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Fire burns home of late singer Johnny Cash

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

A fast-moving fire engulfed the home of late singer Johnny Cash on Tuesday. The lake-side home, located in Hendersonville, Tennessee, was the home of the late singer and his wife, June Carter, from the late 1960s until their deaths in 2003.

The home was purchased by former Bee Gees singer Barry Gibb in 2006, and was undergoing renovations at the time. The cause of the fire is unknown at this time, but it is believed that a flammable wood preservative that construction workers had applied contributed to the speed in which the flames spread. Firefighters responded within 5 minutes of the fire breaking out. No workers were killed in the fire, but one firefighter suffered minor injuries.

“Maybe it’s the good Lord’s way to make sure that it was only Johnny’s house,” said Richard Sterban of The Oak Ridge Boys, who lived down the road from Cash. Neighbor Marty Stewart said “So many prominent things and prominent people in American history took place in that house—everyone from Billy Graham to Bob Dylan went into that house.” The home was where Cash wrote many of his hit songs, and appeared in the Cash music video for “Hurt“.

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U.S. Supreme Court upholds health care mandate

Thursday, June 28, 2012

In a decision today, the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the controversial healthcare law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, passed in 2010. The Supreme Court also upheld the individual mandate provision of the law, which would require most U.S. citizens to obtain health insurance by 2014, or pay a monetary penalty.

The Supreme Court ruled on the law 5–4. Chief Justice John Roberts authored the majority opinion. Justices Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor jointed Roberts in the majority, while Samuel Alito, Anthony Kennedy, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas were in the minority in supporting the repeal of the law.

The Court did, however, strike down a provision of the law which would have expanded Medicaid to make coverage available to anyone with an income less than 138% of the federal poverty line.

President Barack Obama made a public statement from the White House saying that the Supreme Court’s upholding of the law, “reaffirmed a fundamental principle that here in America — in the wealthiest nation on Earth – no illness or accident should lead to any family’s financial ruin.” Obama further added, “Whatever the politics, today’s decision was a victory for people all over this country whose lives will be more secure because of this law and the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold it.” Obama closed his statement by saying, “The highest Court in the land has now spoken. We will continue to implement this law. And we’ll work together to improve on it where we can. But what we won’t do — what the country can’t afford to do — is refight the political battles of two years ago, or go back to the way things were.” Adding, “With today’s announcement, it’s time for us to move forward — to implement and, where necessary, improve on this law.”

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney also gave a statement from Washington, D.C. saying, “What the Court did not do on its last day in session, I will do on my first day if elected President of the United States. And that is I will act to repeal Obamacare.” Romney clarified further by saying, “Let’s make clear that we understand what the Court did and did not do. What the Court did today was say that Obamacare does not violate the Constitution. What they did not do was say that Obamacare is good law or that it’s good policy.” Further adding, “Obamacare was bad policy yesterday. It’s bad policy today. Obamacare was bad law yesterday. It’s bad law today.” Romney closed by saying, “Our mission is clear: If we want to get rid of Obamacare, we’re going to have to replace President Obama.”

Eric Cantor, Republican leader in the U.S. House of Representatives, announced shortly after the ruling that the House would vote on repealing the law on July 11, following the July 4 holiday recess. Cantor said, “The Supreme Court’s decision to uphold Obamacare is a crushing blow to patients throughout the country. Obamacare has failed to keep the President’s basic promise of allowing those who like their health care to keep it, while increasing costs and reducing access to quality care for patients.”

In the ruling of National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, John Roberts wrote, “Simply put, Congress may tax and spend. The federal government may enact a tax on an activity that it cannot authorize, forbid or otherwise control.” Meanwhile, Justice Anthony Kennedy authored the dissenting opinion, saying the entire law should have been repealed.

The ruling on the law comes after 26 states challenged the law in oral arguments in front of the Supreme Court in March.

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Meat Processing Industry To Promote The Progress In Sensible Way

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Meat Processing Industry to Promote the Progress in Sensible Way

Mst.Mariam Begum

The meat packing industry handles the slaughtering, processing and distribution of animals such as cattle, pigs, sheep and other livestock. The industry is primarily focused on producing meat for human consumption, but it also yields a variety of by-products including hides, feathers, dried blood, and, through the process of rendering, fat such as tallow and protein meals such as meat & bone meal.

