Source: http://madaboutmahound.blogspot.com/2011/12/supporters-of-israel-far-outnumber-plo.html
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Saturday, December 31, 2011
Supporters of Israel Far Outnumber PLO Supporters outside the Royal Albert Hall London
Mahound was a malignant narcissist who invented his moon god, allah, to sate his bloodlust and perversions. He made himself the model for all arselifters to follow for all time. He was a pervert, pedophile, rapist, liar, thief, murderer, terrorist, slaver, extortionist and just plain evil! He also loved to guzzle camel urine.
Friday, December 30, 2011
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Thursday, December 29, 2011
Hudson said 'no' to 'Precious' over weight gain
Gabourey Sidibe sure must be grateful for this!
Story: Jennifer Hudson slams split rumorsIn Jennifer Hudson's book "I Got This: How I Changed My Ways and Lost What Weighed Me Down," the 30-year-old singer-actress opens up about why she turned down an opportunity to star in the Academy Award nominated 2009 film "Precious."
PHOTOS: Jennifer's incredible slimdown
"I had (gained weight) with Effie (in "Dreamgirls")," she explains, as excerpted by Uptown Magazine. "And as much as I was moved by this film, I wanted to try a role that had nothing whatsoever to do with my weight."
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With the very-special episodes of this and the shocking finales of that, it's easy to lose track of some of television's m...
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PHOTOS: Stars who were bullied for their weight
Instead, Hudson, who won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in "Dreamgirls," went on to co-star in the first "Sex and the City" movie, alongside Sarah Jessica Parker.
PHOTOS: 2011's most talked about celeb bodies
Since her days on "American Idol," Hudson has dropped 80 lbs. with the help of Weight Watchers. In September, she even opened up the Jennifer Hudson Weight Watchers Center in Chicago.
Copyright 2011 Us Weekly
Source: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/45795158/ns/today-entertainment/
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Wednesday, December 28, 2011
U.S. adds surveillance drone on Mexico border (Reuters)
SIERRA VISTA, Ariz, Dec 27 ? U.S. authorities took possession of an additional high-tech surveillance drone on Tuesday to overfly the rugged Arizona borderlands to look for drug smugglers and illegal immigrants crossing from Mexico.
The Predator-B drone is based at the National Air Security Operations Center in Sierra Vista, a few miles north of the Mexico border in southeast Arizona, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency said.
The addition brings CBP's fleet of surveillance drones along the nearly 2,000-mile southwest border with Mexico to six. Four are based at the Arizona center, and two more overfly the border from Corpus Christi, Texas.
"The missions from these two centers will allow CBP to deploy its unmanned aircraft from the eastern tip of California across the common Mexican land borders of Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas," CBP said in a statement.
The unmanned aircraft are equipped with tools including powerful day and night vision cameras which enable operators to spot incursions by drug traffickers and illegal immigrants slipping over the border from Mexico.
The surveillance operations under the program have led to the seizure of around 46,600 pounds of illicit drugs and 7,500 arrests along the southwest border.
This past year, arrests of illegal immigrants crossing north over the southwest border dropped to 327,577, their lowest level since 1972 when President Richard Nixon was in the White House.
Factors in the stark decline have included tightened border and workplace enforcement, a slowed U.S. economy providing fewer jobs to undocumented workers, and increased drug cartel-related violence in Mexico making the journey north more hazardous, according to analysts.
The arrival of the Predator-B marks the second of two unmanned aircraft earmarked in supplemental budget provisions identified in August 2010.
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Justin Bieber Disney World Christmas Parade Performance (Mistletoe & Santa Clause is Coming to Town) Video
12.01 Santa Claus Is Coming To Town, 8PM
(ABC)
12.04 X Factor UK Result, 8PM (ITV)
12.04 So Random 7.30PM (Disney)
12.06 A Michael Buble Christmas, 8PM (NBC)
12.10 This Is Justin Bieber, 7PM (ITV)
12.11 Christmas In Washington, 8PM (TNT)
12.21 A Home For The Holidays With Martina
McBride, 8PM (CBS)
12.25 Disney's Christmas Parade (ABC &
Disney Channel)
12.31 Dick Clark's New Years Rockin' Eve (ABC)
RUMORED:
??.?? 10 On TOP (MTV)
??.?? Conan (TBS)
??.?? The Gayle King Show
??.?? Jimmy Kimmel (ABC)
??.?? Jimmy Fallon (NBC)
12.22 US X Factor
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Monday, December 26, 2011
Ward Church offers family ?home for the holidays'
[unable to retrieve full-text content]
Source: hometownlife.com --- Friday, December 23, 2011
This Christmas, a single mom from Detroit and her three daughters will have a home, thanks to some hard workers with big hearts affiliated with Ward Presbyterian Church in Northville Township. ...
