Category: News

Nurse Discovers Patient Is Her Long-Lost Father

On By Michel McDonaldIn Amplify, Daily Blog, NewsLeave a comment

This is such a happy and sad story. I didn’t include all of the text so you’ll have to click the AOL News link below. This story has touched me only because I don’t know my father either. It took her all these years to find her father and he has cancer and their reunion may be cut short but at least they were able to meet each other before his fateful day comes.

I am so happy for the two of them and wish the best for their families.

Amplify’d from www.aolnews.com

Nurse Discovers Patient Is Her Long-Lost Father

(Sept. 3) — What are the odds?

Wanda Rodriguez, a 41-year-old assistant head nurse at New York’s Calvary Hospital, had not seen her father since she was a baby.

Raised by her mother in the Bronx after her parents broke up when she was less than a year old, Rodriguez didn’t know much more of her father than his name, Victor Peraza, and hermother’s recollection that Rodriguez looked a lot like him.

But as fate would have it, on Aug. 25 a new cancer patient was admitted to Calvary, a hospital that administers care to the terminally ill. When Rodriguez learned his name while discussing his case with a colleague, she froze up.

“I thought, if he’s my complexion, if he has green eyes, he could be my dad,” Rodriguez told ABC News. Read more at www.aolnews.com

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/cskp

Vancouver, WA Woman Admits to Throwing Acid on Herself

On By Michel McDonaldIn Amplify, NewsLeave a comment

While eating dinner tonight we had Nancy Grace on the tv who was talking about this Vancouver, Washington woman who was the first victim of acid being thrown in her face in front of a Starbucks. But, the twist is, she admitted to police that she did it to herself.

I’m just shocked that any person would do this to themselves. I mean, she has disfigured herself for the rest of her life and for what? For 15 minutes of fame? To show how religious she is? Seriously?

I can think of better ways to get 15 minutes of fame or for showing how passionate you are about your religion. I mean look at her before image, she was gorgeous. She could have gotten famous in another way you know? Now look at her, she’s a ghoul now. She will never be the same ever again.

So now she’s famous for being stupid and she will likely serve 1 year in prison for her selfishness. Good luck with all that…

Amplify’d from theportlander.com

Vancouver, WA Woman Admits to Throwing Acid on Herself

Police have reported today that a Vancouver, WA woman claiming to have been attacked by someone throwing acid in her face is lying and the event was a hoax.

Bethany Storro claimed that on September 2nd, 2010, a stranger walked up to her in a parking lot and threw a cup of acid at her face. She did not know the alleged attacker but helped police create a sketch of the suspect. Storro suffered damage to her face but now has confessed that she in fact threw the acid on herself. The once tragic story made world-wide headlines and even prompted a copy-cat attack in Arizona.

We are still learning the details of why she may have perpetrated this hoax but one theory is that she wanted a platform to share her Christian faith. During a hospital press conference after the incident, she made multiple references to her faith and Jesus Christ.

The Portlander will update this story as more information becomes available.

Read more at theportlander.com

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/an62

Education School Security Orders CO Teen to Remove American Flags From Pickup Truck

On By Michel McDonaldIn News, PoliticalLeave a comment

Imagine if you will, a scenario where you are living in a country like the United States where you are told you are not allowed to be patriotic because it might upset someone. That is what happened to a Colorado Junior at his high school.

He was caught squealing his tires in the high school parking lot and got into trouble by the security guard who suspended his parking privileges for 2 weeks but then she had the nerve to tell him to take down the 2 American flags he had waving from the back of his pickup truck. She told him that it might upset someone.

If I were living in Mexico and I saw the Mexican flag waving proudly from a Mexican’s truck, I would not be offended because I am in Mexico. If I were living in Italy and I saw an Italian flag waving proudly from a Italian’s truck, I would not be offended because I am in Italy. And if I were living in ANY other country over the planet it would be the same thing. I would be proud to wave the flag of the country that I live in, even if I wasn’t born there.

What makes this security guard think that being proud of your country would upset people? It makes no sense. I think this security guard needs to re-evaluate her patriotism before she tries to tell someone they cannot be patriotic. In fact, I’d venture to say that she doesn’t deserve to have a job where she is in charge of telling people that they cannot wave the American flag in the United States.

