House Condemned When Owner Heats with Solar

In the headline, I use the word “owner” loosely, because when a city can do this to you, you aren’t truly the owner.

An Avondale woman who spent 11 days sleeping in her car said the city treated her unfairly when her home was condemned in December for lack of electricity.

But city officials said Christine Stevens violated building codes, a health and safety concern because Avondale homes are required to have heating systems and a running refrigerator.

Stevens, 47, was trying to make ends meet by powering her home with solar panels and batteries for several months before Avondale code enforcement officials visited her on Dec. 10.

“We explained to her that the panels weren’t enough to sustain a quality of life there,” said Pam Altounian, code enforcement manager for Avondale.

Stevens said she was not given adequate notice before officials gave her 24 hours to contact Arizona Public Service Co. to reconnect electricity or her home would be condemned.

Read more at the Arizona Republic.

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Man Who Was ‘Sick of Being Poor’ Robs Bank

It’s hard to fault this guy. After all, the banks have robbed us. Or, more accurately, Congress has robbed us on behalf of the banks that own it. Can’t you just hear the teller? “Thank you for dropping by. Would you like some totally debased coins to go along with those fiat Federal Reserve notes?”

An Erie man who was “sick of being poor” took a bus to Meadville, where he robbed a bank Tuesday afternoon, the FBI said. He rode home in a taxi.

Cameron S. Minniefield was arrested Tuesday night at the Intermodal Transportation Center, 208 E. Bayfront Parkway. Authorities said he was trying to board an 8:50 p.m. bus to Cleveland.

Minniefield, 23, of 516 Raspberry St., admitted to the robbery, the FBI said. He told investigators that he entered the First National Bank at 837 Park Ave. at 1:13 p.m. with a blue scarf over his nose and mouth. He told a teller to give him money, police said. He did not show a gun.

Read more at GoErie.com.

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EPA Suppressed Internal Global Warming Study

Of course they want the truth about “global warming” suppressed, because it’s all about expanding the power of the bureaucracy, enriching the carbon-trading industry, inflating a new derivatives bubble, and creating a new carbon tax.

The Competitive Enterprise Institute today charged that a senior official of the U.S. Environment Protection Agency actively suppressed a scientific analysis of climate change because of political pressure to support the Administration’s policy agenda of regulating carbon dioxide.

As part of a just-ended public comment period, CEI submitted a set of four EPA emails, dated March 12-17, 2009, which indicate that a significant internal critique of the agency’s global warming position was put under wraps and concealed.

The study the emails refer to, which ran counter to the administration’s views on carbon dioxide and climate change, was kept from circulating within the agency, was never disclosed to the public, and was not added to the body of materials relevant to EPA’s current “endangerment” proceeding. The emails further show that the study was treated in this manner not because of any problem with its quality, but for political reasons.

Read more at Globalwarming.org.

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Profit of Swine Flu Vaccine Manufacturer Soars

We may be in depths of a global recession, but the makers of the swine flu vaccines wouldn’t know it. Novartis made most of the swine flu vaccine doses distributed in the U.S. All out of the goodness of their heart, mind you.

GENEVA (AP) — Swiss drug maker Novartis AG on Tuesday reported a 54 percent rise in fourth-quarter net profit to $2.32 billion on strong sales and favorable exchange rates, and announced the appointment of Joe Jimenez as its new chief executive.

Earnings per share rose 53 percent to $1.01 from $0.66 in the same quarter of 2008, when Novartis posted a net profit of $1.51 billion.

Results met analysts’ expectations and Novartis shares rose 2 percent to 56.80 Swiss francs ($54.21) on the Zurich exchange.

Read more at Chicago Tribune.

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Record Number of Young Americans are Unemployed

They’re young, they’re pissed off, and they’re waking up to the reality of who’s trashed their future. The Feds had better beef up their domestic army, and fast. A revolution is brewing. Don’t be surprised to see the Feds manufacture a war to solve the problem.

CHICAGO (Reuters) – The U.S. economic recession has taken a particularly heavy toll on young Americans, with a record one out five black men aged 20 to 24 neither working nor in school, according to research released on Tuesday.

Teenagers have found it significantly harder to get a job since the recession began in late 2007, with black youths and young people from low-income families faring the worst, wrote Andrew Sum of Northeastern University in Boston, a employment researcher commissioned by the Chicago Urban League and the Alternative Schools Network.

“Low-income and minority youth, who depended on part-time jobs as a significant stepping stone to future employment, have been forced out of the job market and economically marginalized,” Herman Brewer of the Chicago Urban League said in a statement.

Read more at Reuters.

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