Source: http://www.hometownlife.com/article/20111222/NEWS12/112220419/1029/rss19
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Sunday, December 25, 2011
Va. police find 2-year-old boy in stolen SUV
RICHMOND?? A massive Christmas Eve search for a 2-year-old boy who was in the backseat of an SUV that was stolen following a double-slaying in Richmond ended around midnight with the boy being found safe, police said.
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Richmond police said in a Tweet late Saturday: "2-year-old Kaiden Burnside is OK. Found alone inside SUV off Jennie Scher Road. Thanks to everyone for assistance."
City police spokeswoman Karla Peters told the Richmond Times-Dispatch (http://bit.ly/svXlqT ) the child was found sleeping alone in the parked vehicle.
"He's being checked out by EMS and will soon be reunited with his mother," Peters said.
Authorities late Saturday identified the suspect as 27-year-old Jamal Louis Clemons of Richmond, Va. They say Clemons is wanted for abduction, robbery, robbery with a firearm and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony by a convicted felon.
Richmond city police said in a press release that shortly after 5 p.m., officers responded to a report of two persons down and found an adult man and an adult woman inside a Church Hill residence. Both had been fatally shot.
Witnesses reported that a man fled the scene inside a 2012 white GMC Terrain SUV that was left with the motor running and the boy strapped in the back seat, the news release said.
The Virginia State Police issued an Amber Alert at 9:39 p.m. EST Saturday for the boy, identified as Kaiden Gage Burnside. They described him as having short blond hair and blue eyes, and wearing a red plaid shirt, a cream-colored vest with a red truck carrying a Christmas tree, dark green corduroy slacks and white light-up sneakers.
"The child is believed to be in extreme danger," the alert said.
City police described the suspect ? later identified as Clemons ? as a black man in his mid- to late 20s, 5-foot-8 and 150 to 160 pounds, with black hair and wearing dark jeans and a black zip-up sweat shirt with a hood. He is believed to be armed with a revolver.
"We don't believe that he knew there was a child in the back seat," Richmond police Maj. Steve Drew told the newspaper.
Police said they didn't believe the shooting was random but have not released additional details about the victims or their potential relationship to the suspect.
Officers continued to search early Sunday for the suspect.
Richmond police did not return repeated calls from The Associated Press on Saturday evening.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45785961/ns/world_news/
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Saturday, December 24, 2011
Colbert offering $500K to pay for SC GOP primary (omg!)
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) ? Comedian Stephen Colbert is offering to pay half a million dollars to help subsidize South Carolina's first-in-the-South GOP presidential primary, as state officials struggle to pay for it, but there's doubt whether it would even be legal.
The Charleston native wrote in an op-ed Thursday in The State newspaper in Columbia that Colbert Super PAC ? a type of political action committee that allows him to raise unlimited amounts of money from corporations, unions and individuals ? will bridge the gap after state Republicans refused to contribute anything above $180,000 collected in candidates' filing fees.
The state Election Commission, which administers South Carolina's voting, has said it has $1 million on hand for the primary but is short of the total $1.5 million price tag. Spokesman Chris Whitmire says the Commission has notified budget officials the state may need to seek permission to run a deficit to fund the primary.
Colbert wrote that he offered make up that $500,000 funding gap after state Republicans ultimately turned down his proposal to pay them $400,000 if they'd name the contest after him. Party officials have confirmed meeting with Colbert earlier this year to discuss a deal that would have renamed the balloting "The Colbert Super PAC South Carolina Republican Primary" in exchange for a check from the comedian.
