United States – Page 36

Embassy threats ‘had no basis in fact’

A high-ranking Yemeni security official has told McClatchy that the Obama administration’s recently announced terror threat which supposedly targeted US embassies had “no basis in fact” and was manufactured merely to dampen opposition to drone strikes.

After initially warning of a terror plot “thought to have been one of the most serious against American and other Western interests since the September 11 attacks,” the US closed 20 embassies and consulates earlier this month, 18 of which reopened soon after.

The announcement of the threat occurred as it was simultaneously acknowledged that the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi last year was linked to a clandestine CIA arms smuggling operation based in the Libyan city that was being used to transport arms to rebels in Syria, many of whom are allied with Al-Qaeda militants.

The announcement of the threat against US embassies also served to justify blanket NSA surveillance, leading some to suggest that the alleged plot was being hyped to distract from the Edward Snowden scandal. It was later claimed that the NSA had intercepted a “conference call” of Al-Qaeda members during which militants discussed an attack.

However, in a report entitled U.S. embassies in Muslim world reopen amid still-murky threats, McClatchy cites, “A high-ranking Yemeni security official speaking on the condition of anonymity,” who told the news outlet that the threat “had no basis in fact,” with the source bemusedly attributing “media reports about imminent terror strikes to a single official’s comments, which he cast as a misguided attempt at shifting public opinion in the face of increasing and unpopular American drone strikes.”

Dozens of people, labeled “suspected militants” by the US, have been killed in Yemen over the last two weeks as a result of at least eight drone strikes, attacks that have outraged Yemeni citizens. According to Princeton University professor and Yemen expert Gregory Johnson, the drone strikes are actually serving to recruit more terrorists.

“There are strikes that kill civilians. There are strikes that kill women and children. And when you kill people in Yemen, these are people who have families. They have clans. And they have tribes. And what we’re seeing is that the United States might target a particular individual because they see him as a member of al-Qaeda. But what’s happening on the ground is that he’s being defended as a tribesman,” said Johnson.

Figures show that 50 civilians are killed for every one terrorist taken out by a drone strike, which means that 95% of the victims are innocent men, women and children.

As Ron Paul noted recently, while the Obama administration is conducting drone strikes in Yemen to supposedly target Al-Qaeda terrorists, the White House is simultaneously supporting the allies of Al-Qaeda terrorists, the vast majority of whom have pledged allegiance to Al-Qaeda, in Syria.

Furthermore, as the high-ranking Yemeni security official reveals, the administration is also apparently manufacturing terror plots in order to justify these drone strikes as well as mass NSA surveillance. – Infowars.com

Facebook bans pro-Israel columnist

By Ruthie Blum. For the past two months, I have intermittently been barred from Facebook.

The first time it happened was in June, when I tried to post my Israel Hayom column. Suddenly, a window popped up, telling me that inappropriate material had been found on, and removed from, my page. I was warned that if I continued violating Facebook’s “community standards,” I would be banned from the social network for good.

The notice included a link specifying these standards, and a demand that I click to acknowledge I had read and understood them. Failure to do so, it said, would result in my inability even to open Facebook to read my newsfeed. I complied.

The following statement appeared: “Facebook gives people around the world the power to publish their own stories, see the world through the eyes of many other people, and connect and share wherever they go. The conversation that happens on Facebook–and the opinions expressed here–mirror the diversity of the people using Facebook. To balance the needs and interests of a global population, Facebook protects expression that meets the community standards outlined on this page. Please review these standards. They will help you understand what type of expression is acceptable, and what type of content may be reported and removed.”

Underneath the explanation, examples of unacceptable content were listed. Among these were “violence and threats,” “self-harm,” “bullying and harassment,” “graphic content,” “nudity and pornography,” and “hate speech.”

I was puzzled. Neither I nor anyone else who had shared articles with me had engaged in any of the above. And, as eagerly as I searched, I couldn’t locate a single dirty picture on my timeline.