In the U.S. and some other countries, the facility where the meat packing is done is called a meat packing plant; in New Zealand, where most of the products are exported, it is called a freezing works. An abattoir is a place where animals are slaughtered for food. The meat packing industry grew with the construction of the railroads and methods of refrigeration. Railroads made possible the transport of stock to central points for processing, and the transport of products throughout the nation.

Mid-century restructuring by the industry of the stockyards, slaughterhouses and processing led to relocating facilities closer to cattle feedlots and swine production facilities, to more rural areas, as transportation shifted from rail to truck. It has been difficult for labor to organize in such locations. In addition, the number of jobs fell sharply through technology and other changes. The meat packing industry has made many improvements since the early 1900s; extensive changes in the industry since the late 20th century have caused new labor issues to arise. Today, the rate of injury in the meat packing industry is three times that of private industry overall.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDjfunr2lK4[/youtube]

Canada’s slaughtering and meat-processing sector comprises livestock slaughter and carcass dressing, secondary processors who manufacture and package meat products for retail sale, and purveyors that prepare portion-ready cuts for hotel, restaurant and institutional food service. Products include fresh, chilled or frozen meats; cured meats; fresh and cooked sausage; canned meat preparations; animal oils and fats; and tank-house products such as bone and meat meal.

Meat processing has always been among Canada’s most regulated industries. The Superior Council of New France established regulations in 1706 to control the sale of meat in different seasons and required that butchers advise a colonial official prior to the slaughter of a food animal. Inspection was required to ensure that the animal was healthy and that its meat would be fit for sale. By 1805, Lower Canada had passed an Act to Regulate the Curing, Packing and Inspection of Beef and Pork. This legislation specified the weight and quality of meat cuts included in the pack, the quality of the barrels, and the amount of preservative required in the pickle.

In the early nineteenth century most meat originated with farm slaughter and village butchers, but meatpacking for export and to provision ships was becoming appreciable. By the 1850s production scale began to increase and butcher craftsmen established retail enterprises and meat-packing concerns to exploit the British bacon market. Hogs were slaughtered, the carcasses were dressed, and red meat was cured and packed in barrels filled with brine during the winter months.

As meat processing industrialized, hundreds of the smallest butcher firms were absorbed by larger enterprises, which sought out international markets for their meat exports. By 1900 only 57 packing facilities remained, but over the preceding decade capital investment more than doubled, employment jumped from 1,700 to 2,400, and sales climbed to a new peak of $22.2 million. The last decade of the nineteenth century saw beef processing grow to opponent pork.

The development of industrial meat packing in the American Midwest during the 1870s influenced meat processing in Canada. A growing railway network enabled the procurement of livestock from a vast hinterland and the distribution of chilled meat using reefer cars. Meat processing grew rapidly during World War I and many packers earned windfall profits. But the industry was left with surplus capacity in the 1920s, which prompted the withdrawal of several large American meat packers from the Canadian market and the creation of Canada Packers.

When a large group of cattle is ready for sale, their owner obtains bids from meat packers. A packing company buyer visits the feedlot and looks over the cows before making his bid. The owner makes sure the price is satisfactory by listening to market reports on the radio and getting bids from other meat-packers. When the owner and packing company agree upon a price, the cattle is shipped to the company’s plant.

Most meat-packing plants are located near the source of cattle. The largest plants are located in Kansas and Nebraska, where most cows are bred and raised. Most cows are, therefore, transported to the plants by truck or rail. When a cow arrives at the meat-packing plant, it is rested and watered before inspection by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). They want to make sure the cows are healthy and do not have any health problems that could taint the meat. The goals of killing and taking apart cattle are to slaughter each animal humanely, efficiently, and hygienically. The treatment of the animals before slaughter and the hygiene of the meat after slaughter is closely monitored by the USDA.