Colbert says he also wanted to put a question about "corporate personhood" on the January ballot. He seized on the issue after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling eased restrictions on campaign spending by corporations.
Ultimately rebuffed by the GOP, Colbert says he started working with Democrats to get the issue on the ballot, but state Democratic Party Chairman Dick Harpootlian said Thursday that effort also fell through.
State GOP executive director Matt Moore said party officials were skeptical of Colbert from the beginning but entertained his early communications before turning him down.
"Despite our repeatedly saying 'no,' Stephen Colbert, the comedian, seems intent on being involved," Moore said. "It's exactly why we were wary in the first place."
Regardless of the party's position, it would be up to the state whether to accept or reject any offer.
Whitmire said the question of whether a PAC can fund a South Carolina primary is a new one. If the Election Commission were presented with the money and decided to accept it, he said, they would have to ask state Attorney General Alan Wilson to decide if state law permits a political action committee to fund a primary.
Colbert, who did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment, wrote that he will be spending the holidays in his native state and is open to discussions.
"The counties need the money, and Colbert Super PAC wants to give it to you; call it a Christmas Miracle," he wrote. "I'm going to be home in South Carolina over the holidays, so just give me a call. Both state parties have my contact info."
___
Kinnard can be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP
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Rumor: Apple Aiming For iPad 3 Release Date Of February 24th 2012
| Home | Apple Stock | Tracked Sites | TechNN | | E-Mail | Sherlock Plugin Close Left Panel | Login | Subscribe to MacSurfer's Headline News Poll | Most Popular | Talking Heads | A Year Ago Today | Checked 10:45 PM; Last Updated 9:15 PM CST; 03:15 GMT | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| FRIDAY BLOWOUT: Every NEW or RENEWING paid subscriber receives 2 YEARS FREE.... Should Apple buy Nintendo? Cast your vote in "Today's Poll..." in the left column below or go straight to the results here. Friday Highlights: Fortune, The Register recap Apple vs. Android in 2011, Chloe Albanesius of PC Magazine rewinds 2011 looking at Apple's highs, lows, Steve Jobs' passing; customer satisfaction is why Apple's iPad leads; when it comes to online shoppers/traffic, Apple outguns giants like Walmart, the NY Times, even eBay; a Fortune slideshow highlights how Steve Jobs changed the world; iTunes Match now available in 17 countries; bring back the OS 9 sliding folder tabs in OS X with Tab Launcher; UK's Telegraph tech prediction for 2012 include a real Apple TV; beware, hackers can intercept crash reports when your iPhone sends them in; 90% of mobile purchases were made on iPhones, iPads; 500 iPads to become "official instrument of lawmaking" in Poland; back in 2010, Steve Jobs spelled out reasons for Apple to not build a TV set; how long will MAME, a new arcade emulator last on the App Store?; new stat shows Apple sells 925 iPhones every 60 seconds; MacRumors offers some PDF printouts of exactly what a 7.85" iPad would look/feel like; rumor mill a-churnin' with iPhone 5 arriving in May with iOS 6, A6 chip, and another analyst splashes cold water on 7" iPads in 2012; Macworld reviews Find My Friends iApp, says it does what it says; you can recalibrate the home button on your iDevice; PC Magazine tips for keeping your iPhone safe amidst holiday distractions; The Next Web urges Nintendo to develop games for iOS. Today's MacUpdate Promo offers 50% off Spell Catcher X 10.4.1. "Spell Catcher X is the powerful writing tool preferred by educators, students, writers, bloggers - anyone who writes on their Macintosh. It's the all-in-one writing solution for those who need standardized custom dictionaries for use in all their applications, those that write in multiple languages, and anyone that simply wants to be a faster, more effective writer." | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Friday, December 23, 2011
Video: Art Cashin's Market View
There remains concern that Santa will put coal in a piece of the stocking, says Art Cashin, UBS director of floor operations, speaking of the market rally.
Related Links:
Business & financial news headlines from msnbc.com
Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/cnbc/45776440/
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gregwrubell: Former New Mexico PG Nate Garth had been starting for UCSB, but goes to the bench tonight, along with smallish F Christian Peterson.