Indeed, the only activity visible, other than the occasional photo of one of my family members, was political in nature.

Since global politics is what I write about–with an emphasis on the defense of Israel and criticism of its detractors–this is obviously what dominates my Facebook page. Comments on pieces I post are also related to issues of foreign policy, Zionism, anti-Semitism, the Middle East and the United States.

What, then, could possibly be the reason for my suspension?

Figuring at first that it must be some kind of error, I simply chalked it up to spam and waited until I was allowed back into Facebook’s good graces.

When this warning appeared a second time, however, I did what I always do when baffled by cyberspace–I called my kids. After admonishing me for being an idiot where the Internet is concerned, one of them told me to change my settings. This would prevent other people from posting on my page without my permission. I took his advice and assumed I had solved the problem.

The very next day, I received the warning again, this time with a slightly harsher tone. After all, I had become a serial offender. I was banned not for 24 hours, but for three days. This meant that not only was I unable to post anything, but I could not even “like” anyone else’s posts.

The only good thing about this was that it gave me the chance to snap back at my son that maybe I’m not such an idiot. I had done as he had instructed, and was still getting the menacing message. Ha.

The next step, we decided, was to send a message to the folks at Facebook. Hey, I hollered, I haven’t been posting anything incendiary. Please advise. Alas, no response was forthcoming.

Again I returned to the rules of conduct, to see if I could decipher what I was doing wrong and how I could make it right. The clue was at the bottom of the “community standards” page, in a paragraph titled “Reporting abuse”: “If you see something on Facebook that you believe violates our terms, you should report it to us.”

In other words, someone has been complaining about me to Facebook, reporting abuse on my part. This person clearly doesn’t like what I have to say–which is always from a conservative viewpoint–and has come up with a way to silence me through bullying.

It is actually he or she who is violating Facebook standards, not I. But there is nothing I can do about it, other than go on the defensive, and so far not very effectively.

This is exactly how the enemies of Israel operate. They repeatedly accuse the Jewish state of acting in an illegitimate fashion, thereby placing the burden of proof on the unwitting defendant. It is a brazen and shameless tactic. And it works like a charm.

Facebook is a private enterprise that has the right to choose its users. Those users do not pay for the privilege; and it is a huge privilege for writers to have access to such a massive readership. Whoever has been targeting me knows this full well.

He or she is also aware that all one has to do to ruin Israel’s reputation is to cast aspersions. Social networking takes care of the rest.

UPDATE (7:55 pm): The Observer received the following statement from Facebook:

As our team processes more than one million reports each week, we occasionally make a mistake. In this case, we mistakenly removed content from Ruthie Blum’s profile, and worked to rectify the mistake as soon as we were notified. We apologize for the inconvenience caused due to the removal of this content, and we have already taken steps to prevent this from happening in the future. Additionally, we have removed any blocks on associated accounts. – The Observer

Judge throws out racism claim against celebrity chef

A federal judge in Georgia has thrown out race discrimination claims by a former Savannah restaurant manager whose lawsuit against Paula Deen ended up causing the celebrity cook to lose a big slice of her culinary empire.

Lisa Jackson sued Deen last year, saying she was subjected to racist attitudes during the five years she worked at a Deen restaurant, Uncle Bubba’s Seafood and Oyster House. But U.S. District Court Judge William T. Moore Jr. ruled Monday that Jackson, who is white, has no standing to sue them for race discrimination.

In his ruling, judge Moore said that though others may have allegedly faced discrimination, Jackson can’t sue since she was not one of the victims.

“While Plaintiff may have faced significant challenges in managing a workplace allegedly permeated with racial discrimination, her difficulties do not fall within the zone of interests sought to be protected by Title VII [of the Civil Rights Act of 1964] and cannot support a claim for racial discrimination under that stature,” he said, according to the court order obtained by NBC News.

