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Sheriff Joe on Trial

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The New York Times
Editorial|
Published: July 15, 2012

Five years after he started “crime suppression” sweeps that terrorized Latino neighborhoods across Maricopa County, Arizona, Sheriff Joe Arpaio is finally having to explain himself. Not to TV crews in Phoenix or to fawning hosts on Fox News, but before a federal judge.

The trial in Melendres v. Arpaio, a class-action civil-rights lawsuit, is scheduled to begin Thursday in Federal District Court in Phoenix. The plaintiffs, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, accuse the sheriff of waging an all-out, unlawful campaign of discrimination and harassment against Latinos and those who look like them.

They say the sheriff and his deputies — aided by ad hoc civilian “posses,” anonymous phone tipsters, even motorcycle gangs — made illegal stops, searches and arrests, staged wrongful neighborhood and workplace raids, and provoked widespread fear among citizens, legal residents and undocumented immigrants alike.

Insurance companies, government steals life insurance benefits from PTSD veterans who commit suicide

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Natural News
Monday, July 16, 2012 by: J. D. Heyes
veterans

(NaturalNews) There is despicable, there is diabolical, and there are both. This appears to be a story about the latter.

Families of four veterans diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder following their tours of duty in combat zones who committed suicide after returning home are charging Prudential Insurance and the Department of Veterans Affairs with refusing to pay life insurance benefits they are due.

Mathew Ecker, the lead plaintiff in the case, which was filed recently in U.S. district court in Newark, N.J., said that his son, Michael - who served in Iraq in 2005-06 - received "at least 11 medals, ribbons and badges for his service."

The complaint goes onto say that following his son's return, "his parents observed a dramatic change in his personality. He was in constant physical pain, suffered memory losses, and was anxious all the time. Michael never left the war behind and after medical treatment efforts failed him, on August 28, 2009, he walked to the garden, saluted his father in military fashion, placed a gun to his head and pulled the trigger."

The complaint says the elder Ecker was the sole beneficiary of his son's SGLI (Servicemembers Group Life Insurance) policy, which amounted to $400,000.

"Mathew has testified under oath that, while alive, Michael never received from Prudential any notice that he could convert his SGLI policy to a VGLI [Veterans Group Life Insurance] policy," the complaint says.

Prudential didn't let beneficiaries know to change coverage?

GlaxoSmithKline bribery admission ensnares celebrity 'Dr. Drew' and other physicians

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Natural News
Monday, July 16, 2012 by: J. D. Heyes

Dr. Drew Pinsky

(NaturalNews) Radio personality Dr. Drew Pinsky once touted GlaxoSmithKline PLC's antidepressant Wellbutrin as one of a few such medications he prescribed to patients suffering from depression because it "may enhance or at least not suppress sexual arousal" as much as other antidepressants.

What he didn't tell listeners during that 1999 endorsement; however, was that two months earlier Dr. Pinsky - who rose to fame as "Dr. Drew," co-hosting a popular radio sex-advice show, "Loveline" - received the second of two payments from GSK for a total of $275,000 for "services for Wellbutrin," The Wall Street Journal reported.

The paper said the payments were made to Pinsky via a communications firm that worked for GSK, according to revelations in an attachment to a complaint filed by the U.S. government in October 2011 in a Massachusetts federal court. The documents were disclosed in early July after the Justice Department announced a $3 billion criminal and civil settlement with GSK over illegal medication marketing, among other things.

In an email response to an inquiry about the payments by the Journal, Pinsky said: "In the late '90s I was hired to participate in a two-year initiative discussing intimacy and depression which was funded by an educational grant by Glaxo Wellcome," one of the pharmaceutical firms that eventually merged into GlaxoSmithKline.

Pinsky added that the campaign he was involved with "included town hall meetings, writings and multimedia activities in conjunction with [a] patient advocacy group."

Was the petrol price rigged too?

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The Telegraph
By , Emma Rowley

9:00PM BST 15 Jul 2012


Motorists may have been paying too much for their petrol because banks and other traders are likely to have tried to manipulate oil prices in the same way they rigged interest rates, an official report has warned.

Petrol pump

Politicians and fuel campaigners last night urged the Government to expand its inquiry into the Libor scandal to see whether oil prices have also been falsely pushed up Photo: ALAMY

Concerns are growing about the reliability of oil prices, after a report for the G20 found the market is wide open to “manipulation or distortion”.

Tunisia’s (Former President and Convicted) Ben Ali Ready To Return Swiss-Held Assets

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Tunisia’s (Former President and Convicted) Ben Ali Ready To Return Swiss-Held ‘Assets’ – 16 July 2012

Posted on July 16, 2012 by lucas2012infos 

Tunisia's former president Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, seen here in 2009, is ready to hand over his Swiss-held financial "assets" to the Tunisian state, his Lebanese lawyer said on Monday. Ben Ali was toppled by a popular revolt in 2011.

 

Tunisia’s former president Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, seen here in 2009, is ready to hand over his Swiss-held financial “assets” to the Tunisian state, his Lebanese lawyer said on Monday. Ben Ali was toppled by a popular revolt in 2011.

AFP – Tunisia’s former president Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, toppled by a popular revolt in 2011, is ready to hand over his Swiss-held financial “assets” to the Tunisian state, his Lebanese lawyer said on Monday.

Madrid, spontaneous march of police and state

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Madrid, spontaneous march of police and state emploees
 
For the third time in just three days, a spontaneous demonstration has tilt the center of Madrid.
Police officers, doctors, firefighters and teachers have gathered in thousands on the streets of the capital, blocking city traffic  and without displaying flags of political parties or trade unions. "We feel cheated by those who pay less and increases taxes, "summarizes a Guardia Civil.
The police mobilized by the Ministry of Internal Affaires have been advised to follow the non-authorized event without intervention. 

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