Good night, sleep tight don't let the bedbugs bite.

Bedbugs return

Jeremy Sparig spent months fighting bedbugs. Now, to some people, he is like a mattress left on the street, something best avoided in these times.

“They don’t want to hug you anymore; they don’t want you coming over,” said Mr. Sparig, of East Williamsburg, Brooklyn. “You’re like a leper.”

At the Brooklyn district attorney’s office, which recently had a bedbug breakout, defense lawyers are skittish about visiting, and it is not because of the fierce prosecutors.

Even Steven Smollens, a housing lawyer who has helped many tenants with bedbugs, has his guard up. Those clients are barred from his office. “I meet outside,” he said. “There’s a Starbucks across the street.”

Beyond the bites and the itching, the bother and the expense, victims of the nation’s most recent plague are finding that an invisible scourge awaits them in the form of bedbug stigma. Friends begin to keep their distance. Invitations are rescinded. For months, one woman said, her mother was afraid to tell her that she had an infestation. When she found out and went to clean her mother’s apartment, she said, “Nobody wanted to help me.”

....

Nothing says loving like buzzing your cousin...



John McCluskey was captured Thursday night, three weeks after he escaped from an Arizona prison.


Casslyn Welch, Mr. McCluskey’s fiancée, was also captured Thursday night.

PHOENIX — The escaped inmate and his fiancée who were captured Thursday night after three weeks on the run had used their knowledge of the wilderness, their ability to talk a good game and their guns to elude a huge multistate search, the authorities said.

It took an alert forest ranger to bring their long, violent escapade across much of the West to an end.

John McCluskey, 45, who escaped from an Arizona prison with two fellow inmates on July 30, was arrested in a remote area of northeastern Arizona with Casslyn Welch, 44, his fiancée and first cousin , who is believed to have been the one to spring the trio.

Mr. McCluskey and Ms. Welch were camping in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest when a ranger spotted an untended campfire and an oddly parked car. After speaking briefly with Mr. McCluskey, the ranger checked the license plate, found that it belonged to a stolen car and notified law enforcement personnel.

The couple were armed and were with another man whom they had befriended along the way when Apache County sheriff’s deputies moved in.

While being arrested, Ms. Welch reached for a gun hidden in the small of her back, the authorities said. Mr. McCluskey, who was lying on a sleeping bag in front of a tent when deputies pounced on him, later told officials that he had a gun in the tent and that he should have used it on the ranger.

Mr. McCluskey, who was serving a 15-year sentence for attempted murder, escaped from a privately run detention center near Kingman along with Tracy Province and Daniel Renwick, both of whom were serving time for murder. Ms. Welch is accused of throwing wire cutters over the fence of the medium-security prison to aid in the escape.

The getaway was very much a family affair, the authorities said. Mr. McCluskey’s mother, Claudia Washburn, was arrested on charges that she helped her son and niece flee by giving them money. His former wife, Diana Joy Glattfelder, was also charged with aiding in the escape by driving Mr. McCluskey, Ms. Welch and Mr. Province during their initial getaway.

Dirty Mary and Crazy Larry get arrested

Ha ha....Yea, I've kind of been following that story. MSN reported the other day that as the cops took the gun that Ms Welch reached for, one cop said it might be the murder weapon, and she replied, "no the murder weapon is in the car" (paraphrasing). Dumb as doornobs. But yea, I couldn't help but laugh/cringe/roll my eyes when I heard the fiance' was a first cousin. (dueling banjos?)

TIS

It might be a good idea for Board members to read this article (and link) since many people might be unaware that there are credit card reforms that are only now about to become effective:

Washington (CNN) -- New rules designed to protect credit card users from "unreasonable late payment and other penalty fees" come into force Sunday as a result of the Wall Street reform bill.

The rules block credit card companies from charging more than $25 for late payments except in extreme circumstances, prevent them from charging customers for not using their cards, and requires them to reconsider rate increases imposed since January 1, 2009, according to the Federal Reserve, which approved the regulations.

They are the final provisions of federal legislation that placed new restrictions on credit card interest rates and fees, completing the most comprehensive overhaul of the credit card industry in history.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/08/22/credit.card.rules/index.html?hpt=T1

Did anyone know that Glenn Beck was writing bestselling novels??
Go figure...

China's massive traffic jam could last for weeks
Anita Chang / Associated Press
Beijing -- A massive traffic jam in north China that stretches for dozens of miles and hit its 10-day mark on Tuesday stems from road construction in Beijing that won't be finished until the middle of next month, an official said.

Bumper-to-bumper gridlock spanning for 60 miles with cars moving little more than a half-mile a day at one point has improved since this weekend, said Zhang Minghai, director of Zhangjiakou city's Traffic Management Bureau general office.