Former New Mexico PG Nate Garth had been starting for UCSB, but goes to the bench tonight, along with smallish F Christian Peterson. Source: http://twitter.com/gregwrubell/statuses/149966415695323137
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Thursday, December 22, 2011
Pre-surgery exam rates vary widely among hospitals
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 21-Dec-2011[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Leslie Shepherd
shepherdl@smh.ca
416-864-6094
St. Michael's Hospital
Research suggests some patients get unnecessary exams, others not enough
TORONTO, Ont. -- Hospitals vary greatly in the number of patients who see an internal medicine specialist before major non-cardiac surgery, with rates ranging from five per cent of patients to 90 per cent, new research has found.
The findings are important because they suggest there are no commonly agreed upon standards for which patients should have such consultations, said Dr. Duminda Wijeysundera, a scientist at the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute of St. Michael's Hospital and the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES).
As a result, some patients may be getting expensive tests and exams they don't need, while others who do need them are not getting them, said Dr. Wijeysundera, who is also an anesthesiologist at Toronto General Hospital-University Health Network.
Dr. Wijeysundera studied the records of 205,000 patients who underwent major elective non-cardiac surgery in 79 hospitals in Ontario from 2004 to 2009. His results were published today in the journal Anesthesiology.
All patients scheduled for elective surgery in Ontario must undergo a preoperative medical history and physical, which are typically done by the patient's family physician or surgeon. Referrals to an internal medicine specialist are usually made at the discretion of the surgeon or anesthesiologist.
One-third of the patients studied underwent a pre-operative medical consultation. Not surprisingly, most were older, were patients at teaching hospitals or hospitals with high volumes of surgery, or had other, pre-existing medical conditions such as diabetes or heart disease.
However, the rates varied widely from hospital to hospital, and could not be explained based on the surgical procedure, the volume of surgeries conducted at the hospital or whether it was a teaching hospital.
"That suggests the forces driving this have little to do with how sick the patient is," Dr. Wijeysundera said. "Further research is needed to better understand the basis for this inter-hospital variation and to determine which patients benefit most from pre-operative consultation."
More research is also needed to determine whether the difference may be explained by individual surgeon's preferences, he said.
Dr. Wijeysundera said pre-operative consultations may be helpful for patients with other medical issues, because it's an opportunity to document and/or treat those pre-existing conditions and take steps to lower their risks for surgery, or even cancel the procedure.
But previous studies have found no clear evidence that these consultations improve patient outcomes. In fact, the studies have suggested the tests and examinations may be associated with longer hospital stays, more post-operative complications and even a slightly higher death rate.
"When performed in patients who are unlikely to benefit from them, these consultations can increase healthcare costs, while exposing some individuals to unnecessary and potentially harmful tests or interventions," he said.
###
About St. Michael's Hospital
St. Michael's Hospital provides compassionate care to all who enter its doors. The hospital also provides outstanding medical education to future health care professionals in more than 23 academic disciplines. Critical care and trauma, heart disease, neurosurgery, diabetes, cancer care, and care of the homeless are among the Hospital's recognized areas of expertise. Through the Keenan Research Centre and the Li Ka Shing International Healthcare Education Center, which make up the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, research and education at St. Michael's Hospital are recognized and make an impact around the world. Founded in 1892, the hospital is fully affiliated with the University of Toronto.
About ICES
ICES is an independent, non-profit organization that uses population-based health information to produce knowledge on a broad range of health care issues. Our unbiased evidence provides measures of health system performance, a clearer understanding of the shifting health care needs of Ontarians, and a stimulus for discussion of practical solutions to optimize scarce resources. ICES knowledge is highly regarded in Canada and abroad, and is widely used by government, hospitals, planners, and practitioners to make decisions about care delivery and to develop policy.