Meat goes through more than 25 processes before it is ready to be sold to a butcher or supermarket. These processes are carried out very quickly by skilled workers. Some cattle plants can slaughter up to 150 cows in one hour. First, a cow is confined in a small pen and made unconscious by a mechanical stunner. Workers then kill the cow by shooting it in the head. They suspend the carcass of the dead cow from an overhead rail for the dressing processes. In dressing, workers bleed the cow and remove its hide and appendages. A fine mist of an acidic solution, usually vinegar and water, as well as an alkaline solution called tri-sodium phosphate (TSP) are sprayed on the carcass after the hide is removed. This process prevents certain bacteria from attaching to the outside of the carcass.

National Beef Packing Company is one of the largest beef processing companies in the United States, processing and marketing fresh beef and beef by-products across the U.S. and internationally. Their processing facilities in Dodge City, Kansas and Liberal, Kansas along with our Brawley, California facility provides beef products to retailers, food service providers, distributors and further processors. This company also provides further processed and packaged meat for a broad spectrum of customer needs and specifications. We continue to develop core capabilities and drive value for the products we deliver to the marketplace.

Mst. Mariam Begum, Content Writer, Bee IT Ltd.

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Augusten Burroughs on addiction, writing, his family and his new book

Friday, October 12, 2007

I had an unofficial phone call from Gay Talese last Tuesday. He had just flown back from Colombia and he was cranky. “I’m happy to do an interview with you,” he said, “but what the hell could you ask me that’s not already out there? Have you even bothered to look?!”

“Jeez, Mr. Talese, lots of things,” was my response. I lied. The truth is that when I call people to interview them, I do not have a set of preconceived questions. My agenda is to talk to them and gain a sense of who they are; to flesh them out as humans. To find out what they think about the world around them at that moment. With Gay Talese I had little interest in talking about Frank Sinatra Has a Cold and with Augusten Burroughs I had little interest in discussing Running with Scissors. I want to know what they think about things outside of the boxes people have placed them in.

With a memoirist like Burroughs, even this is a challenge. What parts of his life he has not written about himself, other interviewers have strip-mined. When we met for dinner at Lavagna in the East Village, I explained to Augusten this issue. I suggested we make the interview more of a conversation to see if that would be more interesting. “Instead of you in the catbird seat,” I said, “let’s just talk.”

We struck an instant rapport. What set out to be an hour and half interview over dinner had turned into four hours of discussion about our lives similarly lived. I removed half of the interview: the half that focused on me.

Below is Wikinews reporter David Shankbone’s conversation with writer Augusten Burroughs.

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Mexico authorities find over four dozen corpses

Monday, May 14, 2012

Authorities in Mexico have discovered 49 headless and dismembered dead bodies abandoned on the side of a road at the entryway to San Juan, a town located within Cadereyta Jiménez municipality. The bodies, six female and the other 43 male, were discovered by police at approximately 0400 CDT (0900 UTC) yesterday.

Speaking on behalf for security in the state of Nuevo León, Jorge Domene said, “We know from the characteristics that this is the result of violence between criminal gangs,” clarifying that this was not “an attack on the civilian population”. A spray-painted notice that read “100% Zeta,” referring to the Los Zetas drug cartel, was sighted on an archway where the incident occurred and is a sign that killings were linked to a dispute between drug cartels. Domene said the sign is typically a method Los Zetas uses when it takes responsibility.

Adrian de la Garza, a state prosecutor, has commented on the possibility of the individuals being killed as long ago as Friday and in a different location from where the bodies were discovered. He said he is still considering the possibility of those killed being migrants from Central America who intended to travel to the United States.

Both Domene and de la Garza said identification of the bodies will be difficult because the bodies were found headless and with their extremities removed. The corpses have been referred to the city of Monterrey for DNA profiling.

According to BBC News Online, Los Zetas is in a conflict with the Sinaloa Cartel and Gulf Cartel over drug transportation paths leading towards the United States, with all cartels attempting to gain control of the road paths. The road on which the discovery was made lies between Monterrey in the state of Nuevo León and the city of Reynosa, located close to the Mexico–United States border, in the state of Tamaulipas. National Autonomous University of Mexico security expert Raul Benitez Manaut described the conflict between the cartels as “the most definitive of all the cartel wars”.

On Wednesday, a discovery of a similar nature occurred when eighteen beheaded and mutilated corpses were discovered within two deserted vehicles near the city of Guadalajara. In a separate incident on May 4, 23 corpses were found in the city of Nuevo Laredo, fourteen of which were without heads. Over 47,500 fatalities have been recorded since the commencement of the Mexican Drug War in December 2006.

