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Jesus Malverde

Jesus Malverde's Journal
Jesus Malverde's Journal
July 30, 2013

Richmond, CA first to jump into eminent domain battle

Taking a controversial plunge into uncharted waters, Richmond is poised to become the first city in the country to invoke eminent domain to address its foreclosure crisis.

"After years of waiting on the banks to offer up a more comprehensive fix or the federal government, we're stepping into the void to make it happen ourselves," Mayor Gayle McLaughlin said in a conference call Tuesday.

On Monday the city sent letters to 32 investors - largely private-label security trusts - offering to buy 626 underwater mortgages at discounts to the homes' current value. If the offers are spurned, the letter said Richmond may use the power of eminent domain to condemn the mortgages and seize them, paying 80 percent of the homes' market value.

The city would then help the underwater homeowners refinance into mortgages in line with their homes' current worth.

Wall Street vehemently opposes the untested idea, claiming it violates property rights and would have a chilling effect on future mortgages in Richmond while leading to years of costly litigation.


http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Richmond-first-to-jump-into-eminent-domain-battle-4695857.php
July 29, 2013

'Circumcision is one of the oddities of the Royal Family'

It is one of the oddities of the Royal Family -- shared by the majority of the English upper classes -- that for many generations they have circumcised their male sons, invariably using a Mohel, the Jewish word for a circumcision practitioner. It was rarely done on medical grounds, nor on religious ones, but was a matter of class.

This has prompted some speculation as to whether the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will chose to follow suit. Understandably, Clarence House will not comment on such a private and delicate matter.

However, it is unlikely because the connection between class and circumcision, which continued up into the 1970s, has all but died out in Britain. Indeed by the time the Duke of Cambridge himself was born in 1982, it is understood that Diana, the Princess of Wales, refused to continue the tradition, in keeping with the then medical opinion that it was an unnecessary procedure whose risks outweighed any possible benefits.

The NHS now tries to guide parents away from the practice and the most recent figures suggest just 3.8 per cent of male babies are circumcised in the UK. This is down from a rate of 20 per cent in the 1950s, when there was a belief, especially among those who could afford to have it done privately, that it was more hygienic.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/10201882/Circumcision-is-one-of-the-oddities-of-the-Royal-Family.html

Whether the royal baby is getting the royal snip is our new obsession
http://now.msn.com/royal-baby-circumcision-decision-still-to-be-revealed

Britain Wonders if Baby Prince Will be Circumcised; Prince Charles Snipped by Royal Mohel
http://www.algemeiner.com/2013/07/24/britain-wonders-if-baby-prince-will-be-circumcised-prince-charles-snipped-by-royal-mohel/
July 25, 2013

Hikers are rescued, then drive to their deaths in Atlantic Ocean off Maine

Two lost hikers who had just been rescued during a driving rainstorm in a Maine state park died after they took a wrong turn and drove their van into the Atlantic Ocean, authorities said Wednesday.

The women — identified as Amy Stiner of Machias, Maine, who was five months pregnant, and Melissa Moyer of Sunbury, Pa. — were found dead in the back of the van about 175 feet from shore in Pond Cove near Roque Bluffs State Park on Tuesday night, the Washington County Sheriff's Department said.

Their dog was also dead, the sheriff's department said.

According to the sheriff's report, the women got lost while hiking in the park about 9 p.m. ET in heavy wind and rain. A member of a local search rescue service found the women and their dog, and state wildlife wardens drove them back to their van.

About an hour later, the Warden Service got a call that the women had driven their car into the water about a mile from where they had last been seen, the sheriff's report said.

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/07/25/19667078-hikers-are-rescued-then-drive-to-their-deaths-in-atlantic-ocean-off-maine

July 25, 2013

Federal agents raid marijuana dispensaries in Washington

Source: Associated Press

Federal agents have raided a number of medical marijuana dispensaries in the Puget Sound region.

Drug Enforcement Administration spokeswoman Jodie Underwood said Wednesday afternoon the operation ended Wednesday evening, but she declined to provide any specifics of the operation.

Washington state legalized adult possession of up to an ounce of marijuana last fall, but marijuana remains illegal under federal law.

Seattle medical marijuana attorney Douglas Hiatt said the targeted dispensaries include Seattle Cross, Tacoma Cross and Bayside Collective in Olympia.


Read more: http://www.katu.com/news/local/DEA-raiding-marijuana-dispensaries-in-Washington-216826061.html

July 23, 2013

Carson City sheriff describes tense scene with gunman at Olive Garden restaurant Sunday

At 8:53 Sunday evening, the Carson City Sheriff’s Office was notified of a violent threat at the Olive Garden Restaurant on South Carson Street.

Initial reports indicated that a man, later identified as David Paul Lane had entered the business alone and at some point became agitated, then confronted the manager and staff with a loaded semi-automatic pistol.

Lane is reported to have drawn his pistol in the restaurant while walking through the dining area.