For more information, please contact:
Leslie Shepherd
Manager, Media Strategy
Phone: 416-864-6094 or 647-300-1753
shepherdl@smh.ca
St. Michael's Hospital
Inspired Care. Inspiring Science.
http://www.stmichaelshospital.com
Follow us on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/stmikeshospital
or
Deborah Creatura
ICES
416-480-4780
deborah.creatura@ices.on.ca
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Public release date: 21-Dec-2011[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Leslie Shepherd
shepherdl@smh.ca
416-864-6094
St. Michael's Hospital
Research suggests some patients get unnecessary exams, others not enough
TORONTO, Ont. -- Hospitals vary greatly in the number of patients who see an internal medicine specialist before major non-cardiac surgery, with rates ranging from five per cent of patients to 90 per cent, new research has found.
The findings are important because they suggest there are no commonly agreed upon standards for which patients should have such consultations, said Dr. Duminda Wijeysundera, a scientist at the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute of St. Michael's Hospital and the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES).
As a result, some patients may be getting expensive tests and exams they don't need, while others who do need them are not getting them, said Dr. Wijeysundera, who is also an anesthesiologist at Toronto General Hospital-University Health Network.
Dr. Wijeysundera studied the records of 205,000 patients who underwent major elective non-cardiac surgery in 79 hospitals in Ontario from 2004 to 2009. His results were published today in the journal Anesthesiology.
All patients scheduled for elective surgery in Ontario must undergo a preoperative medical history and physical, which are typically done by the patient's family physician or surgeon. Referrals to an internal medicine specialist are usually made at the discretion of the surgeon or anesthesiologist.
One-third of the patients studied underwent a pre-operative medical consultation. Not surprisingly, most were older, were patients at teaching hospitals or hospitals with high volumes of surgery, or had other, pre-existing medical conditions such as diabetes or heart disease.
However, the rates varied widely from hospital to hospital, and could not be explained based on the surgical procedure, the volume of surgeries conducted at the hospital or whether it was a teaching hospital.
"That suggests the forces driving this have little to do with how sick the patient is," Dr. Wijeysundera said. "Further research is needed to better understand the basis for this inter-hospital variation and to determine which patients benefit most from pre-operative consultation."
More research is also needed to determine whether the difference may be explained by individual surgeon's preferences, he said.
Dr. Wijeysundera said pre-operative consultations may be helpful for patients with other medical issues, because it's an opportunity to document and/or treat those pre-existing conditions and take steps to lower their risks for surgery, or even cancel the procedure.
But previous studies have found no clear evidence that these consultations improve patient outcomes. In fact, the studies have suggested the tests and examinations may be associated with longer hospital stays, more post-operative complications and even a slightly higher death rate.
"When performed in patients who are unlikely to benefit from them, these consultations can increase healthcare costs, while exposing some individuals to unnecessary and potentially harmful tests or interventions," he said.
###
About St. Michael's Hospital
St. Michael's Hospital provides compassionate care to all who enter its doors. The hospital also provides outstanding medical education to future health care professionals in more than 23 academic disciplines. Critical care and trauma, heart disease, neurosurgery, diabetes, cancer care, and care of the homeless are among the Hospital's recognized areas of expertise. Through the Keenan Research Centre and the Li Ka Shing International Healthcare Education Center, which make up the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, research and education at St. Michael's Hospital are recognized and make an impact around the world. Founded in 1892, the hospital is fully affiliated with the University of Toronto.
About ICES
ICES is an independent, non-profit organization that uses population-based health information to produce knowledge on a broad range of health care issues. Our unbiased evidence provides measures of health system performance, a clearer understanding of the shifting health care needs of Ontarians, and a stimulus for discussion of practical solutions to optimize scarce resources. ICES knowledge is highly regarded in Canada and abroad, and is widely used by government, hospitals, planners, and practitioners to make decisions about care delivery and to develop policy.
For more information, please contact:
Leslie Shepherd
Manager, Media Strategy
Phone: 416-864-6094 or 647-300-1753
shepherdl@smh.ca
St. Michael's Hospital
Inspired Care. Inspiring Science.
http://www.stmichaelshospital.com
Follow us on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/stmikeshospital
or
Deborah Creatura
ICES
416-480-4780
deborah.creatura@ices.on.ca
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-12/smh-per122111.php
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Monday, December 19, 2011
Can science predict a hit song?
ScienceDaily (Dec. 16, 2011) ? Most people remember listening to the official UK top 40 singles chart and watching the countdown on Top of the Pops, but can science work out which songs are more likely to 'make it' in the chart?
