Sherman’s News and Editorials

Garron A. Thomas is a 28 year old man from Chicago. Mr. Thomas was charged with driving on a revoked license, driving without insurance and illegal transportation of alcohol at Steger Road and Donovan Drive, IL. Melvin Brooks is a 57 year old man from 28 Oakview Road, Matteson, IL. Mr. Brooks was charged with DUI at Central Avenue and Allemong Drive. If you are in need of a reasonably priced Chicago dui lawyer I suggest Mathew R. Miller. Miller is a Chicago dui lawyer in the Chicagoland area. A Chicago area home front glass window was shattered with BB gun in the 100 block of Stephens Street. A Chicago area shopping bag with magazines, family possession and car keys was stolen from an unlocked vehicle in the 5000 block of 211th Street, Chicago, IL. Four wheel caps were stolen from a vehicle in the 100 block of Pheasant Road. Kayode Oyefeso is a 36 year old man, from Chicago, Mr. Oyefoeso was charged with driving on a revoked license and having expired registration in the 3900 block of U.S. 30. A Chicago area leather purse and a school backpack were stolen from a vehicle in the 3500 block of North Street. A Chicago area side window was shattered to gain entry. Christopher Walker is a 49 year old man from Chicago IL. Mr. Walker was charged with retail theft after allegedly stealing $712 worth of merchandise from Target, 4647 Promenade Way, IL. A Chicago area rock was thrown through a vehicle’s windshield in the 21100 block of Keeler Avenue. Someone threw an apple through a home’s kitchen window July 24 in the 4100 block of Charleston Road. Curtis A. Neely is a 36 year old man from 302 Sheridan Street, Park Forest, and Berwick Short Jr. is a 49 year old man from 490 W. 12th St., Chicago Heights, both men were charged with retail theft after allegedly stealing $373 worth of clothing from Wal-Mart, IL.

Here is another weird crime and justice article:  The Fire Arts Festival that was held in the 1200 block of Seventh Street is where two women were leaving and returning to their vehicle when they were accosted and robbed. In connection with this robbery and assault one man has been arrested and police are seeking two other people that were involved in the incident. By the way you can finfd additional legal and national headline news stories over at the Merlin News Weblog  ………Over there you can find a plethera of news stories and editorials from the unique viewpoint of Merlin himself. Alright now back to the story that could easily find itself mentioned on Jay Leno’s stupid criminal segment:

   According to reports statements from Police Officer Jason Andersen the women were leaving the Fire Arts Festival at approximately 12:15 a.m. when they were approached and threatened by what has been found to be a toy gun. The women whose identities have not been released other than their ages of 56 and 65. The women were in the 700 block of Union Street when three men that are known of approached them, one man told the 56 year old woman he wanted her backpack while holding a gun. The woman refused, the man grabbed the backpack and the woman was thrown to the ground. As the man reached for the backpack the gun fell, the woman grabbed the gun and at this time realized it was a toy plastic gun. The man commanded that she return the gun, which she did, during the time that this took place another man grabbed the 65 year old woman’s purse and threw her to the ground.

    During these events the women were screaming for help and when the robbers left on foot. Two police officers that were in the vicinity of Union Street and 8^th Street heard the calls for help. Upon hearing the incident perused the men they had seen walking away from the scene, the two officers have been identified as Officer Michael Mack and Officer David Chapman.

   Along with other officers one of the suspects were found in a yard and the backpack was found near by, this man has been identified as Derrick Turner age 39 and he was identified by the victims. Turner was arrested for an alleged two counts of armed robbery.

   The toy gun has not been found and the victims who had lost bankcards and credit cards have had some of the items found when Turner was apprehended.

I recently finished reading a great book about the career of top movie actor Robert De Niro.
Man what a career! And what a disciplined guy. His work ethic and approach has really inspired me in other areas of my life, since I myself am not an actor.
He would always say that “You have to earn the right to Play a Role” or something to that effect. For a role such as his Oscar Winning performance in ‘Raging Bull’
that meant not only working closely with the real life middle weight champion Jake Lamotta but also becoming a boxer himself. He became very good, winning most of his fights. Lamotta claimed he would have been among the top
20 middleweights if he had become a professional. He became so good that he was dangerous, breaking Joe Pesci’s ribs
during the filming despite Joe wearing a thick vest. One funny thing happened involving director Martin Scorsese, who could not stand blood. De Nero, when training during real fights,
yelled at Scorsese as he was leaving “where are you going? Stay here! I am doing this for you, you know!”. He apparently wqas forced to watch the carnage.

