Now The Dead Must Pay Council Tax 'Gordon Brown will clobber the elderly with a savage pay-as-you-die tax bombshell that could force people to give up their home on their death, it can be revealed today. Millions of householders will be encouraged to sign away their estate to foot the bill for soaring council tax demands. Under the scheme ratepayers can defer inflation-busting council tax payments until they die. Town hall chiefs will then be able claw back the cash, with interest, from the value of their estate. Over 20 years, for a couple with a typical home, that could amount to more than £73,000.' Harriet Harman Under Attack Over Bid to Water Down Child Pornography Law 'Leader of the House of Commons and Minister for Women and Equality Harriet Harman’s political judgement has been called into question after it emerged that she once advocated the watering down of child pornography laws. documents showing that she called on ministers to make sexually explicit photographs or films of children legal unless there was evidence that the subject had been harmed.' Climate Scientists Withdraw Journal Claims of Rising Sea Levels 'Scientists have been forced to withdraw a study on projected sea level rise due to global warming after finding mistakes that undermined the findings. The study, published in 2009 in Nature Geoscience, one of the top journals in its field, confirmed the conclusions of the 2007 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). It used data over the last 22,000 years to predict that sea level would rise by between 7cm and 82cm by the end of the century.' California City to Charge $300 to Call 911 'Tracy residents will now have to pay every time they call 9-1-1 for a medical emergency. But there are a couple of options. Residents can pay a $48 voluntary fee for the year which allows them to call 9-1-1 as many times as necessary. Or, there's the option of not signing up for the annual fee. Instead, they will be charged $300 if they make a call for help. "A $300 fee and you don't even want to be thinking about that when somebody is in need of assistance," said Tracy resident Greg Bidlack. Residents will soon receive the form in the mail where they'll be able to make their selection. No date has been set for when the charges will go into effect.' Millions of Anti-Terror Cash Spent on Luxury London Flats For Police Chiefs 'Britain’s most powerful police body, which is run as a private business, has spent millions of pounds meant for counter-terrorism work on luxury London flats for senior officers. The spending on an undisclosed number of apartments in the Westminster area is understood to be about £1.6million a year. The money is taken directly from taxpayers’ cash given to the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) by the Home Office to tackle the terrorist threat across Britain. The funding – £33million last year – is supposed to be used to beef up regional police forces’ anti-terrorism response and pay for crucial equipment and facilities. Instead, ACPO’s Terrorism & Allied Matters (TAM) committee, headed by Assistant Commissioner John Yates, has used millions of pounds from the budget to pay for flats.' Hospitals Consider Banning Bedside Flower Bouquets 'In an effort to prevent what they believe may cause patient health complications, some British hospitals have begun banning flower bouquets from hospital rooms. Citing the possibility of infection from bacteria in the water and the ill-conceived notion that flowers may use up all the oxygen in the room - even though plants actually release oxygen - some hospital officials are up in arms over the alleged dangers posed by plants. Researchers from the Imperial College of London decided to survey hospital patients and staff to get their take on the situation. They found that most patients appreciate having flowers around while many staffers dislike them because they can be messy. Few made any correlation between plants and an increased risk for disease or infection. Virtually all scientific research has shown that flowers pose no health risks to patients, yet many hospitals continue to cling to antiquated superstition that they are somehow dangerous to patients. The vast majority of studies have revealed that flowers have both immediate and long-term benefits for patients.' The Uranium Coup 'In yet another odd coincidence, Alan Grayson led a Congressional delegation that just happened to be in Niger at the time of the recent military coup last Thursday that deposed the legitimate elected government of the Uranium-rich nation. The official story is that the members of Congress were focused on science, technology and humanitarian relief - at the very same time that the military coup was unfolding on the streets of the capital, Niamey. This intriguing "coincidence" raises the question: Was this Congressional presence during a military coup another instance of a massive intelligence failure or something entirely different?'
Monday, 22 February 2010
From March 2009:
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