 bribe and lying to FBI agents.
The FBI has blanketed City Hall with subpoenas as part of its investigation into the alleged Wilkerson/Turner extortion scheme to obtain a liquor license for a proposed nightclub in Roxbury. That investigation could expand to two unnamed state representatives cited in the October bribery complaint against Wilkerson, concerning efforts to develop a state-owned parcel in Roxbury. The US attorney is tight-lipped. It is reasonable to expect investigators to be looking not only at developers who used Turner and Wilkerson to run interference but also at the "community partners" in local nonprofit groups who are often used to lend neighborhood support to development projects.
66,519 people have viewed this page since Tue, 02 Jan 2007
Emails sent to Signs of the Times, Ark, Laura, or Cassiopaea become the property of Quantum Future Group, Inc and may be republished without notice.
Some icons appearing on this site were taken from KDE-look.org, Afterglow, Mayosoft, Everaldo, IconDrawer, VisualPharm, IconFactory, Klukeart, Icons-land, TpdkDesign.net, and IconShock.com.
Remember, we need your help to collect information on what is going on in your part of the world!
Send your article suggestions to: 
Original content © 2008 by SOTT.net/Signs of the Times. See: Fair Use Policy
![[Valid Atom 1.0]](/images/valid-atom.png?1222505720 "Validate my Atom 1.0 feed")
![[Valid RSS 2.0]](/images/valid-rss.png?1222505756 "Validate my RSS 2.0 feed")
