Eeyore's News and Views

If you don't live in area that this kind of thing effects you , yet. You ought to be happy, but these people are on the move and as they spread, it will effect you soon enough.
Spread of gangs tied to border-controlTransnational groups found to be mobile and adaptable Jerry Seper (Contact)Friday, October 3, 2008 A "dangerous side effect" of America's failure to control the Southwest border and the nation's tolerance for high levels of illegal immigration has resulted in the spread of violent transnational gangs across the United States, including Maryland, Virginia and Washington, a report says. A report written for the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) says the gangs represent a "significant menace to the public," with about 80 percent of the members involved in serious crimes in addition to immigration violations and another 40 percent having committed violent crimes. "The recent emergence and spread of several Hispanic street gangs, most notably MS-13 and 18th Street, has attracted the attention of law enforcement agencies and political leaders nationwide," said Jessica M. Vaughan, an author of the report, which was made public Tuesday. "Many gangs are made up of small-time troublemakers, but others have a reputation for grisly violence. "They are responsible for virtually the entire spectrum of criminal activity, from nuisance crimes like graffiti to murder. Some are becoming increasingly well-organized and operating as sophisticated crime syndicates across national borders," she said. Transnational gangs generally are defined as those that are criminally active and operate in more than one country, whose activities are sometimes controlled or planned by others in another country, whose members are mobile and adaptable in new areas, and whose members tend to be involved in cross-border or international crimes. The report says nearly half, or 3,080, of the illegal immigrants arrested over the 2 1/2-year period studied as a part of the CIS review were affiliated with MS-13 and Surenos-13, two of the most notorious gangs with largely Hispanic immigrant memberships. It also notes that nearly 60 percent of alien gangsters arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the investigative arm of the Homeland Security Department, were Mexican citizens, 17 percent were from El Salvador and 5 percent were from Honduras. "Immigrant gang members rarely make a living as gangsters," Ms. Vaughan said. "They typically work by day in construction, auto repair, farming, landscaping and other low-skill occupations where employers are less vigilant checking status, often using false documents." The report notes that since 2005, ICE has arrested more than 8,000 gang members from more than 700 different gangs as part of a special initiative called "Operation Community Shield." The arrests produced "incalculable public safety benefits for American communities, despite being criticized periodically by immigrant and civil liberties advocates that are "consistently opposed to all immigration law enforcement, the report says. "Local governments and law enforcement agencies that shun involvement in immigration law enforcement are missing an opportunity to protect their communities from criminal immigrant gang activity," said Ms. Vaughan. "Policymakers should take further steps to institutionalize partnerships between state and local law enforcement agencies and ICE in order to address gang and other crime problems with a connection to immigration." The report says that because a large share of the gangsters in the most notorious gangs such as MS-13, Surenos-13 and 18th Street are illegal immigrants, their illegal status means they are "especially vulnerable to law enforcement, and local authorities should take advantage of the immigration tools available in order to disrupt criminal gang activity, remove gang members from American communities, and deter their return. "Once explained, these measures find much support, especially in immigrant communities where gang crime is rampant," she said. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/200%20...%20l-failure/

What a waste,
Boy's death in school bathroom attributed to game October 3, 2008 - 3:25am
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - A 7-year-old Texas boy found dead hanging from a hook in a school bathroom in February may have been playing a game called "run and jump", according to a police report.
Students at the Not Your Ordinary School charter campus told police after the death of Tevin Park-Flowers that boys sometimes ran along benches lining the walls of the bathroom.
Students called the game "run and jump" because they liked to jump from bench to bench and try to touch the ceiling, according to the report released Thursday.
Tevin had been excused from a school assembly Jan. 30 to go to the bathroom. When he didn't return, a male teacher went looking for him. He found Tevin caught on a hook by his shirt. The boy died at the hospital two days later.
Police said the shirt collar had cut off his oxygen. They also considered suicide or homicide but found no evidence to support either possibility.
An attorney for Tevin's parents said he had "lingering questions" about the boy's death.
"It just doesn't make sense the way that they have described it based on the physical evidence," attorney Dan Ross told the Austin American-Statesman.
http://wtop.com/?sid=1490264&nid=104

