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Former Democratic State Senator Don Perata's Daughter-In-Law Was Found Dead

5/13/2013

Former Democratic State Senator Don Perata's daughter in law, Catherine Perata was found dead on Saturday. The 38 year old was found drowned in her swimming pool.

Investigators are waiting for toxicology reports, but that could take several weeks. In 2009 Catherine Perata and husband Nick, who is the son of Don Perata, founded Perata Luxury Tours & Car Services. Don Perata was President pro tempore of the California State Senate from 2004 to 2008. Read more www.insidebayarea.com

Robert Chaney Borrowed $3,000 In Payday Loans He Now Owes $12,000

5/12/2013

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Payday loans for some can be a downward spiral. No one knows that better than Boise resident, 66 year old Veteran Raymond Chaney.

Raymond who survives off of his social security, can barely make ends meet each month. After his basic living expenses are paid for, their is no money left over to save for an emergency. Last November an emergency happened. Chaney's car broke down, and the Veteran borrowed money from an Internet Company to pay for the repairs. When the loan came due two weeks later, Chaney could not pay the loan back, so he renewed it.

As the weeks went on, Chaney took out several more loans to pay for bank fees and expenses. Within three months the lenders put a hold on his checking account, and as a part of the loan disclosure, they drained him for every cent of his Social Security check. Chaney was evicted, and the $3,000 that he initially borrowed had tripled to $12,000.

The war veteran is now homeless and living in a Boise rescue mission. Chaney acknowledging that dealing with payday lenders was a big mistake says “I’m not dumb, but I did a dumb thing."

Million of Americans take out these "Alternative Financial Services" loans each year. They are high interest and can get out of control really quickly. Payday loans have to be paid back in full , in 14 days. Each time you take out a loan you are charged a minimum fee of 15%. At the end of two weeks, most borrowers do not have the money to pay back the initial loan. So they end up taking out another loan to cover the one that they currently owe.
Read more at www.inplainsight.nbcnews.com

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Retired Australian Miner Finds A 306-Carat Opal

5/11/2013

After a long and hard year, an Australian miner decided that it was time to sell his tools and retire. Before he was done, someone handed him one last bucket of dirt. In the middle of the dirt, Bobby saw something shiny. With a dentist tool in hand, Bobby spent six months slowly chipping away at the rock. He was astonished at what he discovered.

A stunning 306-carat Opal. Bobby has employed an Australian Jewelry Designer to help he sell the precious Gem. What a nice retirement gift.
See Video of the Opal at www.cnn.com

A Real Life Flying Car?

5/11/2013

No we are not in the land of the Jetsons just yet. But Aerospace Company Terrafugia based in Woburn, Massachussetts said that we are almost there. This week they announced that they are really close to giving the world a flying car. This futuristic flying vehicle can take off and land vertically. The TF-X will be a four seat, plug in hybrid electric vehicle.

In a media statement, Terrafugia CEO Carl Dietrich said that “We are passionate about continuing to lead the creation of a flying car industry and are dedicating resources to lay the foundations for our vision of personal transportation. Terrafugia is about increasing the level of safety, simplicity, and convenience of aviation. TF-X is an opportunity to provide the world with a new dimension of personal freedom."

The company has already created the "Transition" a vehicle that is capable of flying in and out of airports. The first aircraft was successfully tested in 2009. Th second generation "Transition" performed a driving and flying demo last year.
Read more at www.whatsnext.blogs.cnn.com

Aesha Mohammadzai Is Recovering After Her Taliban Husband Cut Off Her Ears And Nose

5/11/2013

In August 2010, a young Afghan women by the name of Aesha first appeared on the cover of Time Magazine. When Aesha was 12 years old, she was forced to marry a member of the Taliban. Subject to years of abuse by her Taliban husband and his family, she desperately tried to escape her tormentors. Aesha ran for her life. Unfortunately, she was soon found and thrown in jail. A Judge wanted to make an example out of her so that other Afghan women would not attempt the same thing. After Aesha spent 5 months in jail she was returned to her Taliban husband. He said that her punishment was to be that her nose and ears were going to be cut off.

Assisted by her husband's family Aesha's arms and feet were tied and the horrifying ordeal began. Aesha remembers passing out from the pain. When she awoke, she managed to crawl to her grandfathers' house. Aesha received aid at an American medical facility. She then traveled to the U.S. where the process of reconstructive surgery began.
Read more at www.cnn.com

Women Survived 16 Days Buried In The Rubble Of Collapsed Building In Bangladesh

5/11/2013

Yesterday, a woman was pulled from the rubble 16 days after the Rana Complex high rise collapsed in Bangladesh. Seamstress Reshman Begum is married and has one son. She was buried in a mosque in the building's basement.

While in the hospital, Reshman Begum told TV station Somoy "I heard voices of the rescue workers for the past several days. I kept hitting the wreckage with sticks and rods just to attract their attention. No one heard me. It was so bad for me. I never dreamed I'd see the daylight again."

She said that she survived on dry food. "There was some dried food around me. I ate the dried food for 15 days. The last two days I had nothing but water. I used to drink only a limited quantity of water to save it. I had some bottles of water around me." Read more at www.cnn.com

First Responder In Texas Fertilizer Plant Explosion Charged With Possessing An Explosive Device

5/11/2013

Paramedic Bryce Reed, a first responder in the Texas Fertilizer Plant Explosion was charged today with possessing a destructive device. Bryce Reed works with the West Texas, EMS. This morning he appeared in federal court in Waco, Texas.

