FBI: Minnesota raid disrupts planned terror attack

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — FBI officials said Monday that they foiled a terrorism attack that was being planned in a small western Minnesota town, but they offered no details about the exact targets of the attack — or the motive of the man accused of having a cache of explosives and weapons in a mobile home.

The FBI said "the lives of several local residents were potentially saved" with the arrest of Buford Rogers, 24, who made his first appearance Monday in U.S. District Court in St. Paul on one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Rogers, of Montevideo, was arrested Friday after authorities searched a mobile home he's associated with and found Molotov cocktails, suspected pipe bombs and firearms, according to a court affidavit.

"The FBI believed there was a terror attack in its planning stages, and we believe there would have been a localized terror attack, and that's why law enforcement moved quickly to execute the search warrant on Friday to arrest Mr. Rogers," FBI spokesman Kyle Loven said Monday.

He said the investigation is ongoing, and agents are looking at the case as one of domestic terrorism.

Where are they now?

OSAMA BIN LADEN - Bin Laden, the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks was buried at sea after Navy SEALs killed him in a 2011 raid on his compound in Pakistan.

TED BUNDY - His body was cremated. There was no public funeral.

JEFFREY DAHMER - His father, Lionel Dahmer, favored cremation, saying that is what his son wanted. Eventually, Jeffery Dahmer's brain and body were cremated and the ashes were divided between his mother and father after a judge decided the brain should be cremated.

ADOLF HITLER - His remains were exhumed in the 1970s and incinerated. The ashes were flushed into the city's sewage system.

DYLAN KLEBOLD AND ERIC HARRIS - Klebold's family had him cremated, according to the Rev. Don Marxhausen, who presided at his funeral.

Harris' family has never publicly revealed his final resting place.

ADAM LANZA - Lanza's father, Peter Lanza, of Stamford, Conn., claimed his son's body. There were "private arrangements," according to a family spokesman, who did not elaborate on what those arrangements were.

TIMOTHY MCVEIGH - McVeigh's body was taken to a local funeral home, where he was cremated and his ashes were given to one of his attorneys. In a letter to The Buffalo (N.Y.) News, McVeigh had said he wanted his ashes scattered at a secret location.

LEE HARVEY OSWALD - His body was exhumed in 1981 from a cemetery in Fort Worth, Texas, to put to rest theories that Oswald's body wasn't actually there. Authorities used dental records to conclude the remains did, indeed, belong to the man who shot the president in 1963. The body was then reburied at Rose Hill Memorial Cemetery in Fort Worth.

POL POT - The toppled Khmer Rouge leader died in the Cambodian jungle at age 73 in 1998, cheating pursuers who believed they were days away from capturing him for prosecution in the deaths of as many as 2 million countrymen. He ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, seeking to create a Marxist agrarian regime but leaving one person in five dead of starvation, illness or execution. The despot was cremated on a pile of used car tires and furniture on Dangrek Mountain, just about a mile from the border with Thailand. His unguarded grave site is now a mound of earth marked by bottles stuck into the ground, protected by a rusting, corrugated iron roof. A few wilting flowers sprouted around the unguarded grave site, which officials complain has been virtually stripped of Pol Pot's cremated remains by foreign tourists.

OH NO = OH YES!

A woman in California made a a little mistake when she chose her lottery ticket last week and it ended up winning her $14 million.

ABC reports that Thuan Le, a single mother with four sons, purchases her lottery ticket at CVS every Wednesday. Le usually spends five dollars, four on Powerball tickets and one on a SuperLotto Plus ticket. Last week, however, she accidentally put $6 into the machine.

Le decided to use her $1 dollar mistake to buy an extra SuperLotto Plus ticket. Well, turns out that she made a pretty good decision. Le just won $14 million.

The California Lottery writes on its website: “She accidentally put $6 in the self-service terminal and bought her tickets. When she realized she still had $1 in credit, she thought, ‘I might as well get another SuperLotto Plus ticket.’ That 6th ticket was the winner.”

According to a press release from the California lottery, Le was excited, really, really excited, when she realized that she won the lottery.

OMG What next?

The creator of what's being called the world's first 3-D-printed handgun is coming under fire from lawmakers concerned that anyone with a 3-D printer and an Internet connection will be able to print an untraceable arsenal.

Cody Wilson, the 25-year-old founder of Defense Distributed, is expected to release his controversial blueprint for the gun—called the "Liberator"—online this week, according to Forbes.