Be careful
Negative Opt-Out Options September 30, 2008 - 11:35pm
When does the failure to say no mean yes? It's called negative option marketing, and many consumers find themselves with bills because they didn't take any action.
Here to tell us more about this issue is WTOP Call For Action Director Shirley Rooker.
Do you hear from consumers about this type of marketing?
Yes. A good example is a notice received by a WTOP listener that informed the consumer his enrollment in an identity theft protection plan was about to expire and if the company didn't hear from him, he would be billed for the renewal fee. In other words, the company said if you don't do anything, we are going to continue this coverage.
So why was this of concern to the consumer?
For one thing, the individual did not have an identity theft protection plan. For another, what gives the company the right to bill you for something you don't want and never subscribed to in the first place? But beyond that issue, when the person tried to call the toll free number in the letter, he kept getting disconnected. There was no way to get in touch with the company to say he didn't want the service and never had the service in the first place.
Is the use of negative option marketing taking place on the internet?
Yes, and you may have the proof in your inbox. Companies have started using e-mail lists and notifying consumers they intend to share the addresses with third parties unless the company hears back to the contrary. Unfortunately, many people don't even open emails and may not respond, hence, they start receiving marketing emails.
How do you protect yourself against this type of marketing?
Remember, a trial offer, or a free introductory offer may mean you will continue to receive the product or service unless you specifically cancel it.
If you want to accept one of these offers, read the fine print and follow the instructions carefully if you want to cancel. Keep all your paperwork.
As far as emails are concerned, before you provide an email address to a company, make sure you are given the choice of whether your email address is sold to third parties. Read the privacy policy carefully. If you do not want your information shared, but aren't given the ability to let the company know your wishes, then you may want to do business somewhere else.
If you have been targeted by a negative option scam, report it to the Federal Trade Commission here.
http://wtop.com/?sid=1488646&nid=97

Jusy remeber nothing in life is free. When you take free samples, they are the newest stuff on the markets and have had the least testing. Kind of like buying the first model new car on the market, they might have tested it but not all the bugs have been worked out.
Free drug samples may not be a great deal
By Rita Rubin, USA TODAY
Free samples of prescription drugs may carry hidden costs for children and teens, researchers report today.
In what they say is the first study to examine the use of free drug samples in pediatric patients, the authors analyzed data on 10,295 U.S. residents under age 18 from a 2004 nationally representative survey about medical expenditures.
Among all U.S. residents under 18, one in 20 got at least one free drug sample in 2004, the authors write in Pediatrics. Counting just those who had been prescribed medication, one in 10 got at least one free sample.
In a statement responding to the study, Ken Johnson, senior vice president of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, an industry group, says free samples provide doctors with "valuable firsthand experience with new treatment options and can also play a valuable role in fostering the appropriate use of medicines."
But lead author Sarah Cutrona, an internist at Cambridge Health Alliance in Massachusetts, says giving out free samples "encourages a casual attitude toward medications."

Doing so bypasses pharmacists, who perform important safety checks, Cutrona says.
And, she notes, free samples lack childproof caps, instructions on what to do in case of an accidental overdose and information about kids' doses.
Of the 15 most commonly distributed free samples to children, Cutrona's study found, two are attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder medicines — Strattera and Adderall — and are controlled drugs because of their abuse potential.
And labels for those two, plus Elidel, for atopic dermatitis, and Advair, for asthma, received "black box" safety warnings — the strongest possible — between 2004 and 2007.
Previous research has shown that free samples lead doctors to prescribe drugs that might not be the best choice, says Cutrona, an instructor at Harvard Medical School.
For example, her new study found that some of the most widely distributed free samples were broad-spectrum antibiotics that aren't considered first-line treatments. Overuse of such drugs could contribute to the growing problem of antibiotic resistance, she says.
The prescription drug industry says free samples fill an important role for poor or uninsured patients, but Cutrona's study found few needy kids got them, because they didn't have access to the doctors who gave them out.
"While it is true that poor and uninsured patients are not the only recipients of drug samples," Johnson says, "a patient's financial situation is a factor physicians often consider when distributing such samples."
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2008-10-05-drug-samples_N.htm

Iceland agrees emergency legislation
Without the legislation, Iceland's Prime Minister said the country was facing the real possibility of bankruptcy
Catherine Boyle, Hildur Helga Sigurdardottir in Reykjavik and Peter Stiff
Iceland has agreed emergency legislation aimed at avoiding further financial chaos as its banking system faltered and its currency plummeted 30 per cent.
The ruling alliance and opposition parties united to approve a bill that gives the state sweeping powers over the island’s battered banks.
In an address to the nation, Prime Minister Geir Haarde said the country’s top financial regulator will have wide-ranging authority to dictate a bank’s operations and could even force it to merge with another firm or declare bankruptcy.
The bill will also allow the government to take over housing loans held by the banks and put them in a government housing fund, an effort to help thousands of islanders who face the loss of their homes amid an ever-widening credit crunch.

