'Glee' star Cory Monteith found dead at hotel in Vancouver

 

Actor Cory Monteith arrives at the "Do Something Awards" in Santa Monica, California …

(Reuters) - Canadian actor Cory Monteith, heart throb of Fox's musical-comedy television series "Glee", was found dead on Saturday at a hotel in Vancouver, Canada, police said.

There were no signs of foul play, they said, and the cause of death was not immediately apparent.
Paramedics responding to an emergency call found Monteith, 31, dead at the Fairmont Pacific Rim Hotel in the city centre, Vancouver Police Department acting chief Doug LePard told a news conference.
In April, a representative for Monteith, whose "Glee" character Finn was a high school football player turned enthusiastic glee club - or musical group - singer, said the actor was at a rehabilitation facility for an unspecified substance addiction.
Monteith had checked into the Fairmont Pacific Rim Hotel on July 6, and was due to check out on Saturday, LePard told reporters. Others were in the hotel room with Monteith on Friday night, but evidence including his fob key entries indicate he returned to his room by himself early on Saturday and was alone when he died, police said.
LePard said he wanted to offer condolences "to the family, friends, castmates and millions of fans of Mr. Monteith".
Montieth's spokeswoman, Melissa Kates, said in a statement, "We are so saddened to confirm that the reports on the death of Cory Monteith are accurate."
An autopsy on Monteith was set for Monday, LePard said.
(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Louise Ireland)

Saudi princess charged with human trafficking in US

A Saudi princess was to be released from US jail on bail after being charged with enslaving a Kenyan woman, forcing her to work in abusive conditions and withholding her passport.

Meshael Alayban, 42, one of six wives of a grandson of the Saudi King Abdullah, paid a $5 million bond and surrendered her passport, the Orange County, California district attorney's office said in a statement.
She "is required to wear a GPS tracking device, is prohibited from leaving Orange County without permission from the Court, and is barred from having any contact with the victim," the statement explained.
Alayban, who was arrested Wednesday, is accused of forcing the Kenyan woman to work 16 hour days, seven days a week, for a monthly salary of just $220.
The unnamed victim, 30, who sought overseas work to pay for her young daughter's medical care, allegedly worked in Alayban's palace in Saudi Arabia and then in her home in Irvine, California, southeast of Los Angeles.
Prosecutors said the victim had signed a contract with an employment agency that promised her a salary of $1,600 a month for a 40-hour work week.
The princess was charged with "human trafficking of a Kenyan woman into the United States and forcing the victim to work as a domestic servant against her will," the Orange County District Attorney said in a statement.
The victim, who began working in Saudi Arabia in March 2012 and moved to the US with the Saudi family in May 2013, was "forced to work tending to at least eight people in four apartments" in Irvine, California, prosecutors said.
She was given no breaks, no days off, and no chance to leave "except for a family outing so the victim could carry the family's bags."
She told authorities Alayban withheld her passport and refused to allow her to return to Kenya.
Before her move to the US, Alayban told her to lie to authorities about the conditions of her employment during a visa interview, prosecutors said.
But on Tuesday, the woman managed to escape, flagging down a bus. Noticing her nervousness, one of the passengers helped her contact the police. She carried a pamphlet with her, given during her visa interview, explaining her rights.
"She's a smart woman. She saw her opportunity to get freedom and she took it," the victim's lawyer, Steve Baric, said.
When police arrested Alayban, they found four women from the Philippines who could also be victims of human trafficking. Those cases are still being investigated, the prosecutor said.
But on this count of human trafficking alone, if convicted Alayban could face up to 12 years in jail.
It was unclear whether the victim wanted to stay in the United States, but prosecutors said that as a victim of human trafficking she would be entitled to a visa.

Gas Prices Have Biggest Daily Jump In 6 Months

Excerpt:

Do not worry, we are told on a daily basis, the rise in crude oil prices is transitory and won't affect gas prices and implicitly the US consumer's pocket book (already ravaged by spiking mortgage rates).

Well, sorry to burst that little fantasy but gas prices in the last few days have surged (up 9c in 4 days).

In fact today's jump is the largest in six months and pushes regular close to its all-time high for this time of year.

Arguing not to worry as gas prices are more sensitive to Brent is a non-starter as it is very evident, despite the export of WTI, that gas prices are tracking the higher prices of crude oil and if history is any guide - with regard the lead-lag from crude to wholesale gasoline to retail, gas prices will be at new all-time highs for this time of year within the next month.

Bernanke Melts The Dollar And Stock Markets Rise! By Gregory Mannarino

S. American states to recall ambassadors from Europe over Bolivian plane incident

Presidents Evo Morales of Bolivia, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner of Argentina, Jose Mujica of Uruguay, Dilma Rousseff of Brazil and Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela pose for the official picture of the XLV Mercosur Summit, at the Mercosur headquarters in Montevideo on July 12, 2013.(AFP Photo / Miguel Rojo)

South American countries belonging to the Mercosur trade bloc have decided to withdraw their ambassadors for consultations from European countries involved in the grounding of the Bolivian president’s plane.
"We've taken a number of actions in order to compel public explanations and apologies from the European nations that assaulted our brother Evo Morales," explained Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro, who revealed some of the agenda debated during the 45th summit of Mercosur countries in Uruguay's capital, Montevideo. 
The decision to recall European ambassadors was taken by Maduro, Argentina’s President Cristina Fernandez, Brazilian President Dilma Rouseff, and Uruguay’s President, Jose Mujica, during the meeting.
Member states attending the summit expressed their grievances with “actions by the governments of France, Spain, Italy and Portugal” over the July 2 incident, when the aircraft  carrying President Evo Morales back to Bolivia after attending an energy summit in Moscow was denied entry into the airspace of a number of EU member states.

