WWII vet, beaten by teens outside Eagles Lodge, dies

I'm beyond angry - speechless. - God Bless the Greatest Generation - the suspects are nothing but rotten animals that absolutely deserve the most painful death possible. - COB

SPOKANE, Wash. -

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• Photos of homicide suspects

WWII veteran Delbert Belton survived being wounded in action during the Battle of Okinawa only to be beaten and left for dead by two teens at the Eagles Lodge in Spokane on Wednesday evening.

Belton, 88, succumbed to his injuries Thursday morning at Sacred Heart Medical Center.

Witnesses say Belton was in the parking lot of the Eagles Lodge at 6410 N. Lidgerwood, adjacent to the Eagles Ice-A-Rena, around 8 p.m. Wednesday when the two male suspects attacked him as he was about to head inside to play pool.

Police responded with K-9s to track the suspects' scent but were not able to locate them.

"It does appear random. He was in the parking lot, it appears he was assaulted in the parking lot and there was no indication that he would have known these people prior to the assault," Spokane Police Major Crimes Detective Lieutenant Mark Griffiths said.

Belton died from his injuries Thursday morning at Sacred Heart Medical Center.

"Shorty," as he was known by his friends at the Eagles Lodge, served in the U.S. Army in the Pacific during WWII and was shot in the leg during the Battle of Okinawa. He went on to work at Kaiser Aluminum at the company's Trentwood plant for more than 30 years. Belton's wife passed away several years ago.

He loved playing pool, even though he claimed he was no good at it and had been a member of the Eagles Lodge for the last four months. In addition to playing pool he loved working on cars.

Shorty was Ted Denison's best friend of 23 years; the two played pool occasionally and worked on cars daily.

"He was always there for me when I needed him," Denison said. "We'd joke back and forth. We were always having fun, some sort of fun."

He was the kind of nice old man who'd become your friend in minutes.

"Probably every time I come into town, he'd have a project for me to do," Denison said. "I thought of him more as a dad than I did a friend really."

Now, with the suspects still at large and the Spokane Police Department working to track them down, Shorty's friends are hoping for justice.

"I don't understand how somebody could do this. I really don't," Denison said.

Spokane police are looking for two male suspects in the attack. They said the suspects are African Americans between 16 and 19 years old. One suspect was described as heavy set and wearing all black clothing. The other was described as being about 6 feet tall and 150 pounds. There was no description of what clothing the second suspect was wearing other than a silk do-rag.

Police investigating the deadly attack on Belton have also obtained surveillance footage from the scene. Click this linkto see still images of the two suspects in the attack.

http://www.kxly.com/news/spokane-news/elderly-man-dies-after-being-attacked-outside-ice-arena/-/101214/21574858/-/9flm7iz/-/index.html

Haverhill Womans $1593.00 water bill.....yikes

From the LET - this is a prime example of what angers me about Haverhill and it's city management. - COB

The city’s Water Department couldn’t find a leak at a Haverhill woman’s home, and neither could a privately hired plumber.

Now the woman is being asked to pay a whopper of a water bill, nearly $1,600 for three months usage instead of her normal $100.

Anne Proctor and the city appear to be at an impasse. She said it must have been a mistake, possibly a faulty meter reading, while city water officials say the meter was operating properly and that the big bill likely resulted from an undetected leak that somehow was eventually resolved.

The only recourse Proctor has is to file for an abatement with the city in hopes of being granted some sort of leniency, officials said.

“Unfortunately, I have no choice but to pay it,” said Proctor, who owns a condex near Haverhill High School. “You should not have to pay and then try to get your money back. But I will pay my bill, just as long as it’s an accurate bill.”

She said she was told she has to pay the bill before she can go before the city’s Water and Wastewater Abatement Board to plead her case.

“I’m angry and frustrated,” Proctor said. “If I pay this in full, it’s more than my mortgage (payment). And if I pay it in installments, they’ll charge me 14 percent interest.”

The situation Proctor finds herself in began when she received her most recent quarterly water bill.

Instead of her typical bill of about $100 for roughly 12,000 gallons of water, Proctor was billed $1,593 for about 185,000 gallons of water — more than 15 times her average water usage for three months.

