Tuesday, August 6, 2013

This past Sunday, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn signed into law a bill known as “Rocky’s Law” that requires Illinois high schools, through the local school district, to buy catastrophic injury insurance up to US$3 million or medical costs for up to five years, whichever one comes first, that covers student athletes. The insurance must cover student athletes while they are competing.

The legislation was named after Rasul “Rocky” Clark. In 2000, the Eisenhower High School football player became paralyzed from the waist down as a result of a tackle during a game. His school based health insurance covered the costs of his medical treatment. A legislator sponsoring the bill noted that the need for this type of insurance is rare. Clark’s mother attended the legislation signing. Her son died last year.

Before parents can claim money from school insurance, they first must pay out US$50,000. Schools have until January 1, 2014 to comply with the law. Schools cannot charge students more than US$5 to defray the cost of insurance. If a school district already requires student to be covered through private health insurance, they are exempted from this law.

Sunday, July 2, 2006

A suicide bomber exploded a truck bomb in the crowded Al-Ula market in Sadr City in Baghdad on Saturday, killing 66 people and injuring over a 100.

‘At the beginning of this market, the criminal blew up his dynamite-packed truck after trying to go over the pavement,’ said Iraq’s Deputy Health Minister Sabah al-Hussein.

The explosion happened when a police patrol was passing by and caused heavy casualties in the morning market rush. Some shoppers were sent flying on top of nearby two-storey buildings.

The force of the blast left a large crater and wreckage of blown-out cars and windowless buildings. Rescuers were left to pick through a sickening scene of human remains mixed in with exploded vegetable matter and dead animals.

Sadr City, a Shiite city of two million in which religious leader Moqtada Sadr has found popular support, had many times before been targeted by Sunni terrorists who were blamed by some residents for this attack.

It was the deadliest bombing of civilians since Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki‘s government assumed responsibility for domestic security in May 2006.

Experts said the truck bomb was a lethal concoction of explosives, shells and shrapnel hidden under a consignment of fruit. The driver of the truck blew himself up in the explosion.

See the discussion page for instructions on adding schools to this list and for an alphabetically arranged listing of schools.

Due to the damage by Hurricane Katrina and subsequent flooding, a number of colleges and universities in the New Orleans metropolitan area will not be able to hold classes for the fall 2005 semester. It is estimated that 75,000 to 100,000 students have been displaced. [1]. In response, institutions across the United States and Canada are offering late registration for displaced students so that their academic progress is not unduly delayed. Some are offering free or reduced admission to displaced students. At some universities, especially state universities, this offer is limited to residents of the area.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

“We’re only two days in and we’re already fucking tired,” says Sune Rose Wagner to David Shankbone as he walks into the dressing room at the Bowery Ballroom. Wagner and Sharin Foo comprise the Raveonettes, a group made for “nostalgists who long for Everly Brothers 45’s and diner jukeboxes, the Raveonettes tweak “American Graffiti”-era rock with fuzzed-out surf-guitar riffs,” said The New York Times. They recently left Columbia and signed with Fierce Panda because they felt constrained by their Columbia contract: “The major label system sometimes doesn’t allow for outside “help” to get involved, meaning that we don’t get to choose who we wanna work with. That can be a pretty terrible thing and bad things will surely come of it,” said the band on their MySpace site. Originally from Denmark, both musicians live in the United States now.

Their first EP, Chain Gang of Love, was a critical and commercial success. “Few albums provoke such amazing imagery,” said the BBC. “Pretty in Black is virtually fuzz-free,” said Rolling Stone of their next album, “highlighting the exquisite detail in the Raveonettes’ gift for pastiche: the prowling, garage-surf guitars in Love in a Trashcan; the ghost dance of Red Tan, wrapped in Phil Spector-style sleigh bells.” Of their current album, Lust Lust Lust, set to be released on November 5th (although Amazon says March 4, 2008), Sune told NME that, “There are a lot of songs that deal with desire, restlessness and the tough choices you have to make sometimes.” Fans can hear some of the new material at MySpace.com/TheRaveonettes.

Below is Wikinews reporter David Shankbone’s interview with Sune Rose Wagner and Sharin Foo.

Saturday, July 11, 2009

A plane, carrying blood donations, crashed in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada on Thursday night. The plane, a twin engine PA-31 Piper Navajo departed from Victoria, when it nosedived into a parking lot during its final approach to Vancouver International Airport shortly after 10:00 p.m. PDT (UTC-7).

Witnesses report the plane flying unusually low prior to it crashing and bursting into flames by Bridgeport Road, behind a large Ikea store.

“The plane engine sounded real low, it came almost straight down,” according to The Vancouver Sun who asked witness Darren Van Leeuwen. “The flames shot up 100 feet or more.”

Both of the pilots on-board were killed, it not yet known if there were any other passengers. Royal Canadian Mounted Police Assistant Commissioner Peter German stated that it was very lucky that nobody on the ground was killed.

The cause of the crash is under federal investigation.

Thursday, July 1, 2010

A court in England, UK has jailed a policeman for ten months after he was convicted of defrauding his car insurance company.

Police Constable Simon Hood, 43, arranged for a friend who dealt in scrap metal to dispose of his Audi TT, then claimed it had been stolen.

Hood had been disappointed with the car’s value when he tried to sell it two years after its purchase in 2008. He arranged for friend Peter Marsh, 41, to drive the vehicle to his scrapyard in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. Marsh then dismantled the vehicle with the intent of disposing of it, but parts were later found wrapped in bubblewrap at Ace Tyre and Exhaust Centre.

