Cheap Heroin Fuels Uptick in Homicide, Violent Crime

Cheap Heroin Fuels Uptick in Homicide, Violent Crime:

This is a really good read from NEWSWEEK magazine.. the biggest threat to the United States right now is not from a foreign enemy.. but from one already here.. And the receipe for disaster lately has been cheap heroin..

From NEWSWEEK:

According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), “Mexican transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) remain the greatest criminal drug threat to the United States; no other group can challenge them in the near term.”

In other words, Mexican cartels have surpassed other international criminal organizations including the Italian mafia, Asian drug rings and the previous preeminent drug importer, the Colombians, to become the No. 1 source of dangerous illegal drugs in the United States over the past decade.

If heroin has yet to directly or indirectly touch you life, it will … give it a bit of time. It has far reaching and decimating..

And this year, a presidential campaign, what do we hear? Nothing much at all about this issue..

Nothing at all about the heroin epidemic and how to treat it.. Nothing at all about how this nation is falling apart at its core fabric..

Just a thought.. vote for someone who actually wants to change things as opposed to sweeping the problem under the rug..

That change may not necessarily be more law enforcement tactics. Not more legislation. But less.

Soccer daze

I may or may NOT have mentioned this.. but my wife and I figured that it was not only good to have our son Ayden sign up for soccer, but that we should ALSO be the coaches for the team..
Call us crazy..

Call us insane.

Field clean up day was this past weekend.. The season starts Monday with a 7pm practice..

Yes, there will be strangeness… arguments.. (There already was an arugment over what dimension the field should be and whether it was being lined correctly or not — wonder if the same people who argued saw the abominble women’s game in the outfield of a baseball field?) But it will be rewarding..

We both want to be involved as much as possible with our son’s life as he gets older .. we also love soccer. It seemed like the perfect match.

….but there will be those moments when you question whether you’re in over your head.

The first moment for me could very well be tomorrow night when a group of 4 and 5 year olds stare at me like an alien as I tell them to stop touching the soccer ball with their hands..

It will be fun.

And YouTube will get plenty of hits from me … “how to coach kids soccer”….

A breakdown of US citizens shot by cops this year..

A breakdown of US citizens shot by cops this year..

Centralia PA now has a hot dog vendor..

…and a tremendous amount of people online in Centalia related message boards or Facebook pages are angry and want to run the guy out of town. People called him names like ‘bottom dweller and scumbag’ .. they also wanted to take him to unmentionable parts of the former town.. there are hostile ugly comments being thrown at him. It’s all weird.

Weird because…I actually wanted to do this.. he beat me to it!

I saw the number of people per weekend going to this town to tour and saw a goldmine. The fear deep in my soul held me back. 

But the strange outcry of people anti-hot-dog vendor surprises me a little. 

People: The town is over. it’s done.

If you think that the 200+ tourists per weekend is big, it will only get bigger.

As a former resident, I may be alone here, I am not angry someone is selling hot dogs in Centralia Pennsylvania.

The son of Osama bin Laden has threatened revenge against the US for assassinating his father, according to an audio message posted online by Al-Qaeda.

The son of Osama bin Laden has threatened revenge against the US for assassinating his father, according to an audio message posted online by Al-Qaeda.

The mysterious syndrome impairing astronauts’ sight

The mysterious syndrome impairing astronauts’ sight:

They go to space with perfect vision and come back with a loss of acuity. 

THE POST: 

 In 2005, astronaut John Phillips took a break from his work on the International Space Station and looked out the window at Earth. He was about halfway through a mission that had begun in April and would end in October.

When he gazed down at the planet, the Earth was blurry. He couldn’t focus on it clearly. That was strange — his vision had always been 20/20. He wondered: Was his eyesight getting worse?

“I’m not sure if I reported that to the ground,” he said. “I think I didn’t. I thought it would be something that would just go away, and fix itself when I got to Earth.”

It didn’t go away.

During Phillips’ post-flight physical, NASA found that his vision had gone from 20/20 to 20/100 in six months.