The report immediately drew the ire of both New York Rep. Steve Israel, who called for a renewal of the Undetectable Firearms Act, and New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, who called use of the technology “stomach-churning.”

“Security checkpoints, background checks and gun regulations will do little good if criminals can print plastic firearms at home and bring those firearms through metal detectors with no one the wiser," Israel said in a statement on Friday. "When I started talking about the issue of plastic firearms months ago, I was told the idea of a plastic gun is science-fiction. Now that this technology is proven, we need to act now."

Defense Distributed announced plans to create the world's first entirely printable handgun last year. In March, the company obtained a federal license as a gun manufacturer.

"The Wiki Weapon project," as it's described on Defense Distributed's website, is "a nonprofit effort to create freely available plans for 3D printable guns."

“This gun can fire regular bullets,” Schumer said, according to the Daily News. “Now anyone, a terrorist, someone who is mentally ill, a spousal abuser, a felon, can essentially open a gun factory in their garage. It must be stopped.”

Wilson, a self-described “free-market anarchist” and University of Texas law student, is keenly aware of the controversy.

"You can print a lethal device," Wilson told Forbes last year. "It's kind of scary, but that's what we're aiming to show."

RIP Barb

Is that not a beautiful family, Barb is on the left..

Our family lost a very dear friend, yesterday, who lived in New York. Barbara Bozydaj apparently had some complications after a surgery, and did not pull through. Her daughter said she seemed so much better yesterday morning, and then. I think that often happens, where, God, in his infinite wisdom, lets us have some quality minutes to remember forever, before our loved ones go to be with Him.

This is her Facebook post this morning, I don't think she will mind if I share it with you all ........

"The night sky is filled with so many beautiful shining stars and one of them is my Mom. Forever in our hearts. I love you, Mom. I am so thankful to have had Saturday for those few hours to see you feeling well and full of life. I especially am thankful for you leaving a message to be awaken when I called to check on you Sunday morning. I will always cherish our last mother daughter talk by phone. I will continue to talk through our mother daughter bond. Love you forever."

Nice.

The Five Borough Bike Race

The Five Borough bike race is today. I had participated in it twice, what a great time we had doing it. My daughter lives in New York, and it was through her that we did it. It is such a great way to see the city, get some exercise and rife forty miles with thirty thousand or so bikers.

Been a whole since we did it, not sure the year. One year I had a tape recorder mounted on the handle bars and had a tape of the of the Ohio State Marching Band playing their fight song. I played that as I rode along until someone got tired of it, took it out of the tape player and through it into, I think maybe, the Hudson River. At the start of the race I was interviewed on TV about the music and our group.

We rode up the Avenue of the Americas, Wall Street, and into Central Park. I think we had 24 thousand that year, and a memory of that day, well they could not have enough "facilities" in Central Park for that many people, so the hill, was the best place to go .... Looking up that hill at ... so many .... women's butts, a scene to remember. When you gotta go, you gotta go.

The ride ends up in Staten Island, and we took the ferries back to South Seaport. I remember an Irish bar of some sort, where our bunch headed and spent a bit of time, perhaps too much.

Two incidents I vividly remember. I was wearing biker tights, royal blue. I remember out waitress, as I was heading to the restroom saying to me, "Does your Momma know you're wearing those?" I guess I did look pretty silly, but, so did everyone else.

Driving home, very late, or, very early, in New York City, and I was following my daughter, who knew New York. I could not lose her or we might be lost, forever. At that time she lived in Beacon, NY. I had to go to  the bathroom. I could not stop, I had to continue driving. All we had was a Coke bottle, and I had underwear and those tights on. We made it to Beacon.

Fun rides, what my highlight reels are made of. I think one of those years was the "Hands Across America" event, and we held our hands on the Beacon-Newburg Bridge. People as far as we could see, in either direction. A rather emotional experience when you realized the enormity of it.

One year, son Brad did not ride, but met up with my New York son, Dean, they hung out in the city and were to meet us at South Seaport. They thought one fellow was having car trouble and stopped to help him. Then, they realized he was stripping the car, they had helped.

This year, NO back packs, understandably. It is quite an event, think about it for next year.

Pills Are Us reveal new product

Another SPOOF ... no truth to this .... I'm on a "spoof roll" ...... or something

It has finally happened, and we knew it would

The APA, American Pharmaceutical Association, revealed today that "Pills Are Us," a pharmaceutical company in Southbend, Oregon, which is just South of Bend, Oregon, after seven years of exhaustive research and testing has developed a "prescription only" medication whose "side effects" far outweigh any benefits that might be received by the patient.