New research has looked at whether a song can be predicted to be a 'hit'.
The paper, to be presented at an international workshop this week, argues that predicting the popularity of a song may well be feasible by using state-of-the-art machine learning algorithms. The research team, led by Dr Tijl de Bie, is based in the University of Bristol's Intelligent Systems Laboratory in the Faculty of Engineering.
The team looked at the official UK top 40 singles chart over the past 50 years. Their aim was to distinguish the most popular (peak position top five) songs from less popular singles (peak position 30 to 40). A website, ScoreAHit, about the research is available at scoreahit.com/
The researchers used musical features such as, tempo, time signature, song duration and loudness. They also computed more detailed summaries of the songs such as harmonic simplicity, how simple the chord sequence is, and non-harmonicity, how 'noisy' the song is.
A 'hit potential equation' that scores a song according to its audio features was devised. The equation works by looking at all the UK hits for a certain time and measuring their audio features. From this the researchers had a list of weights, telling then how important each of the 23 features was and allowing them to compute a score for a song.
The team found they could classify a song into a 'hit' or 'not hit' based on its score, with an accuracy rate of 60 per cent as to whether a song will make it to top five, or if it will never reach above position 30 on the UK top 40 singles chart.
Dr Tijl De Bie, Senior Lecturer in Artificial Intelligence, said: "Musical tastes evolve, which means our 'hit potential equation' needs to evolve as well. Indeed, we have found the hit potential of a song depends on the era. This may be due to the varying dominant music style, culture and environment."
The study found some interesting trends, such as:
- Before the eighties, the danceability of a song was not very relevant to its hit potential. From then on, danceable songs were more likely to become a hit. Also the average danceability of all songs on the charts suddenly increased in the late seventies.
- In the eighties slower musical styles (tempo 70-89 beats per minute), such as ballads, were more likely to become a hit.
- The prediction accuracy of the researchers' hit potential equation varies over time. It was particularly difficult to predict hits around 1980. The equation performed best in the first half of the nineties and from the year 2000. This suggests that the late seventies and early eighties were particularly creative and innovative periods of pop music.
- Up until the early nineties, hits were typically harmonically simpler than other songs of the era. On the other hand, from the nineties onward hits more commonly have simpler, binary, rhythms such as 4/4 time.
- On average all songs on the chart are becoming louder. Additionally, the hits are relatively louder than the songs that dangle at the bottom of the charts, reflected by a strong weight for the loudness feature.
The results of the study differ from previous research, which has so far not been shown to predict hit potential. A possibly important qualitative difference with previous studies is the use of the time-shifting perceptron to account for evolving musical taste.
The MML 2011 4th International Workshop on Machine Learning and Music: Learning from Musical Structure held in conjunction with the 25th Annual Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems will be held in Sierra Nevada, Spain on Saturday December 17.
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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/LhdVr5UvIQE/111216234655.htm
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Sunday, December 18, 2011
Anonymous donors pay off Kmart layaway accounts (AP)
OMAHA, Neb. ? The young father stood in line at the Kmart layaway counter, wearing dirty clothes and worn-out boots. With him were three small children.
He asked to pay something on his bill because he knew he wouldn't be able to afford it all before Christmas. Then a mysterious woman stepped up to the counter.
"She told him, `No, I'm paying for it,'" recalled Edna Deppe, assistant manager at the store in Indianapolis. "He just stood there and looked at her and then looked at me and asked if it was a joke. I told him it wasn't, and that she was going to pay for him. And he just busted out in tears."
At Kmart stores across the country, Santa seems to be getting some help: Anonymous donors are paying off strangers' layaway accounts, buying the Christmas gifts other families couldn't afford, especially toys and children's clothes set aside by impoverished parents.
Before she left the store Tuesday evening, the Indianapolis woman in her mid-40s had paid the layaway orders for as many as 50 people. On the way out, she handed out $50 bills and paid for two carts of toys for a woman in line at the cash register.
"She was doing it in the memory of her husband who had just died, and she said she wasn't going to be able to spend it and wanted to make people happy with it," Deppe said. The woman did not identify herself and only asked people to "remember Ben," an apparent reference to her husband.