This is not a joke (but mostly a story showcasing how the US...

This is not a joke (but mostly a story showcasing how the US Women’s Soccer Team gets unfair treatment on a regular basis) ..

A match between the Western New York Flash and Seattle Reign FC of the National Women’s Soccer League on Saturday night was played at Frontier Field, a baseball stadium in Rochester N.Y., that could hold a pitch just 100 yards long and 58 yards wide according to match announcers.

Carli Lloyd, Megan Rapinoe, Alex Morgan and Ali Krieger called this “shocking,” “embarrassing” and “unacceptable,” and tweeted at the league’s commissioner, Jeff Plush.

Very disgusting ..

Now we know! Back stage fights almost brought down SEINFELD

….and if that would have occurred, my Thursdays during teenagedom would have been forever ruined..

There is a new book that tells all.. 

The story is told by “Seinfeld” writer Spike Feresten, who started out as an “SNL” receptionist, in the new book “Seinfeldia: How a Show About Nothing Changed ­Everything” (Simon & Schuster) by Jennifer Keishin Armstrong.

THE NEW YORK POST dishes it this way:

Richards’ performance as Kramer was so frantic that the crew kept extra hinges handy, in case he destroyed a door during one of his character’s manic entrances. It created problems, though, since Richards’ antics made his castmates laugh during filming and break his focus.

Armstrong writes: “When Alexander laughed during a scene . . . Richards’ begged, ‘You can’t, please. You don’t know how hard it is for me.’ (Because the laughter meant they had to reshoot the scene.)”

Because of Richards’ intensity and immersion into the role, his co-stars, writes Armstrong, “didn’t feel like they knew him, even later, after years on the set together.”

And more

Alexander and Louis-Dreyfus — both of whom were concerned early on about the show’s lack of conventional plot lines — had their own problems: Each believed they weren’t getting enough screen time.

As the show became a success, the cast found themselves in strange situations, including a bizarre feud with Roseanne Barr and Tom Arnold.

I really, really want this book.

A tale of two news sites

Last night was deadly and violent in Hazleton Pennsylvania.. But reading the STANDARD SPEAKER, the main newspaper, you would never have known it.. Their top story is all about kids learning about bike safety.

Other websites, such as Hazleton 1 news on Facebook have the full story of the night of crashes, shootings, and violence that plagued the streets.

Anyone still wondering why online news is winning?

I love this ‘possessed’ keyboard player! But don’t know if that...

I love this ‘possessed’ keyboard player! But don’t know if that is because of how amazingly entertaining she is, or because she looked like me when I was 17.

The SECRET LIFE OF PETS is making over $103 million this...

The SECRET LIFE OF PETS is making over $103 million this weekend.

And deservedly so. The secret life of parents: Sometimes we like these movies.

This was the rebound movie for my family this week.

My son, Ayden, had a 105 temp this week and a terrible viral infection that caused one ER visit and another doctor visit … it was just an awful week. By the end, however, a full recovery was made (kids are so quick with this) and we decided Friday to go to see this movie.

There is something about movie theaters that cheers my son up.. and me.. and my wife. After a week of hell and sickness, we needed the rebound movie.

Minus the flu recovery, the movie itself was pretty entertaining.

I’d relay this to you: Parents, take your kids to go see it. You’ll like it too. And your child was sad/sick/depressed over the past week, it’s especially good..

ART BELL HOME AFTER INTENSE HOSPITAL STAYThe talk show legend...

ART BELL HOME AFTER INTENSE HOSPITAL STAY

The talk show legend wrote this on Facebook late this week:

Update on me:

I am now home after five days in what must be one of the greatest Hospitals in the World, St Rose. I am not in good shape, so weak I can not dress myself. I want to Publicly thank my Wife Airyn who never left my side and helped every moment day and night and still is. I went through every test known to Man. Had a hole punched in my Lung, MRI, Pet scans, X-Rays, more blood tests then could be counted, was on Morphine the whole time. Had so many IVs running it started to get hard to find a vein. If I make it I will have the best Wife in the World to thank as well as the best Hospital. Can’t really type more now but that is the current situation, more later.