“We are pleased with the court’s ruling today that Lisa Jackson’s claims of race discrimination have been dismissed,” Deen’s spokeperson Elana Weiss Rose told TODAY. “As Ms. Deen has stated before , she is confident that those who truly know how she lives her life know that she believes in equal opportunity, kindness and fairness for everyone.” – Today

US to soften drug sentences

The Obama administration announced plans on Monday to reduce its use of mandatory sentences for drug offences in order to tackle a cycle of poverty and incarceration in overcrowded jails.

In remarks to the American Bar Association, Attorney General Eric Holder was to call minimum jail terms “counterproductive,” according to excerpts from his speech released in advance.

Holder says the United States should remain strict but be smarter about tackling crime.

And he warned that, while the total US population has increased by a third since 1980, the prison population has soared by 800 percent.

The United States accounts for five percent of the world population but nearly a quarter of all people imprisoned, he said.

“Today, a vicious cycle of poverty, criminality, and incarceration traps too many Americans and weakens too many communities. However, many aspects of our criminal justice system may actually exacerbate this problem, rather than alleviate it,” Holder was to say.

And of 219 000 people jailed in federal as opposed to state-run prisons, nearly half were convicted of drug-related offences.

Altogether, inmates in local, state and federal prisons cost the government $80-billion in 2010 alone, he added, saying it was time for reform.

“We can start by fundamentally rethinking the notion of mandatory minimum sentences for drug-related crimes. Some statutes that mandate inflexible sentences — regardless of the facts or conduct at issue in a particular case — reduce the discretion available to prosecutors, judges, and juries,” Holder said.

He added: “They breed disrespect for the system. When applied indiscriminately, they do not serve public safety. They have had a disabling effect on communities. And they are ultimately counterproductive.”

The mandatory minimum sentences were included in the penal code by Congress in 1986 and 1988.

Holder said he hoped Congress would pass new legislation but in the meantime he has mandated a modification of the Justice Department’s charging policies.

Holder said that under the changes certain low-level, nonviolent drug offenders who have no ties to large-scale organisations, gangs, or cartels will no longer be charged with offences that impose draconian mandatory minimum sentences.

“They now will be charged with offences for which the accompanying sentences are better suited to their individual conduct, rather than excessive prison terms more appropriate for violent criminals or drug kingpins,” he said, according to a draft of his speech.

In a further effort to ease the prison population, Holder announced a change to allow for early release of elderly inmates who did not commit violent crimes and have served significant portions of their sentences.

The American Civil Liberties Union welcomed the changes enthusiastically.

“Today, the attorney general is taking crucial steps to tackle our bloated federal mass incarceration crisis, and we are thrilled by these long-awaited developments,” it said in a statement.

“While today’s announcement is an important step toward a fairer justice system, Congress must change the laws that lock up hundreds of thousands of Americans unfairly and unnecessarily,” the ACLU added.

In 2010, President Barack Obama won passage of a law establishing more equality in sentences for convictions for possessing crack and cocaine. They were stiffer for crack, and most of those convicted of this were black.

That law also did away with mandatory minimum sentences for first time crack possession offences. It was the first such minimum sentencing elimination since the 1970s. – iAfrica.com

Libya claims 14 000 prisoners still on the run

Mandela and Gadaffi in better days... — Mandela and Gadaffi in better days…

Some 14 000 prisoners who escaped from various Libyan detention centres after the 2011 ousting of Muammar Gaddafi are still on the run, the interior minister said Monday.

Speaking less than three weeks after more than 1 200 detainees escaped during riots from a prison in the eastern city of Benghazi, Mohamed al-Cheikh told ministry officials the interior and justice ministries were “working together to get them back to prison so they can serve out their sentences”.

“No fewer than 14 000 former prisoners who were serving sentences including capital punishment and life are still totally free after fleeing from prison,” said Cheikh.

“This situation is one of Libya’s problems,” the official news agency Lana quoted him as saying.