Map of Nuevo León within Mexico Image: Yavidaxiu.

Map of Tamaulipas within Mexico Image: Yavidaxiu.

Map of Mexico highlighting the city of Monterrey Image: Mixcoatl.

Map of Mexico highlighting the city of Reynosa Image: Mixcoatl.

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Manson Family leader Charles Manson to seek parole in California murders

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Leader of the Manson Family cult Charles Manson, who has tried to get parole 11 times, will have another opportunity to seek it again Wednesday, for his life sentence for his 1969 slayings of actress Sharon Tate and six others. The 77 year old’s last parole hearing occurred in 2007.

Manson didn’t go to his last parole hearing in 2007, saying that he was a “prisoner of the political system.” He isn’t expected to attend the Wednesday hearing either, according to a spokesperson at Corcoran State Prison.

The district attorney’s office in Los Angeles said it strongly opposed Manson’s release.

“We consistently (opposed parole) and will continue to do so,” spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said.

Manson has hoarded cell phones in his cell, and they were confiscated by the guards. Thirty days were added to his sentence for this offence. In 2009, Manson called people in California, New Jersey, and Florida with an LG flip phone found under his bed.

Guards found a second cell phone a year later, and a homemade weapon was found as well.

Manson was found guilty of telling a group of his followers to break into the home Roman Polanski and his wife Sharon Tate were renting in a town near Beverly Hills. The followers killed Tate and all six of the people at her home.

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Storage New York Provides Complete Solutions To Relocation

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Storage New York provides complete solutions to relocation

claudia white

Moving ahead in life is something that everybody goes through. Some experience it at an early stage in life and some experience it with age. Even reasons for moving ahead in life can be diversified, as in one can move ahead in life in terms of position or designation, in terms of relations and in terms places. Out of all the reasons for moving ahead in life, moving from one place to the other is the most tedious one. Apart from being tedious, it also takes a lot of time and is indeed, a difficult job to handle. But then all these things should not become a hindrance in your shifting from one place to the other. If you are planning to relocate somewhere in New York then the best option for you is Storage New York.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfcWNOWUit8[/youtube]

There are ample of movers and packers throughout New York and to locate them is not a very difficult task. The basic work of these storage New York companies is to facilitate your shifting from one place to the other and make the process a more eased out one. It is very easy to get the services of a storage New York company as there are many of them who are ready to provide their services. But before you decide which storage company of New York you would like to hire you will have do a little bit of study. See the basic work of a storage New York company is to store and shift your things.

The way these storage New York companies work is really professional and they never give you a chance for complaint. They take up all the responsibilities and make relocation a better and an easier process for you. There are many storage companies in New York and when you need one you will have to look for that particular storage New York company who can deliver the accurate services according to your needs. Once you finalize the storage company you will have to give them a prior notice of around a fortnight s time so that they can do the needful arrangements. Moreover it is much better to hire the services of a storage New York company because the entire process of shifting from one place to the other is really tiresome and your patience can be easily tested. But these storage companies of New York can really ease out all your troubles of shifting from one place to the other and you can be rest assured of good services.

Basically, these storage companies will initially store all the things that are needed to be shifted and then they will help you in relocating from one place to the other. Basically a storage New York company helps to ease out all the problems with relocation. These storage New York companies provide a storage space in their warehouses where your stuff will be stored and you can be relaxed about the fact that your stuff are in safe hands. Locating a storage New York company is an easy job as they advertise themselves through newspapers or through the internet.

Claudia White works is proficient in chalking out different ways that can make the process of relocation easier. For more information on Moving New York, New York moving company, corporate relocation, corporate company relocation, storage New York log on to

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Microsoft releases Internet Explorer 9 browser

Friday, March 18, 2011

At 9:00 p.m. PDT Monday (0400 UTC Tuesday), Microsoft rolled out the first stable Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) release, available in 39 languages, for Windows Vista and Windows 7. Internet Explorer is the most used web browser, responsible for 56% of webpage hits. The new version adds support for new technologies with relation to the HTML5 specification and several feature changes. The browser was released as a beta with a campaign promoting the benefits of HTML5.