Art

He was in for days for complications of COPD and pneumonia .. 

Black Lives Matter protesters sprayed with tear gas in Phoenix as rally spirals out of control and thousands demonstrate against police brutality, with cops on high alert following Dallas massacre

Black Lives Matter protesters sprayed with tear gas in Phoenix as rally spirals out of control and thousands demonstrate against police brutality, with cops on high alert following Dallas massacre :

The U.K. press dishes

America the not divided?

America the not divided?:

President Barack Obama on Saturday rejected the notion that this week’s stunning violence is a signal that the U.S. has returned to some of the darkest days of its past, saying that as painful as the killings of police and black men were, “America is not as divided as some have suggested”

Today’s DALLAS MORNING NEWS front page splash

Today’s DALLAS MORNING NEWS front page splash

THE NEW YORK POST printed before the 5th officer perished.. but...

THE NEW YORK POST printed before the 5th officer perished.. but their cover this morning will be blazing through the early streets of New York City and beyond .. they are calling it a “civil war” and showcasing images of dead police officers next to their squad cars..

Those who slept peacefully through the night and are waking up to news this morning are going to have their souls rocked..

I woke up around 230am as my phone kept buzzing with breaking news events.. I tried to ignore at first until I realized just what those breaking news alerts were saying…

My mind turned into panic about the country.. Obviously I could not fall back to sleep and become glued to news coverage of the Dallas carnage.. I even turned on Coast to Coast AM and listened to George Noory take calls and try to get a mental handle no the mess that is occurring right now..

"I didn’t see anybody else get shot, just the cops. I saw cops getting shot, right there in..."

“I didn’t see anybody else get shot, just the cops. I saw cops getting shot, right there in plain sight. While we was running, like, they just kept shooting,“ Washington said. "We didn’t know where it was coming from”

-

These are the words of 

Cortney Washington to NBC Dallas-Fort Worth in the chaos after the Dallas police carnage ..

The minute it all began.. people marching, peacefully.....

http://ift.tt/29lXFwW

The minute it all began.. people marching, peacefully.. chanting “don’t shoot” .. and then shots ring out and cops began falling to the ground..

The seconds are harrowing and hard to watch…

There are some “things have changed” type world events which occur from time to time.. this is one of them.

Witnesses tell NBC 5 what they saw after Dallas police...

http://ift.tt/29mWyJH

Witnesses tell NBC 5 what they saw after Dallas police officers were shot after a rally in Downtown Dallas Thursday night.

DALLAS MASSACREPEACEFUL BLACK LIVES MATTER PROTEST TURNS INTO...

DALLAS MASSACRE

PEACEFUL BLACK LIVES MATTER PROTEST TURNS INTO MASS CARNAGE IN TEXAS

FIVE POLICE OFFICERS DEAD/ POLICE SWEEPING DOWNTOWN AREA FOR POTENTIAL BOMBS/ THREE SUSPECTS IN CUSTODY, ONE DEAD

7/7 anarchy turns into deadliest day for law enforcement since 9/11..

CNN reports,

The shootings occurred as Americans nationwide took to the streets to demand answers over the killings of two black men in two days. They wept, marched and chanted “Black Lives Matter."Crowds gathered outside Gov. Mark Dayton’s residence in St. Paul, Minnesota, miles from the spot where an officer killed Philando Castile in a car on Wednesday.

MORE

Gunshots rang out Thursday night during demonstrations against the shooting deaths of two African-American men by police in Louisiana and Minnesota.

A total of 11 officers were shot, Dallas police said. A standoff is underway as authorities try to negotiate with a suspect in a downtown garage.It was the deadliest single attack on law enforcement since the 2001 terror attacks, when 72 officers died, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.

A total of 10 police officers were shot by snipers during the protests, Dallas Police Chief David Brown said. An 11th officer was shot during an exchange of gunfire with one of the suspects, authorities said. 

It is unclear at this time how many snipers were actually involved .. no motive has been released..

DEVELOPING STORY