Heck, the school itself waves an American flag on the flagpole, what makes her think that it’s not ok to wave a flag from your vehicle?

I’m sorry, it just upsets me to hear this kind of thing especially with September 11th coming at the end of this week.

For some reason I couldn’t amplify the video in this article so please follow the link below to visit the website that this article comes from to see the video. It takes seeing the video to get the full story, besides the text from the story that is.

Amplify’d from www.theblaze.com

Education School Security Orders CO Teen to Remove American Flags From Pickup Truck

Jeremy Stoppel is man enough to admit that he deserved getting a ticket for squealing his tires in the school parking ticket. But he has a problem with the order that came down from school security — no more American Flags. He told KMGH-TV:

“She said I should take my flags down. She said this is a school that focuses on diversity and she doesn’t want anyone to feel uncomfortable,” Stoppel said. “How do you suppose anyone would feel uncomfortable in America with an American flag? That’s where I’m confused.”

Jeremy and his dad told the station they are looking for an apology:

“To me, she’s just threatening him, hoping that she can just bully him so he’ll just take ‘em down and just put his tail between his legs and say, ‘I’m done. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry.’ And that’s just not gonna happen,” said Dan Stoppel, Jeremy’s father.

The principal is promising to look into the matter. Stay tuned.

Read more at www.theblaze.com

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/9wo9

Los Angeles Times for Nook

On By Michel McDonaldIn eBook, News, NookLeave a comment

One of the reasons I wanted to buy the Nook is so that I could get Darrin a subscription to the Los Angeles times. A monthly subscription is only $10 but he buys it every day despite him having a subscription to the Bakersfield Californian. He reads BOTH! If he got the Nook subscription he would save $20 per month because they cost $1 per day and $2 on Sundays.

I was looking at the customer reviews on the Barnes and Noble website for the Los Angeles Times for Nook and because customers had given them such a bad review I decided that I wouldn’t get it.

Although, now that I have my Nook I still wanted to see what it would look like so I bought todays paper for .75¢.

You know it’s not that bad. The customer reviews said that they don’t have chapters but they do. The chapters are the different sections of the newspaper like Calendar, Sports etc.

The front page shows what I assume to be the main article that you see on the front of the actual newspaper, the headliner. It’s not the entire article, it’s a picture then a title and the first paragraph from the article. If you want to read it you can push the little button on the touchscreen for opening a book, although in this case it’s opening an article or you just push the buttons on the side to turn the page for more articles which have the same deal. You aren’t forced to read any article you don’t want, just turn the page until you find the one you want to read then click it to read.

I read a few articles already and it actually reads very well. I’m glad that I was persistent enough to actually buy an article before giving up on the whole idea.

Although, Darrin still doesn’t want it. He much prefers to read the actual paper. But that’s good for the Los Angeles times because they are still making money off him with the $8 a week he spends on the paper.

And they say print is dead, HA it’s alive and kicking in this household.

It’s Hard to Convince People

On By Michel McDonaldIn Books, eBook, Gadgets, News, NookLeave a comment

Ever try to convince someone that some “thing” is better than the other? It’s very difficult especially when that person is adamant that they do not want this new thing. They give you an excuse and you have an answer but they give you another excuse and you have an answer for that too. They can’t win this argument lol.

I’m trying to convince Darrin that when I buy my Nook he might get some use out of it too. Not just books but newspapers and magazines as well.

He said that he likes to read a regular newspaper and magazine because he can find things easily but my response was that you can find things much quicker with a Nook. All you have to do is type in a keyword and it will find every instance of that word. Or you can highlight articles that you want to go back to and then go into your highlights to find them.

He said that he likes the feeling of a newspaper or magazine, yet he has trouble letting them go. When he buys a magazine he doesn’t like to toss them afterwards because he paid a lot of money for them. Have you seen the cost of magazines? My god, those things are expensive.

A LA Times newspaper is $1 a day and I think it’s $2+/- on Sundays. Well, if he got a subscription to the LA Times on the Nook, it’s only $10 per month. I don’t know if that includes Sundays though. I checked to see how much home delivery of the LA Times is and it’s about $11.96 per month. You are only saving $1.96 per month but that’s $23.52 per year and you are saving trees at the same time. If you were to recycle all those newspapers you probably wouldn’t get that $1.96 back for a month worth of newspapers since they are thinning out so much these days. Then again I don’t know that for sure, they pay you by weight, not by how many you have.