She said she doesn’t have a swimming pool, doesn’t have a lawn sprinkler system and can’t explain such an abnormally high level of usage.

“I called the Water Department thinking it was an error and was told I have a leak and that I must have used all that water,” she said. “How can one person use that much?”

Proctor said the city gave her dye tablets to test for leaks, but she could not detect any leaks. She then hired a plumber, who also could not find any leaks, she said.

“The water plant manager was here and he said there didn’t seem to be any leaks,” she said. “If a toilet tank was leaking, I would have heard it.”

“Whether I heard it or not, there wasn’t a leak,” she said.

Robert Ward, the city’s water and sewer director, said meter readings confirmed the high level of usage, and that testing of the meter showed it was working properly.

Proctor said the plumber she hired tested all the fixtures in her home, but was unable to detect any leaks.

“I met with Bob Ward and he said I could get a meter test done, which we had done by the city meter reader,” she said.

Proctor said her meter was replaced with a new one and that her father, John Proctor, was present when the meter which was removed from her home was tested. John Proctor said he’s read about faulty meter readings taking place in communities across the country and wonders if there is an undiscovered problem with the meter that was removed from his daughter’s home.

“Since they tested the meter, I’ve found that it’s not a definitive test as air could get into the line and disrupt the reading and vibrations could affect the meter as well, causing a false reading,” John Proctor said. “But when you passed pure water through it, the meter was correct.”

Ward said a leaky toilet tank could result in the loss of more than one gallon of water per minute, which he said would amount to about 1,875 gallons lost per day, or 168,750 gallons lost in three months.

“Whether it was a toilet leak, a faucet leak or something else, we just don’t know,” Ward said.

Anne Proctor said she has filed for an abatement, but there is no guarantee she will get any relief. And if she doesn’t pay her bill, she’s worried the city will shut off her water.

“That’s what they told me will happen if I don’t pay the bill,” she said. “And for a building to be habitable, you have to have running water.”

Ward said the abatement board, of which he is chairman, will try to be fair.

“If you come before the board and tell us you hired a plumber, that the meter usage is back to normal and that you’ve checked everything and can you help me out, purely on the basis of financial relief, and the board understands that,” Ward said.

But, Ward said the board will want to be assured the problem is not going to happen again.

“A typical scenario is if you have a high bill, you pay the bill, find the leak, submit your bills to the board, come to a meeting and state your case,” Ward said. “Before the meeting, we’ll go out and read the meter to ensure the usage is at a normal level.”

Ward said the abatement process takes time. He said the abatement board meets every two or three months, based on the billing cycle.

Ward said the board he chairs is made of four residents appointed by the mayor.

“We understand that things happen and that a lot of things can go wrong, which is why we have the abatement board process,” Ward said. “These are water/wastewater user rates and we can’t arbitrarily tell someone we’ll give them their money back. We have a specific process for obtaining some relief.”

Ward said water/wastewater customers can help avoid running into situations like these by checking their water meter readings on a regular basis.

http://www.eagletribune.com/haverhill/x86505806/Woman-shocked-by-1-593-water-bill/?state=taberU

Ashton Kutcher: "I Believe That Opportunity Looks A Lot Like Hard Work"

Now - I know I'll take some heat posting a quote from a video from this guy - but I like the message - it's a good seed to plant for future generations - assuming we'll have a next generation that CAN appreciate hard work - COB

ASHTON KUTCHER: I believe that opportunity looks a lot like hard work. I've never had a job in my life that I was better than. I was always just lucky to have a job. And every job I had was a steppingstone to my next job, and I never quit my job until I had my next job. And so opportunities look a lot like work.

###

KUTCHER: The sexiest thing in the entire world is being really smart and being thoughtful, and being generous. Everything else is crap, I promise you. It's just crap that people try to sell to you to make you feel like less. So don't buy it. Be smart, be thoughtful, and be generous.