Later, addressing parliament, the prime minister raised the spectre of a complete financial collapse if the bill had not been agreed.
“We were faced with the real possibility that the national economy would be sucked into the global banking swell and end in national bankruptcy,” Mr Haarde said.
“The legislation is necessary to avoid that fate," he added.
This morning, Iceland suspended trading the shares of six major financial institutions.
The stock exchange said that it had decided to temporarily suspend trading in the big three Icelandic banks — Kaupthing, Landsbanki and Glitnir — plus three other institutions — Exista, Straumur and SPRON — to protect equality between investors while waiting for a government announcement on its plans.
All the major credit ratings agencies moved today to downgrade Iceland’s four big banks and its sovereign credit rating. Fitch cut Iceland's long-term foreign-currency IDR rating by two notches to A-, while Standard & Poor's cut Iceland's long-term foreign currency sovereign credit rating to A- from A and Moody's put its Aa1 rating on review.
The Icelandic currency droped 30 per cent against the euro.
The Government has asked pension funds to repatriate cash to bring home desperately needed foreign currency.
Icelandic state radio reported over the weekend that the country’s association of pension funds had agreed to transfer 200 billion Icelandic kronur (£1 billion) to the state.
He said that Iceland’s banks would sell some of their overseas assets, which will increase speculation that groups such as Baugur, which owns several British high street chains and is backed by Icelandic banks, may be forced to sell some of their stakes. The country’s banking problems led to the nationalisation last week of Glitnir, one of its largest lenders, as depositors pulled their funds.
Iceland’s banks have been under pressure for most of the year, struggling with rampant inflation, the collapsing value of the currency and the general fallout from an overheated economy. In an attempt to curb inflation, the country’s central bank raised interest rates to 15.5 per cent, making it even more difficult for the banks to fund themselves.
The banks expanded rapidly after the deregulation of domestic financial market in the 1990s and now have combined foreign liabilities in excess of $100 billion, dwarfing the country’s gross domestic product of $14 billion.
Further speculation over the health of the country’s banking system will heighten concerns about Iceland’s other two big banks, Kaupthing and Landsbanki.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article4889832.ece


Financial crisis: Euro and pound tumble as Europe's banks falter
The euro and the pound fell heavily against the dollar today after another weekend of turmoil which exposed further weakness in the European banking system and lack of co-ordinated action from its governments.
By Angela Monaghan Last Updated: 1:09PM BST 06 Oct 2008
The euro tumbled 1.8 cents to $1.3590, while the pound was down 1.7 cents at $1.7543 after the German Chancellor Angela Merkel followed similar moves by Ireland and Greece last week and said the government would guarantee all private German bank deposits.
Europe's biggest economy acted as the German Finance Ministry was renegotiating a €35bn (£25bn) rescue package for the country's second largest commercial property lender, Hypo Real Estate bank, which has increased market fears about the extent of the banking crisis in Europe.
"The market probably hadn't priced in enough bad news, " said Adarsh Sinha, currency strategist at Barclays, explaining the euro's sharp fall.
The euro and pound were also hit after a crisis summit of European leaders in Paris failed to produce a co-ordinated solution to the meltdown of the European banking sector.
"It seems certainly in Continental Europe that there was more a focus on rescuing banks than putting together a coherent plan to solve the problem," said Steve Barrow, currency strategist at Standard Bank.
The Icelandic krona was also down against the dollar after the government there failed to comment on an anticipated €10bn (£7.7bn) rescue package from the Nordic central banks. The currency fell 0.9pc against the dollar following big falls last week after the government in Iceland said it would buy a 75pc stake in the country's Glitnir Bank, and Standard & Poor's and Fitch lowered Iceland's rating.
While the dollar was strong against European currencies, it fell heavily against the yen, down 2 cents at 103.30. "The yen will be the big gainer from all of this," said Mr Sinha.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/3144588/Financial-crisis-Euro-and-pound-tumble-as-Europes-banks-falter.html