He demanded to go back to the kitchen area. Efforts to calm Lane were unsuccessful. He confronted a second manager and chamber a round into the gun (ejecting a round that was already in the chamber) and threatened to shoot if not allowed in the kitchen.

http://carsonnow.org/story/07/22/2013/carson-city-sheriff-describes-tense-scene-gunman-olive-garden-restaurant-sunday

July 21, 2013

Right and left unite on surveillance issue

An improbable, bipartisan coalition has emerged on Capitol Hill to force the Justice Department and the National Security Agency to consider changes to the once-secret collection of ordinary Americans' telephone calling information as part of antiterrorism efforts.

The rare convergence is another sign that the post-Sept. 11 emphasis on domestic security at all costs is gradually giving way to nagging concerns among Republicans about a "Big Brother" federal government and Democrats worried about protecting individuals' civil liberties.

The shared concern follows explosive revelations about domestic surveillance by fugitive NSA leaker Edward Snowden.

The shared outlook reflects "a real change in both parties on the war on terror, the role of the military and intelligence agencies, and a new common ground on distrust of government," said Norman Ornstein, a congressional scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. "There is still a strong bipartisan coalition (favoring intelligence gathering), but the pressure will only grow on the White House and the security agencies to implement some changes."

A parallel right-left coalition emerged just last week when a number of libertarian Republican senators, including Ted Cruz of Texas, Rand Paul of Kentucky and David Vitter of Louisiana, supported legislation by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., that would overhaul the armed forces to deal more effectively with sexual assault.


http://www.sfgate.com/nation/article/Right-and-left-unite-on-surveillance-issue-4677354.php


Echoes Rep. John Conyers, the liberal Michigan Democrat: "This is unsustainable. It's outrageous, and must be stopped immediately."
July 20, 2013

A Boys' Camp to Redefine Gender

Over the past three years, photographer Lindsay Morris has been documenting a four-day camp for gender nonconforming boys and their parents.

The camp, “You Are You” (the name has been changed to protect the privacy of the children and is also the name of Morris’ series), is for “Parents who don’t have a gender-confirming 3-year-old who wants to wear high heels and prefers to go down the pink aisle in K-Mart and not that nasty dark boys’ aisle,” Morris said with a laugh.

It is also a place for both parents and children to feel protected in an environment that encourages free expression.

“(The kids) don’t have to look over their shoulders, and they can let down their guard. Those are four days when none of that matters, and they are surrounded by family members who support them,” Morris said.

Morris has stated that her photographic goal for the project is “to represent the spirit of these boys as they shine.” Some of the ways in which the kids shine is through the talent and fashion shows at camp that are popular and for which the campers come well-prepared.


http://www.slate.com/blogs/behold/2013/07/15/_you_are_you_looks_at_a_gender_nonconforming_camp_for_boys_photos.html
July 19, 2013

The Drone That Killed My Grandson

I LEARNED that my 16-year-old grandson, Abdulrahman — a United States citizen — had been killed by an American drone strike from news reports the morning after he died.

The missile killed him, his teenage cousin and at least five other civilians on Oct. 14, 2011, while the boys were eating dinner at an open-air restaurant in southern Yemen.

I visited the site later, once I was able to bear the pain of seeing where he sat in his final moments. Local residents told me his body was blown to pieces. They showed me the grave where they buried his remains. I stood over it, asking why my grandchild was dead.

Nearly two years later, I still have no answers. The United States government has refused to explain why Abdulrahman was killed. It was not until May of this year that the Obama administration, in a supposed effort to be more transparent, publicly acknowledged what the world already knew — that it was responsible for his death.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/18/opinion/the-drone-that-killed-my-grandson.html?src=mb
July 18, 2013

Kurds seize town on Syria-Turkey border, Ankara concerned

Source: Reuters

A Syrian Kurdish party with links to Kurdish militants in Turkey has seized control of a Syrian border town after days of clashes with Islamist fighters, the Turkish military said.

The capture of Ras al-Ain on Syria's northeastern border with Turkey by the Democratic Union Party (PYD) will heighten Ankara's fears that the emergence of an autonomous Kurdish region in Syria could embolden homegrown militants of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which is fighting for autonomy in Turkey.

Turkey's foreign minister voiced concern at the spillover of violence from the war in its southern neighbor and called again on the United Nations Security Council, which has yet to come to a consensus over Syria, to act.

In a statement late on Wednesday, the military said Ras al-Ain had fallen under the control of the PYD, which it described as a "separatist terrorist organization". Fighting in the town had now stopped.

Turkish troops had shot at PYD fighters in Syria in accordance with its rules of engagement after two rocket propelled grenades fired from Syria struck a border post on the Turkish side of the frontier.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/18/us-syria-crisis-turkey-idUSBRE96H0EQ20130718

Profile Information

Name: Jesus Malverde
Gender: Male
Hometown: SF
Current location: Japan
Member since: Fri May 17, 2013, 11:44 PM
Number of posts: 10,274

About Jesus Malverde

Jesús Malverde, sometimes known as the generous bandit or angel of the poor is a folklore hero in the Mexican state of Sinaloa. One day we\'ll live free and no longer in fear. Fear of losing jobs, fear of being raided, your dogs shot, your children kidnapped by the state. Your land stolen, and maybe even your life lost. Fear no more, the times are a changing.
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