NC Police: ATM Picked up by Excavator, Stolen

Police in North Carolina are searching for a man who stole an excavator from a construction site and used it to make off with a 2,000-pound automated teller machine.

According to Winston-Salem police, someone stole the excavator Monday morning and drove it about 200 yards to the ATM. They said the suspect used the claw from the excavator to knock over the ATM kiosk at a credit union, then picked up the machine and lifted it into a pickup truck. It's believed a second car was involved in the theft.

Police said video surveillance revealed that a black Crown Victoria with tinted windows was involved, and that the suspect may be shorter in stature because of the way he had to reach for the steering wheel.

The suspect was still at large Monday evening.

More: http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/nc-police-atm-picked-excavator-stolen-18909721#.UWNPc-XCuaE

Wisconsin legalizes dumpster diving

You ain't gonna do shit

They figured it out.

Who's gonna stop us? Most Americans don't read political websites and blogs. Their kids want milk, they buy milk at the supermarket. A two minute report on CNN is easily forgotten when the latest celebrity scandal breaks.

What are you gonna do if the politician we own puts this law in the books? You ain't gonna do shit.

What are you gonna do if you're making less money now than you were 30 years ago? You ain't gonna do shit.

What are you gonna do if we bust your union? You ain't gonna do shit.

What are you gonna do if we close down the factory that provided your grand father, father and you a means to provide for your families? You ain't gonna do shit.

What are you gonna do if we privatize your rotting town and part out what's left? You ain't gonna do shit.

What are you gonna do if we cut off the social services you now need to survive? You ain't gonna do shit.

What are you gonna do when we steal the Social Security account that you paid into for 50 years? You ain't gonna do shit.

What are you gonna do if you protest and we beat you, arrest you on trumped-up charges and then have Erin Burnett make fun of you? You ain't gonna shit.

And when it's all gone and we're living a life of luxury with the money we took from you? Well, you know the drill.

Suckers.

Iraqi Shiite group says member killed ‘defending holy sites’ in Syria

Source: AP

BAGHDAD —A member of an Iraq Shiite militant group was killed in Syria, an official with the group said Saturday, highlighting how the increasingly sectarian conflict there is drawing in its fragile neighbors that already experience unrest among religious sects.

Other Shiite militias in Iraq have acknowledged sending members to Syria, but it is the first time that the Iraqi Hezbollah has hinted that its members are fighting there.

The fighter, Afrad Mohsen al-Hemedawi, was killed while defending a Shiite holy shrine in Syria, according to the official of the Hezbollah Brigades, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to publicly discuss the issue. The official said the man was killed on March 30 and buried on April 1.

An official statement from the group also confirmed his death.

A video posted on YouTube showed thousands of men and Shiite clerics, clad in robes and turbans, marching at al-Hemedawi’s funeral. Men carried his coffin, which was covered with red flowers and wrapped in the yellow-and-green flag emblazoned with an assault rifle that is the symbol of the Hezbollah Brigades. Young men in black uniforms and caps bearing the Hezbollah Brigades flag walked alongside. Another two men carried a large portrait of the slain fighter.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/iraqi-shiite-group-says-member-killed-defending-holy-sites-in-syria/2013/04/06/88ac97c2-9eb1-11e2-9219-51eb8387e8f1_story.html

Brazil investigates popular ex-president Lula

Source: AFP

BRASILIA — Brazil has opened a probe into claims linking popular ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to a corruption scandal, threatening to cast a shadow over his political legacy and future.

The Public Ministry ordered police Friday to investigate an alleged payoff by Portugal Telecom to the ruling Workers' Party during Lula's first term in office.

Businessman Marcos Valerio Fernandes de Souza has said the former president and ex-finance minister Antonio Palocci negotiated a $7 million payoff in 2005 with the one-time president of a Portuguese phone company through an account in Macau.

Fernandes de Souza received a 40-year sentence last year after he was found to have run much of the scheme that channeled cash to the ruling party.

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5i5SEsqGX-Jtn4rXaVdTzV9qYNb2A?docId=CNG.4977afbd788401653ee5070e95325ef5.3f1

‘First time ever:’ Seattle police give marijuana back to suspected dealers

As the effects of legalizing marijuana under Initiative 502 –both expected and unexpected – begin to surface, one of the more strange scenes had to have been witnessing Seattle police hand marijuana back to suspected drug dealers.

“In street dealing cases, this would be the first time. Ever,” said Seattle PD spokesman Sean Whitcomb.

The odd situation occurred late last week when Seattle police officers conducted a sweep of narcotics dealers on University Avenue in the U-District and six of the 24 people targeted for arrest were given warning letters and then released.

The six released were also handed back the small amount of pot they had on them.

“A number of suspects possessed marijuana collectively totaling 36.8 grams of marijuana,” the department wrote in its blog. “The marijuana was returned to each individual owner because the amount possessed is legally allowed. All marijuana exclusive dealers were read and given a copy of the Admonishment letter.”

More: http://blog.seattlepi.com/marijuana/2013/04/04/%E2%80%98first-time-ever%E2%80%99-seattle-police-give-marijuana-back-to-suspected-dealers/

1,600 Years of Ice in Andes Melted in 25 Years

By JUSTIN GILLIS
The New York Times
April 4, 2012

Glacial ice in the Peruvian Andes that took at least 1,600 years to form has melted in just 25 years, scientists reported Thursday, the latest indication that the recent spike in global temperatures has thrown the natural world out of balance.

The evidence comes from a remarkable find at the margins of the Quelccaya ice cap in Peru, the world’s largest tropical ice sheet. Rapid melting there in the modern era is uncovering plants that were locked in a deep freeze when the glacier advanced many thousands of yearsago.

Dating of those plants, using a radioactive form of carbon in the plant tissues that decays at a known rate, has given scientists an unusually precise method of determining the history of the ice sheet’s margins.

Lonnie G. Thompson, the Ohio State University glaciologist whose team has worked intermittently on the Quelccaya ice cap for decades,reportedthe findings in a paper released onlineThursdayby the journal Science.

More: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/05/world/americas/1600-years-of-ice-in-perus-andes-melted-in-25-years-scientists-say.html

Syrian rebels claim to seize border post

Source: Al Jazeera

Syrian rebels say they have overrun an army garrison that defends the main southern border crossing with Jordan on Friday and vowed to press on to take control of the major transit route.

Fighters from the Free Syrian Army said on Friday that they captured the Um al-Mayathen post on the main Damascus-Jordan highway in heavy fighting overnight that ended a more than week-long siege.

Dozens died in the clashes, they added.

"It [the garrison] is a major defence and now we will lay siege to the border crossing and cut their [the government's] supply lines," Abu Omar, commander of the Lions of the Sunna Brigade, told the Reuters news agency by phone.

Confirming the development, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said: "Rebel fighters took control of the Um al-Mayathen military checkpoint ... in Deraa province in clashes with regime forces.

Read more: http://aje.me/12nKttF

Franklin Roosevelt signing the Social Security Act

Franklin Roosevelt signing the Social Security Act