Harley DeFontaine, Director of New Products at PAU, when queried about the product revealed that recent test studies showed that the "placebo" taken by some in the study actually had more beneficial effects on the patients than the product being tested. DeFontaine stated, "There were a few side effects with the new product, some in the study showed a few signs of nausea, jaundice, headache, a burning sensation in the left foot, skin rashes, internal bleeding, low sugar, high blood pressure, bloating, and three of the ten test subjects were actually hospitalized, and one of the three was listed in critical condition. These results, basically, are rather standard for the industry, we have found."

Davis advertising of New York City is currently producing a television commercial for the product which may be unique to the industry. The side effects of the product are so extensive that a full thirty minute commercial is considered, with thirty seconds devoted to the benefits of the product.

DeFontaine added, "With that many side effects, it must be good for something, we just don't know what, as of now."

Not to be outdone ..........

This is another SPOOF item I did, NO TRUTH to any of it .

Not to be outdone by Kroger's and some other grocery chains, Walmart has installed "infa-red" sensors in all of their stores, which will indicate the number of customers in the store, which will enable them to close lanes so that all open registers will have at least ten people waiting in line.

Monica DeWise, Walmart representative stated, "We like to see them in line at least fifteen minutes, that way they can have time to shop all of those what we call "impulse" items that must be passed prior to reaching a register. Chewing gum, candy bars, magazines and those revealing little newspapers, key chains and little flashlights are big mark-up items for us, so we have to do what we can to make sure they move out of the store."

Charles McKeowan, manager of a super store in Jackson Heights, Missouri, chimed it, "It's our low prices that bring them in to the store, that's the bottom line, our new motto is, "Give them low prices, and they will come, regardless of how long it takes to get out of the store."

The "sensors" should be in all stores by the end of the Summer.

Porch ramblings ..........

Sitting out on the porch, drinking coffee and enjoying the 62 degree temperature. The trees are swaying to a gentle breeze, the sky is blue with some powder puff white clouds, and the sun is shining brightly. Pleasant day.

Right here, at this moment, there is peace. GOOGLE MAP VIEW

This is old, the cars are ours, we have an umbrella table and chairs on the porch, and the day they did that filming was cloudy and foggy, but it is still a source of amazement how they do it.

We used to have a map of Ohio, which had some city maps of larger cities. The best they could do was to give you directions to a city. Now, the state, the city, the street and the house, either from overhead or in front. And, I just learned, If I had 3D glasses, I can view it in 3D, how cool is that?

I was conversing this morning with a friend, on the phone, and he was concerned about a county issue, and I got to wondering, where and how, do people, anymore, get local news. Our local newspaper is nothing, not sure what their circulation is, but I know we don't get it, and I don't know who does. Columbus Ohio TV news is primarily about Columbus. They do some local, but it has to be sensational to do that. How do we get local, everyday news.

I absolutely refuse to pay, to go online, to read news from our local newspaper. So, where does local news come from anymore. I don't think they do. I think local politicians can "have their way with us" if they wish, because, very few are aware of what is going on.

People used to eat a the Sparta and talk about things, including local issues. We had many such small restaurants that were that way. We all had breakfast together, also lunch. Fast food is not conducive to conversation. I'm sure there are some who are completely "up to date," but very few.

I think the "politically active" are more concerned about Obama and national events, not local. This is not healthy, I think it opens the door to local abuse, by politicians, who seemingly can do what they want because there are no informed citizens to answer to.

It is a nice day though, gotta go, need more coffee ................

Obama speaks at OSU commencement TinC

This is a SPOOF contribution to my SPOOF site .... NO truth to it whatsoever ............ all done in jest ......... and good humor .....

"I want to speak to you all today on gun control."

The 2013 graduates at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, listened in amazement as his commencement address  was nothing more than his views on gun control.

Then he added, "It's you guys fault also that they have all those guns in Mexico, yes, you and you and you," as he gestured around the giant horseshoe shaped stadium, pointing to various graduates.

"And, another thing," he went on, "that Benghazi thing, it's over, do you hear me, it's history, finished, done, so don't any of you graduates bring it up again."

"As you leave this hallowed institution of learning, and football, and more recently some basketball, also the ladies and their basketball and don't forget softball, and a special thanks to Donnie Darrm the golf coach who gave me some pointers and has arranged for me to play The Ohio State University Golf Course after we get done here, ha, I forgot what I was going to say, anyway, take with you these thoughts, gun control and healthcare."