Libya’s authorities have been struggling to reestablish law and order and form a professional police and army since the fall of Gaddafi.

On August 1, in the latest in a string of incidents, 18 prisoners escaped during an attack on a Libyan police vehicle taking them back to prison from a courthouse in the capital. The incident came less than a week after the Benghazi prison riot and jail break. In April, armed men attacked a convoy of prisoners near Tripoli, killing a detainee and wounding others.

The reports of escaped prisoners come in the wake of a recently uncovered American arms transfer to Al Kaida rebels in Syria which cost the lives of three US citizens, including ambassador Chris Stevens. – Sapa/AFP/prisonplanet.com

Rent-a-crowd

So, no one supports your cause? No problem. You can hire supporters, even protesters in the US. A company started last October by 22-year-old Adam Swart provides just this service. In a telephone interview I spoke with Swart about his new found success. “I came up with the idea on a visit to Estonia,” says Swart. At the airport, Swart says he saw a man who was being swarmed by a crowd of excited onlookers. He tells me, “I thought- Why can’t I have that kind of attention?” And so, Swart’s company, Crowds on Demand, was born.

Swart says that business is doing extremely well. According to their website, their office is located in a swanky downtown LA office suite. He says his biggest client so far was a $10k contract, but he would not disclose the client. Not bad for a 22-year-old kid. “We do most of our business through word of mouth. We are able to provide our customers with top-notch service, so they spread the word to other potential clients,” says Swart.

When a reporter asked a paid protester what the protest was for, he told the reporter: “It’s a day to ban guns, I think.” The Event was actually for a new movement called “Purge Day” dealing with mental illness.

Swart says the company does a lot of work in the political realm. He continues to say that they also do work for non-profits and private industries. He cites one recent client, an online marketing group named Virurl, that his company was hired for. According to Swart, having protesters at a convention where Virurl was present increased the company’s revenues by 500%. Apparently the protesters had been hired by Virurl to act against a form of marketing, and Virurl provided a solution to this avenue of marketing. Multiple VIPs were at the convention, and Virurl stuck out when its employees began to show the solution to the protesters concerns to VIPs in the marketing industry.

Swart says that he pays his employees around $15/hour and has a solid staff. He continues, “We are operational in 5 major cities. However, if a big event is proposed then we have been known to travel in order to fulfill our customers demands. We’ve done business in New York, Washington D.C. and Vegas.”

He says that there are many critics, but he enjoys what he does and feels that he is contributing to society. When asked if he ever turns an organization away because of an ideological difference he says that clients are almost never turned away unless they are requesting his company breaks the law.

When I asked Swart whether his company was catering to more liberal, or conservative clients he was unwilling to give a clear answer. Swart seemed to me like a shining star of free market capitalism, so I asked him where he stood on it.

Swarts responded:

“I’m a huge fan of free market capitalism! I believe that the government must foster business and encourage innovation. Government needs to encourage people to innovate… Our government plays a vital role in job production and innovation of technology.”

Although Swart’s understanding of the free market is off-base, I feel perhaps he will develop a greater understanding of it as he matures. Whether you agree with his tactics or not, it is clear that there was a demand, and this young man supplied it. – benswann.com

‘Ed Snowden is Jason Bourne’

A deep distrust of government has led young Americans to hold up NSA leaker Edward Snowden as a hero, Sen. John McCain said Sunday.

“There’s a young generation who believes he’s some kind of Jason Bourne,” the Arizona Republican said during on “Fox News Sunday,” referring to the lead character in the Bourne movie trilogy who battled his own government, particularly the CIA.

Mr. Snowden’s revelations — including details of the National Security Agency’s data-collection efforts — have led to a debate on the national security vs. privacy question, and how to balance the two.

President Obama last week laid out a series of proposed reforms to government spying programs in an effort to reassure Americans that their Fourth Amendment rights aren’t being trampled. His proposals include having a privacy advocate argue against the federal government in court, more restrictions on the mass collection of phone records and other steps.