It includes support for SVG and the HTML5 canvas, audio, and video tags. It has a failing Acid3 score of 95/100, below Mozilla Firefox 4.0’s 97/100, rating and the 100/100 in Google Chrome 10. The program is the first of its series not to run on Microsoft Windows XP. It includes a redesigned layout of the address bar and the ability to pin sites to the taskbar on Windows 7, along with several minor improvements.

The browser received mixed reviews. “IE9 as a Consumer Browser — Not Worth It,” Jason Mick, DailyTech, concluded. A study by Which? on Tuesday showed that IE9’s Tracking Protection Lists, an optional anti-tracking feature, may mislead users. “We’re disappointed with the way these lists work, and feel consumers who install multiple lists could be left with a false sense of security.” Dr. Rob Reid, Which? Policy senior advisor, said.

In a more positive review, a PC Magazine reviewer said that the positives of the new browser outweighed the negatives, and it is “a major improvement over its predecessor.”

The announcement comes after the company launched a campaign to get Internet Explorer 6 usage down to 1%. Microsoft delayed the Japanese release “to reduce load on network bandwidth at such a critical time” with reference to the earthquake and tsunami in Japan this past Friday.

Retrieved from “https://en.wikinews.org/w/index.php?title=Microsoft_releases_Internet_Explorer_9_browser&oldid=4617450”

US Senate finance committee to vote on health care bill

Friday, October 9, 2009

US Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has said that the Senate Finance Committee will vote on a sweeping health care reform bill next Tuesday. US President Barack Obama has made clear that extending health insurance coverage to as many Americans as possible is his top domestic priority.

Republican lawmakers, however, are still overwhelmingly opposed to the bill, saying it is too expensive and would expand the role of government in people’s health care.

Obama and his fellow Democrats in the Senate received some good news late Wednesday from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, which put the total cost of the Senate Finance Committee’s health care bill at $829 billion over the next decade, below Obama’s stated goal of $900 billion. The budget watchdog organization also said the health care bill would help reduce the federal budget deficit over the next ten years.

Harry Reid said he believed health care reform was moving forward. “And so today we stand closer than ever to fulfilling that fundamental promise, one for which we have fought for more than 60 years,” he said.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, however said that the cost estimate was “irrelevant”, because the final bill that will actually emerge from both houses of Congress is likely to look very different and cost a lot more. “What matters is that the final bill will cost about a trillion dollars, vastly expand the role of government in people’s health care decisions, increase premiums and limit choice,” McConnell said.

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McConnell said Republicans favor a step by step approach to health care reform, focusing on prevention and wellness programs and dealing with the high costs of malpractice insurance doctors have to pay due to fears of excessive lawsuits.

Under the Finance Committee’s bill, US residents would be required to get health insurance or face a penalty, and insurance companies would face tough new regulations. For example, insurance companies could no longer reject coverage for people due to pre-existing conditions.

The Senate Finance Committee is likely to pass the bill, which will then have to be merged with one passed by the Senate health committee before it goes to the full Senate floor for debate.

Retrieved from “https://en.wikinews.org/w/index.php?title=US_Senate_finance_committee_to_vote_on_health_care_bill&oldid=3567455”

IEEE approves 802.11n standard after six years

Saturday, September 12, 2009

On Friday, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) ratified the next generation of Wi-Fi Alliance certification known as 802.11n. The path to ratification began on September 11, 2003 with 11 major drafts of the specification over the course of six years. Even though just approved, wireless devices have been available on the the market for over two years, running on what is known as “draft n” or “pre-N”.

The 802.11n standard operates on both the 2.4Ghz and 5.0Ghz frequencies. This will allow it to be backwards compatible with 802.11a, 802.11b and 802.11g, provided that the base station has dual radios. The speeds of 802.11n are substantially faster than that of its predecessors with a maximum theoretical throughput of 600Mbit/s.

Very few additions were made to the 802.11n draft standard over the last two years, so most if not all “draft n” hardware available on the market today is expected to be compatible with n-standard devices available in the future. In a similar process of the upgrade from “pre-G” to 802.11g, it is expected that most manufacturers of wireless hardware will release new firmware to bring all draft devices up to full standard compliance.

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