The small aircraft, which required a stop-over before completing its flight, was forced to make an emergency landing in Austria after a circuitous flight path.

It was later revealed that the European countries’ actions were prompted by accusations made by the US ambassador to Austria, William Eacho, who alleged that American whistleblower Edward Snowden had been taken on board to help him gain political asylum in Latin America.
“The gravity of the incident - indicative of a neocolonial mindset - constitutes an unfriendly and hostile act, which violates human rights and impedes freedom of travel, as well as the treatment and immunity appropriate to a head of state,” the Mercosur nations affirmed in the joint statement.
The incident was further described as a “discriminatory and arbitrary” decision by European countries, as well as a “blatant violation of international law.”
By intervening in what they thought were South America’s attempts to grant Snowden asylum, the United States and its allies are undermining the fundamental principles of international law, British human rights activist Peter Tatchell told RT.
“What the United States government is seeking is to obstruct Edward Snowden’s bid to seek asylum. Not to get asylum, but to seek asylum,” Tatchell said. “It has bullied and threatened and menaced other countries around the world to not grant him asylum and to not grant airspace so that a flight can take him to another country. That is a direct attack upon the United Nations’ refugee conventions, and it is shocking and appalling that a supposedly democratic government, in collusion with European governments - including the government in Britain - has been conspiring to not allow Mr. Snowden to make a valid asylum application.”

Number of Americans on federal food aid explodes to over 100 million

(NaturalNews) If you're one of the nation's dwindling number of taxpayers, you're probably not going to care much for this story. But you need to read it anyway, because hopefully it will spur you to jump head-first into the political process (if you're not involved already) and demand some answers (and, more importantly, a solution) from those responsible.

Most Americans are charitable but at the same time, we hate being taken for suckers. That's what makes the U.S. Welfare State so controversial; on the one hand, we want to help when those of us stricken with a bout of misfortune need a temporary helping hand to get back on their feet. The key words, however, are temporary and need - concepts which are being redefined on purpose to expand the Welfare State, and for purely diabolically political purposes.

To wit: New government data indicates that the number of Americans now receiving taxpayer-subsidized food assistance has grown to 101 million, which is roughly one-in-three of us (the current U.S. population estimate just over 316 million).

One-in-three on some form of food assistance - are you proud, America?

That's according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which administers the so-called "food stamp" program - a combination of 15 food programs offered by the agency, which cost taxpayers a staggering $114 billion in 2012.

As noted by CNSNews.com, the number of folks getting food assistance is higher than the number of full-time private-sector employees in the country (the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that number to be around 97.1 million).

Of that 101 million figure, 47 million were participating in SNAP - Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program - the old "food stamps" program (nowadays recipients are issued a debit card with a pre-set amount rather than a food stamp booklet, so recipients don't have to deal with the "stigma" of receiving assistance).

According to CNSNews.com the USDA says the number of Americans on food stamps is a "historically high figure that has risen with the economic downturn."

And that's been the standard line: Nothing to see here, we are told, because the dramatic rise in food stamp rolls is due to the recessed economy.

But wait - hasn't President Obama and the bulk of the mainstream media gone on record for claiming the economy is much improved? How can we have an improving economy and have more Americans than ever on food assistance?

The reality is the economy is not all that great, but still, at less than 8 percent unemployment, is it really bad enough that one-in-three Americans need food assistance?

'Hope and change' - no hope, all change

"The financial crisis is over and the recession ended in 2009. But one of the federal government's biggest social welfare programs, which expanded when the economy convulsed, isn't shrinking back alongside the recovery," The Wall Street Journal reported in March.

"The biggest factor behind the upward march of food stamps is a sluggish job market and a rising poverty rate. At the same time, many states have pushed to get more people to apply for SNAP, a program where the federal government picks up the tab," the paper noted. "But there is another driver, which has its origins in President Bill Clinton's 1996 welfare overhaul. In recent years, the law has enabled states to ease asset and income tests for would-be participants, with the encouragement of the Obama administration, allowing into the program people with relatively higher incomes as well as savings."

Welcome to Obama's America, where poverty programs designed to provide assistance to the downtrodden while encouraging them to become self-sufficient have been transformed into voter-creation and savings programs - all at the expense of the taxpayer.

If you're one of those taxpayers this should bother you - a lot. Tens of millions of Americans are now subsisting on your hard work, when in fact they could have been - indeed, should have been - subsisting on their own.

Obama once pledged to "fundamentally transform" our country. With congressional assistance and the massive Administrative State, he's doing just that. What those who fell for the "hope and change" message of Obama, circa 2008, never bothered to ask was, "Change from what, to what?"

We're finding out now, aren't we?

Sources:

http://cnsnews.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com

http://online.wsj.com

911 ~ 7 World Trade - Full Circle