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Utah soccer referee punched by player dies

Paul — Sun, 05 May 2013 13:56:45 +0000

MURRAY, Utah (AP) — A Utah soccer referee who slipped into a coma after being punched by a teenage player during a game a week ago died Saturday night, police said.

Ricardo Portillo, 46, of Salt Lake City passed away at the hospital, where he was being treated following an assault, Unified police spokesman Justin Hoyal said.

Police have accused a 17-year-old player in a recreational soccer league of punching Portillo after the man called a foul on him and issued him a yellow card.

“The suspect was close to Portillo and punched him once in the face as a result of the call,” Hoyal said in a press release.

The teen has been booked into juvenile detention on suspicion of aggravated assault.

Hoyal said authorities will consider additional charges since Portillo has died.

Chinese police bust million-dollar rat-meat ring

Paul — Fri, 03 May 2013 11:14:18 +0000

BEIJING (Reuters) – Chinese police have broken a crime ring that passed off more than $1 million in rat and small mammal meat as mutton, authorities said, in a food safety crackdown that coincides with a bird flu outbreak and other environmental pressures.

Authorities have arrested 904 suspects since the end of January for selling and producing fake or tainted meat products, the Ministry of Public Security said in a statement posted on its website on Thursday.

During the crackdown, police discovered one suspect surnamed Wei who had used additives to spice up and sell rat, fox and mink meat at markets in Shanghai and Jiangsu province.

Police arrested 63 suspects connected to the crime ring in a case valued at more than 10 million yuan ($1.6 million) in sales since 2009.

Bill would require dog owners to undergo criminal background checks

Paul — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 13:58:30 +0000

North Carolina – A North Carolina lawmaker says he was caught off guard by the angry responses he got to a bill that would require the owners of pit bulls, mastiffs and Rottweilers and other large breeds to undergo criminal background checks.

Rep. Rodney Moore, a Charlotte Democrat who sponsored the bill, tells Law Blog that his office got thousands of emails from people protesting the plan.

Many of them were from pit bull owners who attached photos of their dogs looking cute and passive, he said.

The legislation died in committee. “I’ve been inundated,” said Mr. Moore. “It’s a good idea, but maybe the language was kind of harsh.”

‘Penmanship’ is now ‘handwriting’ as Washington state removes gender bias in statutes

Paul — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 12:11:11 +0000

SEATTLE – Washington state’s governor signed into law on Monday the final piece of a six-year effort to rewrite state laws using gender-neutral vocabulary, replacing terms such as “fisherman” and “freshman” with “fisher” and “first-year student.”

Lawmakers have passed a series of bills since 2007 to root out gender bias from Washington statutes, though a 1983 state mandate required that all laws be written in gender-neutral terms unless a specification of gender was intended.

“This was a much larger effort than I had envisioned. Mankind means man and woman,” said Democratic state Senator Jeanne Kohl-Welles of Seattle.

The new gender-neutral references, for example, include “journey-level plumber” instead of “journeyman plumber,” “handwriting” in place of “penmanship,” and “signal operator” for “signalman.”

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2013/04/23/20762216.html

George Jones, country superstar, has died at 81

Paul — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 14:44:35 +0000

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — George Jones, the peerless, hard-living country singer who recorded dozens of hits about good times and regrets and peaked with the heartbreaking classic “He Stopped Loving Her Today,” has died. He was 81.

Publicist Kirt Webster says Jones died Friday at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville after being hospitalized with fever and irregular blood pressure.

Known for his clenched, precise baritone, Jones had No. 1 songs in five separate decades, 1950s to 1990s, and was idolized not just by fellow country singers, but by Frank Sinatra, Pete Townshend, Elvis Costello, James Taylor and countless others.

In a career that lasted more than 50 years, “Possum” recorded more than 150 albums and became the champion and symbol of traditional country music, a well-lined link to his hero, Hank Williams.

http://news.yahoo.com/george-jones-country-superstar-died-82-141703663.html

LOUISIANA 2ND LEAST STRESS STATE

Paul — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 14:36:37 +0000

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Hawaii residents remained the least likely in the U.S. to say they felt stressed on any given day in 2012, at 32.1%. West Virginia residents, on average, were the most likely to report feeling stress, at 47.1%.

These state-level data are based on daily surveys conducted from January through December 2012 and encompass more than 350,000 interviews as part of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index. Nationwide, 40.6% of Americans reported feeling stressed “yesterday” in 2012, similar to past years.

Baggy pants made illegal in Louisiana Parish

Paul — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 11:56:14 +0000

TERREBONNE PARISH, LA. – If you’re a fan of saggy pants, avoid Terrebonne Parish, LA as the trend there is now illegal.

The Terrebonne Parish council recently voted to outlaw saggy pants, vowing to fine anyone caught with their pants drooping below their waist.

First time offenders will reportedly be fined $50, while a second offense will cost them $100.

Despite advocates’ claim saying that wearing saggy pants was freedom of expression and banning it would be unconstitutional, the council voted eight to one in favor of the ordinance.

Russia offers help with probe into Boston bombings

Paul — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 11:23:40 +0000

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin has offered his country’s assistance in investigating bombings in Boston that killed 3 and injured more than 140 people.

Putin said in a condolences note published on the Kremlin’s website Tuesday that the international community should come together to fight terrorism.

Putin said Russia “would be ready to provide assistance” to U.S. authorities with the probe into the bombings at the Boston marathon.

Obama’s national security adviser Tom Donilon met with Putin on Monday and presented a letter from Obama in an effort to improve relations, which have nosedived in recent months.

Despite Obama’s efforts to “reset” relations with Russia during his first term, ties worsened over conflicting approaches to the Syrian crisis and U.S. concerns about the Kremlin’s crackdown on dissent.

http://news.yahoo.com/russia-offers-help-probe-boston-bombings-082636209.html

Aid groups: US should send CASH, not food, abroad

Paul — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 15:36:40 +0000

WASHINGTON (AP) — Food aid groups are urging the Obama administration to overhaul the way the United States helps starving people abroad.

The White House will not say whether Obama’s budget proposal, scheduled to come out next week, will seek to change the way foreign food aid is distributed. But food aid groups, farm groups and their allies in Congress are preparing for the possibility.

At issue is whether the government should ship U.S.-grown food overseas to aid developing countries and starving people or simply help those countries with cash to buy food. The United States now donates much of its food aid by shipping food abroad, a process many food aid groups say is inefficient.

Former President Bill Clinton said after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti that U.S. policies to flood developing countries with agricultural imports — a boon to rice farmers in his native Arkansas — had been a mistake after many of Haiti’s own rice farmers were put out of business.

Three years later, aid groups are pushing Obama to make the kind of change Clinton argued for and send cash in lieu of crops.

Sending crops abroad has long been a profitable enterprise for American farmers and shippers, and those groups are strongly opposing any changes to the program.

3.9 tons of marijuana confiscated by Texas Highway Patrol

Paul — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 15:18:21 +0000

For highway patrol officers, there’s no such thing as a routine traffic stop. That adage was again proven true when a Texas Highway Patrol trooper pulled over a gas tanker to perform a routine visual inspection and discovered the tanker was carrying 3.9 tons of marijuana. It’s unclear how the trooper was able to make the discovery.

In a news release, the Texas Department of Public Safety estimated the value of the confiscated pot at around $3.4 million. The truck driver was arrested and charged with possession. He’s being held on $1 million bond. According to DPS spokesperson Sgt. Johnny Hernandez, more arrests may be forthcoming.