I was looking at the eMagazines they have and they really aren’t anything that I would be interested in and Darrin never reads what they have available. The only one that would interest me is PC Magazine but I wouldn’t read it that much. He likes magazines like Time, People and Architectural Digest. Those aren’t available for Nook. So since nothing really good is available I won’t even try to convince him on that aspect.

But the key points that I was trying to convince him on is that you can look up articles by keywords, highlighting and making notes. When you write a note in an article you can refer back to your notes and it will bring that particular article up.  He said he could look something up fast in a magazine or newspaper but I bet him anything that I could find it faster on a nook.

He goes to Church, not every Sunday but most Sundays and he loves to bring his own bible that he had his name engraved on. There is no way I can convince him with a Bible for Nook. He saw how one guys bible was weathered and falling apart and all this stuff was highlighted and he made a remark about how he couldn’t wait for his bible to be as used as his was. So that I won’t even try to convince him of. Besides, when he is at Church is the perfect time for me to read and I wouldn’t like it if he had my Nook during those times lol.

There are so many things that make me giddy about electronic toys that he could care less about. Although when I actually get it he might feel differently but until then he couldn’t care less despite how much I try to convince him.

He was impressed when I told him that you could make the text a lot bigger to make it easier to read and the fact that you could visit websites and write emails and I could even blog from the Nook.  Although I don’t know if I would want to because of the touchscreen keyboard but if we were visiting family it would be a lot easier than using the mobile dashboard with my PSP.  I could also type more than I can on the mobile version.

There are some things that you have to see for yourself and when we get to the Barnes & Noble next week he can see how cool they are with the display that they have.  He’ll realize they are a lot better than he wants to give them credit for.  He’ll see.

Lohan Back on Twitter with Traffic Safety Tips

On By Michel McDonaldIn Amplify, Celebrities, NewsLeave a comment

Poor Lindsay, she can’t catch a break. She Tweets about the Paparazzi and she gets a full spread in the today shows gossip website.

Listen to me, poor Lindsay HA! Even though I think she deserves to still be in jail I still feel sorry for her. I miss the old Lindsay and hope she returns to us one of these days.

Amplify’d from scoop.newsvine.com

Lohan back on Twitter with traffic safety tips

Lindsay Lohan has only been out of rehab for less than 48 hours and it didn’t take long for the starlet to return to Twitter — and she’s offering up safety tips when it comes to getting behind the wheel, Access Hollywood reports.

“Clearly.. Paparazzi shouldn’t be allowed to take pictures or video while someone’s driving or at a stop light. 4every1′s sake #trafficpolice,” Lohan on Thursday afternoon.

Her Twitter followers last heard from her on July 19 when she asked another tweeter if he owned an iPad.

As previously reported on AccessHollywood.com, the 24-year-old actress had her driver’s license reinstated on Monday. Lohan was spotted at a Los Angeles-area DMV on Wednesday, where she was required to show proof of insurance in order to get her license back.

To see Lindsay behind the wheel following her rehab stint, click here!

Read more at scoop.newsvine.com

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/9d52

Kidnapped 18 Years Ago, Found With 2 Kids

On By Michel McDonaldIn NewsLeave a comment

California Girl Kidnapped 18 Years Ago Kept as Sex Slave in Couple’s Backyard – Source Foxnews.com

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASx5ThZLMzQ

This poor girl was kidnapped 18 years ago by a sex offender and kept as a sex slave in this couples back yard.  The man who kidnapped her fathered 2 children who are now 11 and 15 years old.  None of them have been to school which is a real shame.

This poor girl, now woman, is going to need a lot of therapy and so are her 2 children.  This whole story makes me sick that she was kidnapped and kept as a sex slave.

The couple and the kidnapped victims all walked into the police station where the couple turned themselves in.  It’s just too bad it took 18 years for them to do the right thing.  This should’ve never happened.  Now the man is claiming that he is a different person and that he’s changed yadda yadda yadda.  He is a registered sex offender, how did his probation officer never search the property?  I think they should start searching the property of all these sex offenders every so often.  You never know what your gonna find and they just might save lives.