Mr. McCain, a widely respected figure on national security and his party’s 2008 presidential nominee, said the White House’s recommendations could be beneficial.

But there’s a deeper problem that must be addressed, he said.

“Right now there’s kind of a generational change. Young Americans do not trust this government,” Mr. McCain said. “Without trusting government you can’t do a lot of things.”

Mr. Snowden now has been granted asylum in Russia in another blow to relations between the U.S. and its old Cold War foe. – Washington Times

Obama ‘absolutely certain’ immigration bill would pass

President Barack Obama says he is “absolutely certain” that the Senate’s comprehensive immigration bill would pass the House if majority Republicans brought it up for a vote. But Republicans say they’ll bring up a series of narrow bills instead.

Speaking Friday at the White House, Obama said he would like to see the House act on the Senate bill in September, as soon as they return from summer recess. He urged the House to put forward a bill that could pass, even if does not match the Senate bill. The versions could be reconciled later. Obama says no bill would solve the nation’s immigration problem 100 percent.

The Senate-passed bill would include billions for border security and a path to citizenship for 11 million immigrants in the country illegally. – Breitbart

Oprah Winfrey accuses Swiss shop of ‘racism’, gets apology

Switzerland is a glamorous playground of the rich and famous, filled with glitterati from princes to movie stars. It’s also a land with a sometimes uneasy relationship with foreigners – especially when they aren’t white.

Billionaire media mogul Oprah Winfrey says she ran into Swiss racism when a clerk at Trois Pommes, a pricey Zurich boutique, refused to show her a $38,000 handbag, telling one of the world’s richest women that she wouldn’t be able to afford it. Winfrey earned $77 million in the year ending in June, according to Forbes magazine.

“She said: ‘No, no, no, you don’t want to see that one. You want to see this one. Because that one will cost too much; you will not be able to afford that,'” Winfrey, appearing on the U.S. television program “Entertainment Tonight,” quoted the clerk as saying. “And I said, ‘Well, I did really want to see that one.’ And she refused to get it.”

She brought up the incident during an interview about her new movie, “Lee Daniels’ The Butler,” which opens next week and focuses on civil rights and race relations in the U.S. She was asked to open up about her own experiences with discrimination.

Swiss tourism officials and the boutique owner were quick to offer apologies Friday.

“We are very sorry for what happened to her, of course, because we think all of our guests and clients should be treated respectfully, in a professional way,” Daniela Baer, a spokeswoman for the Swiss tourism office, told The Associated Press.

The tourism office also posted an apology on Twitter, saying, “This person acted terribly wrong.”

The newspaper Blick described the bag as a crocodile-leather Tom Ford design named for actress Jennifer Aniston, a fan of the American designer. It quoted Goetz as saying the bag was priced at 35,000 Swiss francs.

Boutique owner Trudie Goetz told Swiss public broadcaster SRF that she believed the incident was a misunderstanding when the store clerk, who is mainly an Italian speaker, explained how expensive the bag was.

“I’m very sorry about this incident,” Goetz said. “And this can only happen because of a communication problem and a misunderstanding.

“The shop assistant apparently asked her (Oprah) if she would like to see the bag, but she apparently said ‘No, I just want to look’. And then she (Oprah) asked how much the bag costs and she (the employee) told her how much the bag was.”

Goetz added that “I believe she rather said something like ‘we have some less expensive’ – ‘we also have some less expensive bags’ and not ‘it’s too expensive for you.’ “

Winfrey was in Switzerland to attend the wedding of her longtime friend Tina Turner, who has lived in Zurich for many years and has been quoted saying how much she enjoys living among the Swiss. Turner was granted a passport earlier this year, a process that typically takes years.

Goetz, who was photographed at Turner’s wedding, stressed that the Oprah incident “has nothing to do with racism – really. Tina Turner is one of my best friends and it’s out of the question (that this has anything to do with racism).”