"I would be remiss also, if I did not thank Dr. Gee, the president of this great Midwestern institution from whom I have learned a great deal, primarily, excessive spending, thank you, Doctor Gee, and thank you all, don't want to miss my tee time."

It's Derby time .................

Yes, my eyes are filled with tears, I just listened to "My Old Kentucky Home" at the Derby. I have heard that many times, used to listen to it on the radio and many years on television. One of the GREAT moments in sports, quite an event.

I have sat in the chair, at the desk of Stephen Foster, who wrote the song.

The Derby is special, one of those moments I never forget.

Now for the race .... oh, after this commercial, I hate that ...........................

Derby Classic: Kentucky Hot Browns Recipe

The History of Kentucky Hot Browns 


In the 1920s, dinner dances at Louisville's Brown Hotel drew more than 1,000 guests. During band breaks, hungry revelers refueled on chef Fred Schmidt's late-night eats. His signature? The Kentucky Hot Brown, a pillowy cushion of toasted bread topped with sliced turkey and an avalanche of Mornay sauce-all broiled until golden brown. Crisp bacon strips and tomato added the final flourish.


Kentucky Hot Browns 
4 thick white bread slices
3/4 pound sliced roasted turkey
Mornay Sauce
1 cup (4-oz.) shredded Parmesan cheese
3 plum tomatoes, sliced
8 bacon slices, cooked

Preparation: 
1. Preheat broiler with oven rack 6 inches from heat. Place bread slices on a baking sheet and broil 1 to 2 minutes on each side or until toasted.
2. Arrange bread slices in 4 lightly greased broiler-safe individual baking dishes. Top bread with turkey slices. Pour hot Mornay Sauce over turkey. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.
3. Broil 6 inches from heat 3 to 4 minutes or until bubbly and lightly browned; remove from oven. Top sandwiches with tomatoes and bacon. Serve immediately.

Mornay Sauce 
1/2 cup butter
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
3 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup (2-oz.) shredded Parmesan cheese
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
Preparation: 
Melt butter in a 3-qt. saucepan over medium-high heat. Whisk in flour; cook, whisking constantly, 1 minute. Gradually whisk in milk. Bring to a boil, and cook, whisking constantly, 1 to 2 minutes or until thickened. Whisk in Parmesan cheese, salt, and pepper.

School Track Team Disqualified for One Member Making a Religious Gesture

Some people are outraged after a high school track team is disqualified from competing in state finals because one runner made a religious gesture. In just a few seconds the boys Columbus High School 4 X 100 relay team went from winning the regional meet, heading to state championships to having it all stripped away. How did the “W” so quickly become “DQ”? Well. when the anchor of the relay team crossed the finish line, he won the race, raised his finger to the sky and that gesture caused the winning regional’s relay team to be disqualified.

“It’s a sad deal. I think it’s a travesty. Those kids work hard,” says K.C. Hayes. Hayes’ son Derrick Hayes is the runner who won the race then pointed to God, turning a once in a lifetime opportunity into a huge heartbreak that will likely last his lifetime. “As a team they reached their goal and in an instant it was just gone, over something we think is a non-issue. I guess someone else thinks it is an issue. He just said dad I was pointing at the heavens” says K.C. Hayes.

A judge with the University Interscholastic League or UIL, which enforces the rules for high school athletics, was there at the meet in Kingsville and made the call to disqualify the four member relay team. “For those kids the work they put in, what are we teaching them? Ok you’re going to sacrifice, work hard and do everything it takes and ok it’s just ripped away,” says Hayes.

NO COMMENT ... I will leave them up to you ......

Obama Blames U.S. For Gun Violence In Mexico

Meeting face-to-face with Mexican President Felipe Calderon, President Obama on Thursday said the U.S. is to blame for much of Mexico’s drug violence, and he set up a major congressional gun-control battle by calling on the Senate to ratify a treaty designed to track and cut the flow of guns to other countries.

Mr. Obama said he wants to renew a ban on some semiautomatic weapons but that it is not likely to pass Congress. Instead, he called for the Senate to ratify a decade-old hemisphere wide treaty that would require nations to mark all weapons produced in the country and track them to make sure no weapons were exported to countries where they were banned.