Shafter Police Officer Video Tapes Attack

On By Michel McDonaldIn NewsLeave a comment

I just saw this on the Bakersfield Californian website via Facebook.

Caught on tape: Shafter officer inadvertently videotapes himself beating suspect

This cop in Shafter turned off the safety on his taser which turned the video camera on and he inadvertently video taped himself beating a suspect who was not resisting arrest.  He had his taser in 1 hand and his baton in the other hand which is what he beat him with.

Q: Do you think the city and county ought to buy cameras for all their police tasers, like Shafter has done?

A: They have the dashboard cameras for chases, they should be video taped the entire time, not just when they pull people over but also when they have to run after a suspect and they are far from the vehicle. It protects them but it also protects us from them.

Britain has head-mounted video cameras for their police officers and I think that America needs that too.  Although, this article says that it cost $6 million dollars for 2,000 cameras and that’s probably more than our countries budget can afford, especially since the deficit is much higher now.  But perhaps this will be put in place some time in the future.  Maybe certain cities can buy 1 for each of their officers that go out on the streets only.  Maybe this will force them to be peace officers instead of dickhead officers.

Men Soliciting Sex in Parks in Bakersfield

On By Michel McDonaldIn NewsLeave a comment

Undercover investigation: Men soliciting sex in parks

That is an article in the BakersfieldNow website.  In the 1970’s and 80’s this was apparently a very typical thing, men going to the park and sitting in the cars and/or going to the bathroom and exposing themselves hoping to have sex with someone either in the bathroom, their car or going somewhere else.

I go on the bike trail and I pass 3 parks (as seen in my BikeCam videos) and I see children playing sports, people exercising and children on bikes, they don’t need to see this.  What is wrong with people?  These children use those bathrooms and that’s the last thing kids need is to go to the bathroom at Yokuts and Beach park and see 2 men having sex.

What really pisses me off is that these people are adding to the laundry list of why straight people hate gay people.  It’s not just gay people, it’s straight people who are doing it but that doesn’t get put in the newspaper or on the news, they focus more on the gay people doing this.  If people want to find other people to have sex why can’t they do what normal people do, go to a bar and end up going home with someone.  Do whatever you gotta do but don’t go to the park and do something gross like having sex in cars and in the bathroom.

I have actually seen men and women making out in cars at 2 parks, 1 of them is by a Catholic school too which is in a neighborhood.  Plus I’ve seen straight people making out at the parking lot across the street from AAA on Truxton Ave.  I see these people doing this and all I can think is that they aren’t married, they are probably cheating on their spouses because trust me, if you are as old as these people are and you are having to make out with someone in your car, you aren’t married to them, you are cheating and most likely because your husband or wife don’t have sex with you anymore so you are sneaking around.

I have seen straight people doing this several times but I have yet to see any gay people in cars.  I don’t ever use the bathroom unless I am so desperate to go to the bathroom.  I’m a bit of a germaphobe so I would prefer not to sit on public toilet seats.  Peeing is one thing but if I see someone standing at a urinal I will use the stall to pee.  I don’t use park bathroom stalls because they don’t have doors.  So you won’t see me in the park bathrooms unless I REALLY needed to go lol.

Bakersfield Californian Newsbloid

On By Michel McDonaldIn NewsLeave a comment

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YDJnJG7s4E

Since I don’t even read the newspaper I shouldn’t have an opinion but I think having a newspaper that looks like a tabloid is weird.  That one that this guy is reading looks so thin, why do they even bother printing the news if it’s that small?  Why not just abandon the newspaper altogether if you can’t even print it a respectable size?

Or, and this is just a suggestion, why not have more stories to tell?  First they shrink the newspaper down now they are shrinking it way.

I don’t know, I think it looks neat because it’s smaller and probably easier to hold since it’s like a tabloid so it’s not falling apart while you are reading it and when you go to read the different sections you don’t have to fidget with all that paper.

But still, it doesn’t look like a newspaper.  It looks too strange to be a newspaper.  How are all the spies supposed to hide their face when they are holding what looks like a tabloid?  Now if you are holding it up to your face people will know you are trying to hide your face because you are holding your arms high up to cover your face.  It just doesn’t look right.