About 23 percent of Switzerland’s 8 million residents are non-Swiss, and the country earned more than $39 billion from tourism in 2011.

Last year, though, a government-appointed commission reported that immigrants, tourists, asylum-seekers and “people of a different skin color” can encounter “xenophobia and racism in certain areas of life.”

The nationalistic Swiss People’s Party, which has the largest number of seats in the federal parliament, has won support through claims that immigrants can bring crime and social problems to a country that has been an oasis of stability even in Europe’s darkest days.

In recent years, the People’s Party has successfully campaigned to ban the construction of minarets in a country that has about 400,000 Muslims, and to tighten the nation’s asylum law. Swiss lawmakers also narrowly rejected a proposal to ban veils worn by some Muslim women in public.

And this week, a row broke out over plans to bar asylum-seekers living in the small town of Bremgarten from visiting public swimming pools and attending schools.

Human Rights Watch said the agreement by the Swiss migration office to let the town impose “house rules” to limit access to schools and sports facilities violates international law.

It wasn’t the first time Winfrey has taken issue with treatment at a ritzy European boutique. In 2005, she was turned away from a Hermes shop in Paris 15 minutes after closing time. The store said it was closed for a private event.

A Hermes executive appeared on Winfrey’s talk show to apologize for the “rigid and rude” behavior of the employee. Winfrey complimented Hermes on its response – including sensitivity training for employees – and urged viewers to buy the company’s products.

In “The Butler,” Winfrey plays the wife of a butler who is a witness to history, from the cotton fields of Georgia to the White House. It is based loosely on the career of Eugene Allen, a black man who served as a White House butler from the Eisenhower through Reagan administrations.

During the TV interview, Winfrey said that “true racism is about being able to have power over somebody else,” and that she sometimes encounters it along with sexism in boardrooms. Then she recounted the incident in Zurich while she went shopping alone.

“Obviously, ‘The Oprah Winfrey Show’ is not shown in Zurich. So this doesn’t happen to me unless somebody obviously doesn’t know that it’s me,” she said.

A spokesman for Zurich’s tourist office, Christian Trottmann, called the incident “very regrettable” and said it obviously hurts the image of a friendly, world-class city accustomed to different cultures.

“We are inviting her to come back to Zurich and have fun here,” he said, “so she can see how open-minded this city really is.” – AP

US man held after murdering wife and posting pic on Facebook

A US man was being quizzed by police on Thursday after gunning down his wife and posting a gruesome picture of her dead body on Facebook, authorities said.

Derek Medina, 31, was being questioned by detectives in Miami after turning himself in earlier Thursday following the shooting death of wife Jennifer Alfonso, 26.

In a macabre twist, Medina had apparently posted a picture showing his slain wife’s blood-soaked body on Facebook, under the caption “RIP Jennifer Alfonso,” before giving himself up.

In a status update posted shortly before the photo was uploaded, Medina wrote: “You will see me in the news.”

“Im going to prison or death sentence for killing my wife love you guys miss you guys takecare Facebook people you will see me in the news,” he wrote.

“My wife was punching me and I am not going to stand anymore with the abuse so I did what I did I hope u understand me.”

Police said Medina drove himself to the South Miami Police Department following the shooting.

“Officers then responded to the listed location where they found the victim deceased from apparent gunshot wounds, as well as the victim’s daughter, 10, who was unharmed,” a statement said.

“The motive is unknown at this time.”

Medina’s Facebook page showing the picture of his dead wife was up for several hours before being taken down later Thursday.

Beneath the photo — which was shared 170 times before the page was closed down — were comments from people who appeared to be friends with the dead woman.

“That is my friend there, Jennifer Alfonso,” one woman wrote.

“What happened?” asked another.

Local media reports quoted Medina’s father, Derek Medina Sr, as saying his son had killed his wife after a violent domestic dispute.

“He just said that his wife picked up a knife on him, and they had a big fight, and he shot her,” Medina said.