“I will not pretend that this is Mexico’s responsibility alone. The demand for these drugs in the United States is what’s helping keep these cartels in business,” Mr. Obama said at a joint news conference with Mr. Calderon. “This war is being waged with guns purchased not here, but in the United States. More than 90 percent of the guns recovered in Mexico come from the United States, many from gun shops that line our shared border.”

A Clerk .... a what?

Someone asked, and I am happy to explain. He was a dealer back East, and had never heard of the term.

There are not many Nevada "clerks" left, I may be one of the last. If there are any others out there I would love to hear from them. Dwayne Kling is one.

I turned out as a crap dealer in 1956, in Reno, Nevada. I had overheard some dealers referring to other dealers as "a good clerk." At the end of the year, I learned the reason for the term.

The IRS had no classification for dealers, so we were listed as "retail clerks," thus the expression, "he's a good clerk."

Not sure of the year when it changed, and dealers or casino employees had their own classification, but I imagine it was quite some time ago.

I checked the IRS site and could not make heads or tails of it, so not sure what their classification might be.

A word to the wise

Apparently, I could not find the article, there has been a rash of vandalism, or worse, someone is going around and loosening the lug nuts on cars, uncommonly dangerous and hard to detect. It is happening here in Newark, but once it gets publicity it could go nationwide ............. BE CAREFUL

Man Sues Airline Over Soda Spat

His name may mean "Wine Drinker" in Italian, but it wasn't alcohol that got Salvatore Bevivino into trouble on a Virgin American flight.

According to a lawsuit filed in the Northern District of California on April 28, 2012, Bevivino, 52, a business manager for Genentech, boarded a flight from Philadelphia to San Francisco, where he now lives.

According to the suit, which seeks $500,000 in damages, Bevivino had pressed the call button and asked a male flight attendant for a soda. The flight attendant told him that he had to order by using the touch screen on the back of the seat before him. "He just pointed to me, pointed to the screen and said, 'Use the console, sir'," Bevivino told ABC News. "I said, 'I don't want to turn this thing on.' He said, 'I don't have time for your attitude' and left.'"

A minute later, a female flight attendant approached Bevivino and told him to use the seatback ordering system. Once again, he refused, and said that he would complain to Virgin America. A third attendant finally brought him the soft drink.

There were no further interactions between him and the flight attendants, the suit maintains. Instead, Bevivino spent the remainder of the flight working on his computer.

Salvaged from the seabed: WW2 German bomber gunned from skies to be rescued

Over 70 years ago it was gunned down off the English coast as the Second World War raged in the skies.

The Dornier 17 German bomber was blasted from the air during the Battle of Britain in 1940, and has remained beneath the waves off the Kent coastline ever since.

But work began yesterday to raise the unique wartime aircraft from its watery grave in the English Channel, in one of the most ambitious salvage operations ever undertaken in British waters.

A team of divers spotted the rare aircraft lying 50ft down and upside down on the Goodwin Sands just off the Kent coast in 2008.

Sonar scans identified the plane as Dornier Do 17Z-2, serial number 1160, and it is the only surviving example in the world.

Its main structure has been remarkably preserved and some of its undercarriage tyres are still inflated.

Apart from minor damage to the forward cockpit, observation windows and propellers the slim aluminium frame has survived the corrosive effects of the sea water.

Solar-powered plane takes off for flight across U.S.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A solar-powered airplane that developers hope to eventually pilot around the world took off early on Friday from San Francisco Bay on the first leg of an attempt to fly across the United States with no fuel but the sun's energy.

The plane, dubbed the Solar Impulse, departed shortly after 6 a.m. local time from Moffett Field, a joint civil-military airport near the south end of San Francisco, heading first to Phoenix on a slow-speed flight expected to take 15 to 20 hours.

Rat meat sold as lamb in latest China food scandal

BEIJING (AP) -- Chinese police have broken up a criminal ring accused of taking meat from rats and foxes and selling it as lamb in the country's latest food safety scandal.

The Ministry of Public Security released results of a three-month crackdown on food safety violators, saying in a statement that authorities investigated more than 380 cases and arrested 904 suspects.

Among those arrested were 63 people who allegedly ran an operation in Shanghai and the coastal city of Wuxi that bought fox, mink, rat and other meat that had not been tested for quality and safety, processed it with additives like gelatin and passed it off as lamb.

The meat was sold to farmers' markets in Jiangsu province and Shanghai, it said.

Despite years of food scandals — from milk contaminated with an industrial chemical to the use of industrial dyes in eggs — China has been unable to clean up its food supply chain.