An annual report released by Reporters Without Borders highlighted the sad decline of the free press in the United States, with emphasis on the arrests of many journalists who covered the Occupy Wall Street protest movement. The U.S. fell 27 points to a rank at #47 for freedom of the press, putting it in league with many third world nations with little regard for America's first amendment laws & traditions.

When last we left Juanita Myrick, the meticulous bureaucrat and longtime veteran of the Cuyahoga County Department of Employment and Family Services had been indicted for stealing $864,000 in welfare checks from the agency. In a marathon scam that escaped the county’s notice for a whopping 13 years, Myrick would doctor the files of former welfare clients, switching their information on the computer so that she got the checks instead of them.

Image:  John Filo 1970 student photographer (link to wikipedia) in later career won Pulitzer

Read all about it at:

http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-57423500-285/disable-comments-on-mos...

Seems to be "freeware."

CNET also shows you how to use string and an eyebolt to creat a "stringpod" when you don't have a tripod but need one. See it here http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-57423901-285/diy-the-string-tripod-a...

The upper image (taken at a new car show) is the electric power pack which is under the rear trunk floor of the Mitsubishi i-MiEV all electric car.

From Left: Brandon Baxter, Anthony Hayne, Joshua Stafford, Connor Stevens, Douglas Wright -

Federal agents have arrested five people who were plotting to blow up a bridge near Cleveland, Ohio, an incident not connected to the anniversary of former al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden's death, officials say.

Image: Toledo Blade

Why is it that of all the Occupy camps across the USA, the FBI took up a "successful" sting/entrapment operation in Public Square?   Could it be true that there is a more active wanna-be "anarchist" spirit here in Cleveland than, say, in Oakland, CA?    Just curious of the instigating circumstances which led the FBI to become involved....

Addictive: Scientists have found power has the same effect on the brain as cocaine

The Great Earthquake 2012

Radioactive Iodine-131 was found in drinking water samples from 13 cities. Those cities are listed below, with the amount of Iodine-131 in picocuries per liter. The EPA’s maximum contaminant level for Iodine-131 in drinking water is 3 picocuries per liter.

Painesville, OH collected 3/29: 0.43

Repubicans worth reading about: Washington Post OpEd as syndicated by Detroit News.  Hopefully Plain Dealer will pick up on this OpEd.

http://blogs.detroitnews.com/politics/2012/04/28/the-problem-with-republicans/

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Wood's Pulitzer marks the first win for the seven-year-old Huffington Post and a milestone in the influential Pulitzer committee's recognition of online-only news organizations.

David Wood’s long career as a military correspondent, and an affirmation that great journalism is thriving on the Web."

Some media watchers said the Pulitzer committee's recognition of The Huffington Post represents a milestone for the organization and digital news outlets in general.

http://youtu.be/6IoVSbjmTZs

For a new vocabulary word how's "corruscading" -

I learned the word when I saw the palm frawns oscillating rapidly back and forth in the wind making the sunlight flash brightly off the waxy surface of the frawn with each oscillation.

How to discribe that bright flashing?   

"Corruscading" light - I was told. 

Cool, a new word...

I had the lucky opportunity a few weeks ago to visit a navel orange grading and packing plant that was built from scratch by 3 brothers and their parents.   The experience was exhilarating - so much creativity and ingenuity on display. 

for years i have called folks emailed about when our sister brother Centipede come out in the open of our home its a omen of a disaster an earthquake killer storms floods hostilities tornados etc.

State wildlife and environmental protection officials have finished counting the number of fish found dead along a three-mile stretch of the Rocky River.

Their tally totals 28,613 fish and other aquatic species such as crayfish and frogs, dead as a result of a still-unknown cause.

The fish were discovered late Sunday by an angler who alerted the Ohio Division of Wildlife through that agency’s poacher-reporting hotline.

Meet with a couple visting from Dayton to research her family--specifically, the Fish Family, one of the original settlers in Cuyahoga County.  It helps that the Brooklyn Centre neighborhood retains some of the architecture and landmarks that can help her trace her family and provide a touchstone. 

How many of us, will be able to have that comfort ten, twenty, thirty years from now??

This week, the local and national news exploited the fact that there are countless "GHOST FACTORIES" remaining in the Cleveland area which have left remnants of LEAD POISION in the GROUND which continues to adversely affect residents indefinitely due to bureacratic steering of responsibility.

In Israel, the Knesset made Yom Hashoah a national public holiday in 1959 and in 1961 a law was passed that closed all public entertainment on Yom Hashoah. At ten in the morning, a siren is sounded where everyone stops what they are doing, pull over in their cars, and stand in remembrance.

In whatever form you observe Yom Hashoah, the memory of the Jewish victims will live on.

http://history1900s.about.com/cs/holocaust/a/yomhashoah.htm

complete story

There are so many  great ironies in NEO--one is the School of Medicine at CWRU located immediately adjacent to the facilities plant that contributes to asthma, cancer and other chronic disease.

all the secret service agents i met and know are the best law enforcement in general - when i was envolved with undercover working with the military etc. - i was arrested by the secret service as agencies don't normaly share intell - they didn't know my role - the agents were so respectfull kind spiritual that i was even offered chocolat - fast forward - all charges were dismissed - and i ended working under cover with mr.