Authorities were called to to a residence in Abbot, Texas on Tuesday. They recovered powders, metals and canisters filled with bomb making materials. In an affidavit from the Bureau Of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, it was stated that officers found canisters of fuses, a metal pipe, a lighter, a digital scale, a plastic spoon, coils of metal and several pounds of chemicals. The homeowner said that he had unknowingly accepted the materials from Reed on April 26th. According to court documents, Reed admitted to possessing the materials found.

Reed was not charged today for any crime in connection with the explosion that killed 15 people and injured over 150 on April 17th.

The Texas Department of Public Safety announced this morning that it is opening up a criminal investigation. TDP Director Steven McCraw stated "This disaster has severely impacted the community of West, and we want to ensure that no stone goes unturned and that all the facts related to this incident are uncovered.
Read more at www.abcnews.go.com

Thieves Steal $45 Million From A.T.M.

5/10/2013

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This picture was taken in March. Their names are York Elvis Rafael Rodriguez and Emir Yasser Yeje. Yesterday in Brooklyn they were charged with stealing
$45 million dollars from thousands of Automatic Teller Machines. Authorities say that this was one of the most sophisticated cyberattacks in history.

Loretta E. Lynch, the United States attorney in Brooklyn
said “In the place of guns and masks, this cybercrime organization
used laptops and the Internet. Moving as swiftly as data over the Internet,
the organization worked its way from the computer systems of international corporations to the streets of New York City, with the defendants fanning out across Manhattan to steal millions of dollars from hundreds of A.T.M.’s in a matter of hours.”

There were two operations that involved people in more than two dozen countries. Computer hackers used the internet to manipulate financial information. The thieves then hit the A.T.M machines. On February 19th, in New York, the thieves robbed 2,904 machines in just 10 hours. They got $2.4 million.

Federal prosecutors indicted eight men. Authorities first caught a street crew in New York withdrawing money from teller machines, and putting the cash into backpacks.

A twist to the story, is that last month in the Dominican Republic, the suspected ring leader was found dead.

While the street crews were stealing money from the teller machines, the computer hackers were watching the financial transactions so that they would not be shortchanged on their cut. This is something straight out of a movie.
Read more at www.nytimes.com

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California Sues JPMorgan Chase For Illegally Collecting Overdue Credit Card Debt

5/10/2013

Kamala Harris, California Attorney General

Yesterday, California Attorney General, Kamala Harris, filed a lawsuit against JP Morgan Chase.

The suit filed in California Superior Court accuses the nations largest bank of illegally filing lawsuits against California consumers to collect overdue credit card debt. Between January 2008 and April 2011, each month the financial institution filed thousands of lawsuits. Court documents state that in one day, JP Morgan filed 469 lawsuits.

The Attorney General said that JPMorgan Chases' debt collection practices were not legal. The financial institution overwhelmed the courts with law suits, but could not prove the validity of the debts. Documents were not only inaccurate, some were incomplete. During the foreclosure crises, Chase practiced robosigning. The bank went through and signed many legal documents without reviewing
them for accuracy.

Executive Director of The Public Good law Center in Berkeley, California stated that this problem is not limited to JPMorgan Chase. There are also credit card companies practicing the same tactics.

Brooklyn Civil Court Judge Noach Dear, said that he has presided over more than 100 of theses cases per day. “A vast number of the lawsuits are flawed and most of them can’t prove the individual actually owes the debt.” The Judge said that some lawsuits even rely on fabricated credit card statements.

Unlike in foreclosure cases, borrowers being sued over credit card debt often times do not show up to court. As a result, more tthan 95 percent of lawsuits result in a automatic default judgment.

The lender can then garnish a borrowers wages or even freeze bank accounts to retrieve money. Lenders say that they notify the borrower to come to court, but
in many cases they do not. Read more at www.dealbook.nytimes.com

Jodi Arias Found Guilty Of First Degree Murder

5/9/2013

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32 year old Jodi Arias was found guilty of first degree murder for killing her ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander. Travis was stabbed 27 times. His throat was slashed from ear to ear, and he had a bullet to the head. This crazy girl said that there was no premeditation on her part. So she was overwhelmed and went blank when she heard the verdict. Really girl?

Jodi Arias does not want to spend the rest of her life in prison. She stated in an interview with Phoenix television station KSAZ “I said years ago that I’d rather get death than life, and that still is true today. I believe that death is the ultimate freedom. So I rather just have my freedom as soon as I can get it.” The next phase of her trial is the Penalty Phase. Jodi Arias just might get her wish.
Read more at www.cnn.com

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Top sTories

Former Democratic State Senator Don Perata's Daughter-In-Law Was Found Dead

Robert Chaney Borrowed $3,000 In Payday Loans He Now Owes $12,000

Retired Australian Miner Finds A 306-Carat Opal

A Real Life Flying Car?

Aesha Mohammadzai Is Recovering After Her Taliban Husband Cut Off Her Ears And Nose

Women Survived 16 Days Buried In The Rubble Of Collapsed Building In Bangladesh

First Responder In Texas Fertilizer Plant Explosion Charged With Possessing An Explosive Device

Thieves Steal $45 Million From A.T.M.

California Sues JPMorgan Chase For Illegally Collecting Overdue Credit Card Debt

Jodi Arias Found Guilty Of First Degree Murder

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