But he said he wasn't sure when the situation along the Beijing-Zhangjiakou highway would return to normal...

http://www.detnews.com/article/20100824/...s#ixzz0xXTwJJfE

Some peole will read anything.

The Government's New Right to Track Your Every Move With GPS By ADAM COHEN Adam Cohen – 25 mins ago

Government agents can sneak onto your property in the middle of the night, put a GPS device on the bottom of your car and keep track of everywhere you go. This doesn't violate your Fourth Amendment rights, because you do not have any reasonable expectation of privacy in your own driveway - and no reasonable expectation that the government isn't tracking your movements.

That is the bizarre - and scary - rule that now applies in California and eight other Western states. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which covers this vast jurisdiction, recently decided the government can monitor you in this way virtually anytime it wants - with no need for a search warrant.

ARTICLE - CLICK HERE

Borrow your neighbor's car.

well i guess i will be moving to switzerland

Disgusting. One would hope that this sort of decision and many others would open people's eyes.

I was really amazed. I saw it on the shelf at Borders and thought it was a satire by someone else.

Park the car in your garage.

What is one interesting aspect of the decision is that the 9th circuit is considered by some jurists to be the most liberal of the Circuit Courts.

Did you guys hear that Levi Johnston is running for the Mayor of Wasilla? Shouldn't laugh, it very well could happen.


TIS

Oli, how is that possible? Your driveway is still private property. When they come onto your property to place the GPS on your car, wouldn't they need your permission or a warrant, or it would be trespassing? How can they justify committing a crime to place a tracking device?

Babe, as the Court opined in a synopsis: one has no expectation of privacy in the driveway. It's similar to public intoxication. Even though you are on your porch or in your front yard, if you are perceived as intoxicated, you are subject to arrest. I'll have to read the opinion.

I could concede to that point if you parked in the street in front of your house. However, private property is private property. For example, can they go through your garbage if it's behind a gate on the side of your house? I know they can once it's brought to the curb, but what if it's still on your property?? It seems ridiculous.

I scanned the opinion. In law there is something called Curtilage which is that area that surrounds a house, for example. A driveway can be considered within that curtilage if it is sequestered in some way such as by a fence or gate. Pineda's driveway was not sequestered. As the court found, anyone could traverse the driveway such as a paperboy or meter reader. Thus, there was no expectationof privacy in his driveway. The court also opined that the tracking device was attached to the vehicle's undercarriage where there is no expectationof privacy.

It's important to understand that an appellate court hears arguments between opposing sides regarding Constitutional issues - not evidence. From my scanning of the ruling, it's clear that Pineda's attorney didn't argue his case effectively. He based much of his argument on the wrong precedent which is a previous case in which the court ruled. I should also point out that the opinion is only applicable in the 9th circuit courts 9 state jurisdication which is mainly out west.

I'm not agreeing with the ruling, but, think of Oli's example while undressed. Not in your room reading this on the computer (unless you want to lol), but: while your driveway is personal property, you cannot dance nude in your driveway like you might get away with in your garage or inside your house or perhaps even your backyard. Anywhere anyone minding their own business can view you is more restricted than anywhere someone would have to purposely go out of their way to try to view you. If that makes sense. Nudists can't walk to their mailboxes nude.

Regardless, I find it despicable that our gov't would use such tactics. But at the same time, they probably wouldn't unless someone was significantly suspect of some crime to begin with -- and I assume with a court order. It's not something I would worry about if I were innocent.

Am I the only one who can't open the first page of the Classical Music thread?

Does it have tons of videos on it?

Carter gains freedom for American held in N. Korea

updated 2 hours 38 minutes ago — Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter flew out of North Korea on a private jet Friday after securing a special pardon for an American who had been jailed in the communist country since January.

Carter and Aijalon Gomes, 31, were expected to arrive in Boston later Friday, Carter Center spokeswoman Deanna Congileo said in Atlanta late Thursday.

North Korea's state-run Korean Central News Agency reported Carter's departure, saying the ex-leader apologized for Gomes' actions.

Is it just me or does "Chinese Traffic Jam" sound like a sex position?

Anyone use Twitter to Twat? Er, Tweet?

Yes, and my back is killing me!! I mean, um, what???

I wonder if the economy is affecting the ambulance chasers? We got rear ended a few days ago, and all we are getting in the mail is advertisements from the ambulance chasers. My 14 year old son is even getting them.

PS. I'm back from my trip, did anybody misss me?

One of my new kittens likes to walk across the keyboard of my laptop. She types the strangest things. She also likes to chase the cursor.

Does she chase after the mouse?


TIS

Probably would. Never thought of that!

Earl: A hurricane coming up the coast that MAY affect the NYC area. Also, from Brooklyn what we say BP poured all over the Gulf of Mexico.