"State welfare is a poorly run charity"

I really enjoyed this letter to the editor at the tribune this morning - well said, and mirrors in many ways, exactly how I feel....----COB

To the editor:

We are told that we should donate to charities to help those less fortunate than ourselves. I do that regularly, choosing those organizations that I feel make the most of my donations. There are various ways to research these charities. We can find out how much of each dollar actually goes to helping the needy. There are many charities and non-profits that have overpaid directors, no accountability for where the money actually goes, and no oversight making sure that the people who do get help are actually deserving of that help, and are virtually ineffective in helping the needy get back on their feet. Personally, I don’t choose to donate to ineffective organizations. It does not make sense to me to do so. Donating to these organizations is just like throwing money in the trash. It doesn’t help anybody but the administrators of the organizations.

The Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance is a government-run charity organization. The government doesn’t call it a charity, but, that is exactly what it is. This charity is funded exclusively by taxpayers. The DTA has been found to be less than diligent in making sure the funds are distributed to needy and deserving people. The DTA pays benefits to dead people. The DTA pays benefits to people committing identity fraud. The DTA pays benefits to people who are in this country illegally. There is absolutely no accountability in that organization. The organization requires nothing from its “clients.” They do not have to work, perform community service, go to school for job training and are not required to pay the money back. It has been reported that one-third of its “clients” are not even eligible for the benefits they are receiving.

With the amount of mismanagement, abuse, fraud, ineffectiveness and the lack of accountability, this is not a charitable organization to which I would voluntarily contribute. I am sure that if this were a privately run charity, donors would run quickly in the opposite direction. I know that I would. However, you and I are being forced to fund this mismanaged organization. We have no choice. We have to pay our taxes and a portion of our taxes are then given to the DTA to waste.

I have to wonder at the legality of this. Is it legal for the federal government and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to force taxpayers to financially support a charity that is this mismanaged? Is it legal for them to require us to fund any charity? I was under the belief that charitable donations were voluntary and that we have the right to choose to which charities we contribute.

I want to donate to a charity that helps people that are willing to help themselves. A charity that helps people that want to support themselves but need some help getting to that point. I don’t want to fund a charity that gives money to criminals, gang members, and others who just want the freebies and don’t have any intention of trying to improve their situation.

The government is violating our rights by forcing us to fund charitable organizations that we would never agree to fund voluntarily. If this isn’t illegal, it should be.

Judy Berezansky

Haverhill

http://www.eagletribune.com/opinion/x86504325/Your-view-Letters-to-the-editor

Obama wants to tack on $5-a-year phone tax to fund high-speed Internet in schools

another tax - which is another pay cut for working people - how much more can you take? - COB

WASHINGTON — That’s one way to “cell” a fee hike.

Unwilling to ask Congress for extra funds to pay for high-speed Internet connections in schools, President Obama is instead looking to tack yet another charge on cellphones through the Federal Communications Commission.

The new program, called ConnectED, would expand an existing school-wiring effort and cost each cellphone user about $5 a year, said White House officials.

In New York City, the ubiquitous mobile devices already carry 10 separate city, state and federal fees and charges — and that doesn’t include sales taxes.

Obama is relying on the fee hike to avoid dealing with a Congress that White House deputy press secretary Josh Earnest yesterday described as “dysfunctional.”

“You would think that connecting schools to the information superhighway would be a pretty noncontroversial topic,” Earnest told reporters in Martha’s Vineyard, where the first family is on vacation.

“Unfortunately, we haven’t seen a lot of action in Congress, so the president has advocated an administrative, unilateral action to get this done.”

Administration officials said the added fee would sunset after three years after generating about $6 billion.

But critics worry it would continue forever.

According to an FCC survey, half the nation’s schools reported slower Internet connections than the average home.

Pressed on the program yesterday, Earnest denied the program was an “end run” around Congress.

“This is a program that’s already in place. They just need to make a decision about whether or not they want to update this program so they can wire schools to the Internet. The president thinks that’s a no-brainer,” he said.

Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) slammed the “endless expansion of the program at the expense of rate payers.”

The initial White House fact sheet on the program didn’t mention anything about a fee hike, although the Washington Post reported on it.

The fact sheet stated that the program will connect 99 percent of American schools to the “digital age” and that the president “is calling on the FCC to modernize and leverage the existing E-rate program.”

The independent FCC currently has only three members, two of whom were appointed by Democrats.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/obama_celling_out_UtCvorWrEsMDxEheVWEmKO

Huma Abedin, Alger Hiss? Pay no attention to the extensive Muslim Brotherhood connections of Hillary Clinton's confidante.

