- You’re not helping America’s cokeheads, Drug Enforcement Administration, you’re hurting them and you shouldn’t be arresting more than a dozen members of one of Mexico’s most notorious drug cartels, man. After these hard-working cartel members went to tall the effort to set up up a cocaine "command and control" center in Chicago, the DEA decided that they would look to shoot those efforts to hell by securing indictments against these 15 entrepreneurs and looking to shut down their operation. Friday a federal grand jury in Chicago issued indictments for 15 defendants, alleging that they are in business with La Familia Michoacana. This supposed operation was to distribute multi-thousand kilo quantities for the cartel and collect tens of millions of dollars in Chicago from cocaine sales. According to officials from the U.S. Attorney's office in Chicago, the DEA seized approximately 250 kilograms of cocaine and $8 million in cash from homes in suburban neighborhoods, including Berwyn, Bolingbrook, Oak Lawn, Hickory Hills, Joliet and Justice. The multi-agency investigation that led to these indictments began in 2007 under the heading of Project Coronado. Its singular focus was La Familia's distribution network throughout the United States. just last month, Project Coronado resulted in federal charges against more than 300 defendants in 19 states. For the drug-cartel uneducated, the La Familia cartel is based in the state of Michoacan, in southwestern Mexico. The cartel is accused of importing mass quantities of cocaine from Mexico into the United States, supplying the wants of friendly neighborhood cokeheads around the U.S. All 15 of the defendants indicted and charged by the grand jury face charges of conspiracy to possess and distribute multi-kilogram quantities of cocaine. Five other alleged participants in the conspiracy were charged previously, so the total number of (alleged) cartel members facing criminal charges now rests at 20. What does this mean for the average, recession-impacted cokehead on the street? That’s difficult to say, but I’m certain that this isn't going to bring down the price of an eight-ball of coke or a dime bag……….
- Here we go, yet more proof that Facebook is a freaking weapon of death in the hands of idiots who don’t know how to properly use it. Meet Nathalie Blanchard, a Canadian woman on long-term sick leave for depression who lost her benefits because her insurance agent found photos of her on Facebook in which she appeared to be having fun. Blanchard, who lives in Bromont, Quebec, was diagnosed with major depression and was receiving monthly sick-leave benefits from insurance giant Manulife while on leave from IBM. For some odd reason, her insurance agent was able to access her Facebook page and found several pictures Blanchard posted on Facebook, including ones showing her having a good time at a Chippendales bar show, at her birthday party and on a sun holiday. Let me stop right here, because this is what I’m referring to when I speak about idiots who don’t know how to use Facebook. One of two things happened here: 1) Blanchard made the indefensible choice of having her insurance agent as a friend on Facebook or 2) she’s a tool who doenst know how to set the security controls on her Facebook account in order to prevent anyone but her friends from looking at her pictures and videos. The first option is terrible because who the hell is Facebook friends with their insurance agent? Are insurance agents the sort of people you regularly hang out with, play beer pong with, go golfing with or watch football with on Sunday afternoons? Don’t freaking friend your insurance agent on Facebook, y’all. Now, if the second option is what happened (and I’d say it’s more likely), then Blanchard is simply a moron who deserves whatever she gets. In case anyone doesn’t know, it’s very easy to set the privacy controls on your Facebook account to prevent anyone but your friends from viewing your Facebook page, pictures, videos and information. Literally, it takes less than a minute and it can prevent things like losing your insurance benefits because you’re supposedly suffering from depression and were photographed at a Chippendales show at a local bar. You can go to those sorts of events, just make sure that you aren’t photographed or that the pictures don’t show up on a Facebook page where anyone can find them. Insurance companies are looking for any and every chance to deny coverage and rip your benefits, so if they have to go on social networking sites to find the proof they need, they will do it. That’s how Manulife was able to rip Blanchard’s benefits, with payments stopping this fall. When she called Manulife, Blanchard says she was told she was available to work because of Facebook. She has retained an attorney and that attorney is arguing that Blanchard merely followed her doctor’s advice to try to have fun, including nights out at her local bar with friends and short getaways to sun destinations, as a way to forget her problems. To be fair to Manulife, the company claims it would never deny or terminate a claim solely based on information published on Web sites such as Facebook. This is a situation where there are no real winners; Blanchard is a brain-dead idiot who is either careless or clueless and thus totally unsympathetic and Manulife is simply another corporate giant looking to pad its bottom line by any means possible………