Marsh picked up the TT from outside nearby Gorleston police station. Records show mobile phone conversations between the conspirators that day in March, both before and after the vehicle was reported stolen. The pair denied wrongdoing but were convicted of conspiring to commit insurance fraud after trial.

The fraud was uncovered after Hood told former girlfriend Suzanne Coates of the scheme. It was alleged before Norwich Crown Court that he had confessed to her in an effort to resume their relationship. Coates said that after the pseudotheft, Hood told her “he didn’t want to look for it. He said it would be like looking for a needle in a haystack, which I thought was a bit strange.”

Shortly afterwards Hood suggested they should become a couple once more, she said; she challenged his version of events regarding the car: “He said he did it but I couldn’t tell anyone. He said he did it with Peter. Peter had a key and took the car away and it was going to be taken to bits and got rid of so it was never found.”

Hood was defended by Michael Clare and Marsh by Richard Potts. Both lawyers told the court that their clients had already suffered as a result of the action in mitigation before sentencing. Clare said Hood had resigned from the police after fifteen years of otherwise good service and risked losing his pension. “It is not a case where his position as a police officer was used in order to facilitate the fraud,” he pointed out. “His career is in ruins.” Hood is now pursuing a career in plumbing.

Potts defended Marsh by saying that he, too, had already suffered from his actions. His own insurers are refusing to renew their contract with him when it expires and his bank withdrew its overdraft facility. His business employs 21 people and Potts cited Marsh’s sponsorship of Great Yarmouth In Bloom as amongst evidence he supported his local community.

Judge Alasdair Darroch told Marsh that he did accept the man was attempting to help his friend. He sentenced Marsh to six months imprisonment, suspended for two years and ordered to carry out 250 hours of community service. He was more critical of Hood:

“As a police officer you know the highest possible standards are demanded by the public. You have let down the force. You knew throughout your career that policemen that get involved in serious dishonesty get sent to prison.”

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Mother’s Day was established on the second Sunday in May by Anna Jarvis after her mother passed away. Former United States President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the inaugural Mother’s Day in 1914.

“Miss Jarvis thought Mother’s Day should be a day you spend with your mother, or a day when you do something special for her like fix her dinner or repair her broken stairs,” said an archivist at Mary Baldwin College. “Mother’s Day has nothing to do with candy,” said Jarvis, “It’s really a shame to waste flowers for Mother’s Day.”

This year again, the American congress approved the observance and requested the president to call upon citizens to partake in the time honoured recognition of this tradition. “I, Barack Obama, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim May 10, 2009, as Mother’s Day. I urge all Americans to express their love, respect, and gratitude to mothers everywhere, and I call upon all citizens to observe this day with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities.”

Tara McDonald, the mother of abducted Woodstock, Ontario eight year old, Victoria (Tori) Stafford, said “I would really hope to have my child home for Mother’s Day.” McDonald said that dealing with Tori’s absence since April 8 has resulted in “times when I sit in my house and bawl my eyes out and I curl up into a ball and I sob.”

61 year old Lynda McDade graduated Saturday from the University of Detroit along with her two daughters.

A mother under court order forbidding her access to her three children for three years was thrown in jail for approaching her child and telling him she loved him. The mother has been accused of turning the children against the father, a rich City financier who now has custody of the family’s children.

Gloria Steele, Acting Assistant Administrator for Global Health honours the 20th anniversary of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), “Women make extraordinary contributions as caregivers and caretakers, as well as breadwinners and bread-makers. By averting maternal death and disability that cost families and communities so much, we can improve the productive capacity of women in their own nations”

Nadya Suleman, known as Octomom is spending this mother’s day weekend in a California hospital undergoing uterine surgery. This operation will also make Suleman’s family complete with fourteen children as she will no longer be able to physcially conceive a child following the surgery.

Mary Ann Wright, known as “Mother Wright”, died Thursday in Oakland, California, but not before achieving renown as advocate for the poor, and feeding the hungry. She founded the Mother May Ann Wright Foundation from her modest beginnings sparing meals to others while subsisting herself on Social Security checks.

Maree Vaile is a mother of three who was humbled by New Zealand’s Mother of the Year award. Her husband and children recognised the adversity the family has overcome and wanted to show their appreciation by nominating her in the “Mums on Top” online competition.

In Taiwan, students from South Taiwan who attend University in North Taiwan could board a special train provided by the Taiwan Railway Adminsitration so they could visit their mothers on Mother’s Day. “Give your mother a hug, a big and strong hug, because love is not only a noun, it is also a verb,” President Ma Ying-jeou said, “The older mothers grow, the greater is their need to feel needed. So we should show our love for our mother.”

Friday, May 6, 2005

Romania’s National Authority for Tourism (ANT) announced that they would promote tourism in Romania through a new branding strategy, in collaboration with the United States Agency for International Development. The director of ANT, Marius Critonescu, said that the branding exercise will be “a significant component of the Romania’s development as a new tourist destination of international level.” He also added that the development of an integrated brand for Romanian tourism will promote a more positive image for the country, thereby increasing the number of tourists and investors. In recent times, there has been quite a lot of investment in “national branding”, especially in the field of tourism, as most marketing experts believe that branding for a product or a country is theoretically the same thing, and that the same strategies and approach should be used for both.

Concerning the Romanian tourism rebranding, international tourism and marketing expert James MacGregor stated that, “We have to touch the hearts and souls of the contemporary tourists who no longer travel for a simple beach or ski track. They want to live a self-knowledge experience that is truly uplifting and will leave unforgettable memories. The brand must show them not what they will see or do as tourists but what they will feel when visiting Romania.”