Good article on the MSM ignoring potential Muslim Brotherhood ties.....- COB

For standing by her putative man, the exposed Anthony Weiner, Huma Abedin has for the first time received some negative press attention amid the avalanche of coverage calling her “smart,” “accomplished” and “elegant.” But still off-limits has been any discussion in the mainstream media of her numerous ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.

It’s not that the evidence is lacking. It’s that the politically correct elites have forbidden examination or discussion of it. Even to question whether Abedin has any connections with the Brotherhood, and whether those connections had any influence over Hillary Clinton’s decisions as secretary of State, is to demonstrate that one is a bigot, a racist, an Islamophobe, and a hatemonger, as well as a hysterical paranoiac.

Indeed, one infallible way to determine a stranger’s political positions on just about anything is to ask if he or she thinks Huma Abedin has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. If the stranger responds with righteous outrage, you’re dealing with a doctrinaire, mainstream liberal. If, on the other hand, the response is, “Yes, that is something that should be investigated,” you’re face-to-face with a Tea Partier.

That’s why Huma Abedin is the new Alger Hiss. For decades, ever since the former State Department official and advisor to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was outed as a Soviet spy in the most celebrated espionage case of the nation’s history, the leftist establishment stoutly insisted that Hiss was innocent. Even today, some refuse to acknowledge the “present-day consensus among historians…that Alger Hiss was in fact a Soviet spy.”

But the controversy over whether or not Hiss was a Communist and a spy for the Soviets was (and is) not just a dispute over the evidence. It was, for the Left, a measure of whether or not you were a decent human being. Anna Roosevelt Halsted, the daughter of Eleanor and Franklin, said in 1956 that Hiss’s accuser, Whittaker Chambers, was “contemptible” and clearly “out to get” Hiss. Her mother said at a 1961 dinner party that Chambers was “utterly contemptible and probably a psychopathic liar.” Adlai Stevenson, present at the same gathering of liberal glitterati, agreed that the prosecution of Hiss was “one of the darker chapters in U.S. history.”

Bloomberg bought a $13,000 Bath Tub

another politician from the 'do as I say - not as I do' mentality - just may sure you don't drink 20oz Soda - right Mikey? - COB

Rub-a-dub-dub, a filthy-rich mayor will be soaking in this kind of tub!

Here’s a near-replica example of the high-end bathtub for which Mayor Bloomberg is shelling out some $13,000.

The copper tub was crafted in northern France, in a painstaking, 250-hour effort at the 200-year-old shop, Atelier du Cuivre.

“This bathtub is representative of all of the know-how of our craftsmen,” master craftsman Jean-Pierre Couget, who supervised the tub’s construction, told Ouest-France newspaper.

“It is the best bathtub that our establishment has ever made.”

FilmMagic

Michael Bloomberg

Atelier du Cuivre owner Etienne Dulin said Bloomberg’s new tub has a special nickel finish, which will give it a particularly shiny coat.

The new tub was cut from two sheets of 2mm-thick copper.

The small shop specializes in copper fixtures — as do other artisans in the 3,800-resident town of Villedieu-les-Poeles.

Atelier du Cuivre makes only two or three of these bathtubs each year, according to Dulin.

“For this level of quality, we are practically the only ones in the world who do it,” said Dulin, whose shop recently built new clocks for the Cathedral of Notre Dame.

The French artisans promised Bloomberg will be getting a world-class soak every time he sets foot in his 13-grand tub.

“The advantage of copper is that it takes the temperature of the water almost immediately, which means the heat of the bath is lost less quickly,” Dulin said. “Apart from that, it is very good for the skin and it kills bacteria.”

Hizzoner, whom Forbes estimates to be worth $27 billion, is renovating his five-story Upper East Side town house at a reported cost of $1.7 million.

The brand-new bathtub should be delivered to Bloomberg, who leaves office at the end of the year, by the end of this month.

“These days, those who have money are looking for ways to distinguish themselves from the crowd and we are virtually alone in the world in being able to deliver this kind of quality,” Dulin said.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/soaking_in_tyle_V4ARRnvDFl8SxNLnGqAl4K