Deppe, who said she's worked in retail for 40 years, had never seen anything like it.
"It was like an angel fell out of the sky and appeared in our store," she said.
Most of the donors have done their giving secretly.
Dona Bremser, an Omaha nurse, was at work when a Kmart employee called to tell her that someone had paid off the $70 balance of her layaway account, which held nearly $200 in toys for her 4-year-old son.
"I was speechless," Bremser said. "It made me believe in Christmas again."
Dozens of other customers have received similar calls in Nebraska, Michigan, Iowa, Indiana and Montana.
The benefactors generally ask to help families who are squirreling away items for young children. They often pay a portion of the balance, usually all but a few dollars or cents so the layaway order stays in the store's system.
The phenomenon seems to have begun in Michigan before spreading, Kmart executives said.
"It is honestly being driven by people wanting to do a good deed at this time of the year," said Salima Yala, Kmart's division vice president for layaway.
The good Samaritans seem to be visiting mainly Kmart stores, though a Wal-Mart spokesman said a few of his stores in Joplin, Mo., and Chicago have also seen some layaway accounts paid off.
Kmart representatives say they did nothing to instigate the secret Santas or spread word of the generosity. But it's happening as the company struggles to compete with chains such as Wal-Mart and Target.
Kmart may be the focus of layaway generosity, Yala said, because it is one of the few large discount stores that has offered layaway year-round for about four decades. Under the program, customers can make purchases but let the store hold onto their merchandise as they pay it off slowly over several weeks.
The sad memories of layaways lost prompted at least one good Samaritan to pay off the accounts of five people at an Omaha Kmart, said Karl Graff, the store's assistant manager.
"She told me that when she was younger, her mom used to set up things on layaway at Kmart, but they rarely were able to pay them off because they just didn't have the money for it," Graff said.
He called a woman who had been helped, "and she broke down in tears on the phone with me. She wasn't sure she was going to be able to pay off their layaway and was afraid their kids weren't going to have anything for Christmas."
"You know, 50 bucks may not sound like a lot, but I tell you what, at the right time, it may as well be a million dollars for some people," Graff said.
Graff's store alone has seen about a dozen layaway accounts paid off in the last 10 days, with the donors paying $50 to $250 on each account.
"To be honest, in retail, it's easy to get cynical about the holidays, because you're kind of grinding it out when everybody else is having family time," Graff said. "It's really encouraging to see this side of Christmas again."
Lori Stearnes of Omaha also benefited from the generosity of a stranger who paid all but $58 of her $250 layaway bill for toys for her four youngest grandchildren.
Stearnes said she and her husband live paycheck to paycheck, but she plans to use the money she was saving for the toys to help pay for someone else's layaway.
In Missoula, Mont., a man spent more than $1,200 to pay down the balances of six customers whose layaway orders were about to be returned to a Kmart store's inventory because of late payments.
Store employees reached one beneficiary on her cellphone at Seattle Children's Hospital, where her son was being treated for an undisclosed illness.
"She was yelling at the nurses, `We're going to have Christmas after all!'" store manager Josine Murrin said.
A Kmart in Plainfield Township, Mich., called Roberta Carter last week to let her know a man had paid all but 40 cents of her $60 layaway.
Carter, a mother of eight from Grand Rapids, Mich., said she cried upon hearing the news. She and her family have been struggling as she seeks a full-time job.
"My kids will have clothes for Christmas," she said.
Angie Torres, a stay-at-home mother of four children under the age of 8, was in the Indianapolis Kmart on Tuesday to make a payment on her layaway bill when she learned the woman next to her was paying off her account.
"I started to cry. I couldn't believe it," said Torres, who doubted she would have been able to pay off the balance. "I was in disbelief. I hugged her and gave her a kiss."
___
Associated Press writers Michael J. Crumb in Des Moines, Iowa; Matt Volz, in Helena, Mont.; and Jeff Karoub in Detroit contributed to this report.
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Saturday, December 17, 2011
This Week's Top Web Comedy Video: Sh*t Girls Say [Video]
Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/sGcOHQfZ8P0/this-weeks-top-web-comedy-video-sht-girls-say
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