London plunges as banks pump billions into market
The FTSE index of leading shares dived by more than six per cent this morning, following sharp losses across Asian equity markets on growing concerns over the global financial crisis. By mid-morning, the FTSE 100 was down by more than 300 points at 4,670.9 — a four-year low.
Alistair Darling will make a statement later today on whether he will offer to bail out the UK's banks. British gilt futures leapt a full point in early trading as sharp equity market losses and concern over the global banking system made government bonds more appealing.
Volumes were relatively modest with 838 million shares traded in the first three hours of trading compared with 5.1 billion shares traded in the full eight-hour session on Friday.
The December gilt future rose as high as 113.52 in opening trade, moving back within sight of Friday’s contract high.
Stock markets dropped sharply across continental Europe, with Germany’s DAX index down 5.7 per cent, and France’s CAC 40 down by 6 per cent.
In currency markets, the euro fell sharply in early trading, taking it to a 13-month low against the dollar and a 7-month low against sterling as investors homed in on European banking sector troubles.
The euro was down 3 per cent at 140.48 yen, while the dollar dropped 2 per cent to 103.19 yen, after earlier falling below 103 yen to a near five-month low.
The euro was trading at $1.3617 against the dollar, while the pound was at $1.7517, or more than 1 per cent, driven down by the fall in share prices.
The approval of the $700bn US rescue plan failed to ease fears in Asia over the American economy and the global financial crisis.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei average fell almost 5 per cent in afternoon trading to a four-and-a-half-year low as stocks, including Sony and Toyota, were hit by growing concern that the strength of the yen against the dollar and the euro would hit exports.
Approval by the US House of Representatives on Friday for the financial rescue plan failed to restore much-needed confidence with investors now anxious as to how it will be implemented.
The benchmark Nikkei fell to 10,374.4 — its lowest since early 2004, before recovering slightly to be 4.25 per cent lower at 10,473.1. The broader Topix dropped more than 5 per cent in early trading to its lowest since December 2003.
Sony fell by almost 7 per cent to 2,810 yen, while Toyota was off 4.4 per cent at 3,900 yen.
Takashi Ushio, head of the investment strategy division at Marusan Securities, said: “There's still a sense that the financial crisis really isn't all over yet, and it's definitely spilling over into the rest of the economy. We're looking at a bad downward spiral."
South Korea urged banks to sell foreign assets to raise dollars and promised to use its currency reserves to shield lenders from the financial crisis engulfing the United States and Europe.
The Korean won fell 5 per cent to its weakest since 2002 and the cost of borrowing on the money market surged. The Seoul stock market, tracking a regional selloff, tumbled nearly 5 per cent to a 20-month low.
Australian shares extended their losses to 3.4 per cent in late afternoon trading with the top banks taking a particular beating. National Australia Bank lost 2.3 per cent amid worldwide concern about the resilience of the financial system.
David Spry, research manager at FW Holst in Melbourne, said: “There’s just nothing positive out there. Figures are bad in the States, Europe’s bad, Japan’s bad and China’s probably slowing.” Figures on Friday showed US employers cut 159,000 jobs last month, a ninth straight monthly reduction and the deepest in five and a half years.
The gloom showed up from Indonesia where stocks slumped by 5.3 per cent in early trade to Thailand, where the market was down 2.36 per cent to a new five-year low.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was down 3.4 percent at 17,089.6, with the shares of locally listed mainland Chinese companies particularly hard-hit amid concerns China’s economy may not escape a slowdown if exports are hit by a widening world recession.
Castor Pang, strategist at Sun Hung Kai Financial group in Hong Kong, said: “Weak Wall Street showing last Friday and poor jobless data in the US raised worries about the economy. Sentiment remained weak on US recession worries... amid the financial tsunami."
One of the biggest fallers was Galaxy Entertainment, a Macau casino operator, whose shares plunged more than 10 per cent after China imposed more travel restrictions on Chinese visiting the gambling haven, threatening growth of casinos. From October 1, residents of neighbouring Guangdong province may only go to Macau once every three months instead of every two months.
Chinese share prices, which have been falling steadily since late last year, dropped further as the jitters from the US failed to offset news that the authorities would allow margin trading on a trial basis. The Shanghai Composite Index was down 3.5 per cent.
Regulators, struggling to support an equities market that fell some 70 per cent in just under a year from last October, announced at the weekend that they will soon allow investors to buy stocks on margin and to engage in short-selling. That introduction, which contrasts with regulatory moves to enforce greater caution in the rest of the world, is part of a series of policies to try to revive the market.
The reforms boosted the shares of brokerages. A few houses will be allowed to conduct such trades on a trial basis before the system is expanded to other securities firms.
The MSCI index of Asia-Pacific stocks outside Japan slid 5.3 per cent to the lowest since June 2006. South Korea's Kospi was down 2.9 per cent, led by shares of Samsung Electronic and Posco, the world's fourth-largest steelmaker, the biggest drags. Korea's markets have been one of the hardest hit by a wholesale move by foreign investors away from perceived risk in Asia. The country's growing current account deficit has turned off investors, and news that local banks were having trouble securing foreign currency loans added to negative sentiment on Asia's fourth-largest economy.
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/markets/article4889245.ece