- Here it is, everyone! The “must have” Christmas item that you can wait in line hours on end for, brawl with other shoppers over and possibly go to jail for after you violently assault another parent for the last one on the shelf on Christmas Eve. It’s the Zhu Zhu Peta fuzzy, robotic hamster that have been selling out across the country just as quickly as stores can stock them. Shoppers looking for the furry robots at the Times Square Toys R Us in Manhattan on a recent Wednesday found the shelves devoid of Zhu Zhu Pets and were informed that the store would have no more until the next shipment arrived Friday. Wal-Mart and Target stores across the country are also sold out of the toys and the National Retail Federation recently listed Zhu Zhu among the top 10 holiday toys. Of course, some shoppers are undoubtedly buying the toys for the purpose of reselling them on eBay for prices as high as $100. The company behind the mechanized rodents is Cepia, a small, St. Louis-based founded by Russell Hornsby, 56, who got his start in the toy industry as a designer for Mattel 35 years ago. His inspiration for the toys was apparently watching hundreds of hours of video of live hamsters on YouTube. Should you be able to find one on the shelves of a local toy store, the cost is a mere $9.99 apiece. The Zhu Zhu Pets even have names, albeit idiotic names like Mr. Squiggles and Pipsqueak. They wiggle their noses and actually move just like real hamsters, which is facilitated by molded plastic -- called bump codes – that line the underside of each hamster to prevent the furry creatures from repeating the same moves over and over again. "What makes them so great is that they are unpredictable," says Hornsby’s daughter Natalie, who heads Cepia's marketing department. In spite of their current run of success, Russell Hornsby had an incredibly difficult fight convincing any toy retailers to sell them in stores. After creating his first prototype in early 2008, he wasn’t able to find a taker until a couple months ago, when he convinced Toys R Us to test-market Zhu in a handful of Phoenix stores. All the Zhu Zhus sold out in two weeks, spurring the Toys R Us to order as many Zhu Zhu Pets as Hornsby could churn out. That turned out to be both a blessing and an immense challenge for Hornsby, who was forced to hit up family members, including his oldest daughter and wife, to raise more money so he could produce enough Zhu Zhu Pets to satisfy demand. Now, Cepia has 16 employees and expects to sell as many as 10 million hamsters this year. A little something to remember as you wait in line for one on Black Friday and prepare to brawl with other shoppers over the last Mr. Squiggles……….
- Two words for you, Denver Broncos fans, on your team’s annual collapse that has manifested itself much earlier than normal this season: Uh-oh! At least last year, the Broncos gave the illusion that they would make the playoffs and possibly even win their division right up until the final weeks of the season. This year, they are foregoing ripping out their fans’ hearts with a late-season choke job and instead frittering away a seemingly insurmountable division lead in the AFC West before the calendar even hits December. After firing out of the gate 6-0, beating four playoff teams and stunning everyone around the NFL, the Broncos have summarily dropped four in a row, including a 32-3 pummeling Sunday at home to AFC West rival San Diego that handed control of the division to the Chargers. All four of the losses have been by double digits, with the average margin of defeat a meaty 20 points. A defense that was incredibly stout in the first six games has given up at least 27 points per game the last four weeks, while the offense has been plagued by the injury problems of quarterback Kyle Orton, Orton’s noodle arm that prevents him from throwing downfield too much and a suddenly shrinking running game. They’ve lost at home (twice) and they’ve lost on the road (twice). Sadly, many observers and fans never bought into the new-look Broncos and were merely biding time, waiting for this collapse. Most in the football world never got a chance to enjoy the possible reinvention of the team because they had ample evidence that it wouldn’t last. Those doomsday predictions have proven true and now that they are a game behind the Chargers in the division and in a crowded wild-card battle with a slew of other teams, the season could well be a lost cause in Denver. There may be a new coach (the previously crowned genius, Josh McDaniels), a new quarterback (Orton in lieu of the departed Jay Cutler) and a roster with dozens of new faces, but to everyone who even casually follows football, they are, at the core, the same old Broncos………
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