According to the Miami New Times blog, Medina once penned a self-help book online entitled: “How I Saved Someone’s Life and Marriage and Family Problems Thru Communication.”

Medina’s neighbors meanwhile described him as a self-appointed neighborhood watchman who patrolled the area with a concealed gun.

“He walks around with a concealed gun, so he tries to be the neighborhood watch guy,” neighbor Yoshi Dade told NBC Miami.

“He’s always there late (at) night, and he’s weird to me. He’s always kind of looking around and trying to be a hero.” – AFP

Drunk suspect threatens police with voodoo curse

A Cadillac-driving OUI (common acronym for drunk driving) suspect — charged with running a Boston Globe delivery truck off Interstate 93 and onto the Leverett Connector — was carrying three EBT cards, mocked a cop “for paying for food when she gets it for free” and threatened to put a voodoo curse on him, according to a police report. [Recipients with food stamp benefits can use their EBT Card for eligible food purchases at most grocery stores and some other retailers for free]

“I questioned her as to why she had other peoples (sic) EBT cards and she  began screaming that I was a ‘dumb (expletive)’ for paying for food when she gets it for free,” trooper William Kokocinski wrote of Vivencia  Bellegarde, 25, of Everett, noting she had her own electronic benefits transfer card and also the cards of two other people.

“She repeatedly called me a racist and told me she was from Haiti and she was gonna ‘put voodoo on my white (expletive),’” Kokocinski wrote. “(She) told me to Google her name and find out who I was ‘(expletive) with’. She further explained that her name translated means ‘give life take life’ and she emphasized ‘TAKE LIFE’. She then shouted that she was ‘coming for all you white (expletives).’”

A spokesman for the state Department of Transitional Assistance, which administers welfare, said in a statement the agency has been notified of Bellegarde’s EBT cards “and will take appropriate action.”

“DTA investigates every tip that it receives from members of the public or law enforcement, and refers cases to the auditor’s Bureau of Special Investigations for further action, which has the power to investigate potential criminal matters,” the statement said.

Bellegarde, who is listed as unemployed in court  papers, is being held on $10,000 bail on charges of drunken driving causing serious injury. Surveillance video of the 3:13 a.m. Monday crash shows a car slamming into the Globe truck, forcing it off the roadway and into a frightening 40-foot free fall. The truck came apart on impact with the Leverett Connector  on-ramp below.

The truck driver, Paul Healy Jr., 35, of Brockton, was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital, where he was in fair condition yesterday. He declined to comment yesterday through a family member.

Bellegarde told cops she’d left a party prior to the crash, and “didn’t care about the guy she hit because he isn’t dead and that all she cares about is smoking a cigarette,” the report says. Her mood fluctuated greatly during booking, the report says, and at one point she began crying about her 5-year-old child.

Bellegarde at first denied driving the heavily damaged 2006 Cadillac DTS sedan, which Kokocinski spotted while on his way to the Globe truck crash, police said. Bellegarde’s attorney, Hassan Willians, said his client “has no comment. She’s looking forward to her day in court.”

Bellegarde’s driving record  includes 10 suspensions, many for failing to pay citations. Last year, her license was suspended for 30 days in connection with a first-offense drunken-driving charge in Lincoln from September 2011. Her license will be suspended for three years because she refused a Breathalyzer test in Monday’s crash, according to the Registry of Motor Vehicles.

The Lincoln arrest report says Bellegarde reeked of booze and had front-end damage on her car when she called cops to ask them for help with her tires on a 5 a.m. trek home from a Boston club. She failed sobriety tests but was “polite and  cooperative,” the reporting officer wrote. – Boston Herald

Toddler drowns while babysitter gawks at Facebook

A black woman from Dallas who allegedly was distracted by Facebook has been charged after a 3-year-old girl she was supposed to watch drowned in a pool.

Dallas County jail records show 37-year-old Kariasa Thomas was being held Wednesday on a charge of reckless injury to a child.

Officials say Kanyce Giddings couldn’t swim and drowned on June 22.

Police say Thomas was watching a friend’s four children, including Kanyce, at an apartment complex pool that closed for the evening. An affidavit says Thomas told police she used her phone to log on to Facebook for about 15 minutes, plus played with her dog.

The victim’s body was found in the pool.

Thomas was booked Saturday with bond set at $25,000. No attorney could immediately be located for her Wednesday. – CBS News

Florida teen dies from police stun gun shock

Miami Beach police say an 18-year-old died after being shocked with a stun gun as he resisted arrest for spraying graffiti.

Chief Ray Martinez told the Miami Herald that officers spotted Israel Hernandez-Llach painting graffiti on an abandoned fast-food restaurant early Tuesday. Martinez said the teen ran, but was eventually cornered. He said Hernandez-Llach then ran at the officers and one shot him with a Taser in the chest. The teen went into medical duress and died at a hospital.

The teen’s friends told the Herald that Hernandez-Llach was originally from Colombia. His teachers at Miami Beach High School said he was a talented artist and photographer. – AP

Obama cancels meeting with Putin over Snowden

US President Barack Obama has canceled a meeting with President Vladimir Putin in Moscow which was scheduled for September. The move comes after Russia’s recent decision to grant temporary asylum to NSA leaker Edward Snowden.

The US decision is seemingly a diplomatic snub to Russia amid heightened tensions between the two countries over recent issues listed by the White House as “missile defense and arms control, trade and commercial relations, global security issues, and human rights and civil society in the last 12 months.”

“Russia’s disappointing decision to grant Edward Snowden temporary asylum was also a factor that we considered in assessing the current state of our bilateral relationship,” Washington said in a statement.

Citing lack of progress on this and other agenda items, the White House said the president deemed it more “constructive” to postpone the summit.

Instead of visiting Putin in Moscow, Obama will add a stop in Sweden to his early September travel itinerary.

Moreover, the US president will not be meeting alone his Russian counterpart while he stops over in St. Petersburg for the G20 summit, diplomats said.

Russia responded by saying it is “disappointed” by the move, with Putin’s aide Yury Ushakov adding that the situation showed the US “is still not ready to build relations with Russia on an equal footing.” It is “clear” that the decision is related to Snowden, he said, reminding that the US for its part has repeatedly refused Russia’s past extradition requests.

The cancelation comes just after President Obama expressed his “disappointment” on Snowden’s asylum – and talked of Moscow slipping into “Cold War” mode despite his calls for negotiations.

“There have been times where they slip back into Cold-War thinking and a Cold-War mentality,” Obama told to Tonight Show host Jay Leno Tuesday night. “And what I consistently say to them, and what I say to President Putin, is that’s the past and we’ve got to think about the future, and there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to cooperate.”

Edward Snowden, whose US passport has been revoked, was granted one year’s temporary asylum in Russia last Thursday, finally leaving the confines of the Moscow airport where he had been holed up since June 23. His new residence permit allows the former CIA employee to work and freely travel all across Russia.

The former CIA employee is wanted in the US on espionage charges after revealing secret NSA surveillance programs to the public.

Among other issues, Russia and the US have considerable differences over the situation in Syria, with the US government determined to see President Bashar Assad ousted from his position. The House and Senate Intelligence Committees gave a green light to arm Syrian rebels at the end of July.

Obama has also voiced antipathy towards Russian legislation against gay rights activism, saying on the Tonight Show that he has “no patience for countries that try to treat gays and lesbians and transgendered persons in ways that intimidate them or are harmful to them.”

The last time the two leaders met was in June at the G8 Summit in Ireland.

The G20 summit will be held on September 5-6, with the US deeming it sensible to still attend, as the annual gathering brings together the world’s largest economies. Obama said that it makes sense for the US to have high-level representation at the event. – RT