My personal favorite Robert De Nero films include ‘Heat’ in which he plays an ace thief. Co-stars include Al Pacino, Val Kilmer, Jon Voight, Diane Venora and Ton Loc, among several others.
I also liked him as Al Capone in the classic 1987 thriller ‘The Untouchables’ which co-starred Andy Garcia, Kevin Costner, Sean Connery and Marcia Gay-Harden. Directed by Brian De Palma.
I also thought ‘Were No Angels’ was cool. This 1989 film co-starred Sean Pean, Demi Moore and John C. Reilly. Him and Penn play escaped convicts on the run, posing as catholic priests.
I liked ‘Cape Fear’. he played criminal Max Cady in a tour-de force performance. According to the book his preperation for this role was incredible. he was nominated for best actor for it in 1991.
Co-stars include Nick Nolte, Jessica Lange, Juliette Lewis, Robert Mitchum and Gregory Peck.
He was also nominated for best actor for the 1990 flick ‘The Awakenings’ which co-starred Robin Williams,
the 1978 Vietnam War flick ‘The Deer Hunter’ which co-starred Meryl Streep and Christopher Walken, and he won an oscar for best supporting actor
for his brilliant work in the 1974 blockbuster ‘The Godfather part 2′
He also got major kudos for his work opposite Jeremy Irons in ‘The Mission’, Terry Gilliams science fiction film ‘Brazil’,
and ‘Casino’ opposite Sharon Stone and Joe Pesci. Of and Goodfellas and ‘Mean Streets’ as well, both directed by Martin Scorsese.
Robert De Niro has also directed 2 films: ‘A Bronx Tale’ and the recent Matt Damon & Angelina Jolie thriller ‘The Good Shepard’

In an AP story from new York as reported by yahoo news it was announced
that the Apple Corporation will permit 3rd-party applications on the iPhone, according to CEO Steve Jobs.
Jobs made this announcement on the company website today.
In a decision which marks a very decisive about-face from the firm’s past wish of controlling the applications that the users have on their handheld device’s,
Jobs stated that they want to release a software
 development kit in several months which will permit individuals outside the firm to create iPhone as well as iPod touch applications.
he was quoted as saying: “We are excited about creating a vibrant third-party developer community around the iPhone and enabling hundreds of new applications for our users,”
Designers have already constructed many iPhone applications which run their Safari Web browser since they did notoriginally open the iPhone directly to 3rd-party software development.
The iPhone, which combines a cellular telephone and wireless web access all together ina  single hand held device, was released some towmonths ago with much hype and high expectations.
 To date, the firm has sold more than one million iPhones.
The CEO stated today that it will take a few months to release the kit since the firm wishes to give developers an open platform while at the same time protecting users from various viruses and malware, etc.
That sounds reasonable enouph to me…
He was quoted as saying: “There have been serious viruses on other mobile phones already, including some that silently spread from phone to phone over the cell network,” he wrote.
It was also recently repiorted by the AP that many cell
 phone and PDA users have been reporting that they sometimes feel odd vibrations when there are none.
This rather odd phenomenon is often referred to as ‘Phantom Vibrations’ and no one seems to know exactly what is causing it.

The high profile Toxic Toy crises has not just hit the United Stated hard, unfortunately.
Canadian  Health Minister Tony Clement has launched a comprehensive review of safety standards as the list of tainted Chinese-made
 products continues to grow. Meanwhile, the ministry will reporting very soon on whether or not new measures are going to be required to protect consumers.
The Mattel corporation, a toy making giant, has announced 2 huge worldwide recalls of toys coated in highly toxic lead paint after earlier reports of tainted goods, including toothpaste, pet food and even defective tires.
It all adds up to increasing weariness regarding products from China. Sue Huh, a mother of 2 small children, says she has been deliberately avoiding toys made in China in recent months. Don’t want junior to accendially swallow that Matchbox racecar.
The NY Times newspaper has reported that certain vinyl baby bibs from China have paint levels of a staggering 3 times the acceptable maximum of lead.
Finally, the governments of Canada, the United States and Mexico are ready to consider joint action.
 The 3 leaders will be discussing safety standards for these products from a “continental perspective”.
Health officials such as the federal Public Health Agency are on increased alert for any examples of lead poisoning, yet there have been no reports of any such illnesses up to this point, luckily.
 The toys being recalled are small enough to fit into a kid’s mouth, and saliva can dissolve lead from paint.
Legal fforts to reduce the lead in the environment, such as a ban on leaded gasoline, have succeeded in reducing the levels of lead as well as reported cases of poisoning, yet the symptoms, such as possible permanent brain damage, mean that parents are of course very concerned.

Despite the fact that top lawmakers tried to ramrod this bill through even though rouphly eighty percent of Americans were against it according to polls, it nontheless has failed, for now. Congress will reconvene on this later, according to reports.

According to Yahoo News and the Associated Press, The bill’s Senate supporters fell fourteen votes short of the sixty required to limit debate and pave the way for final passage of the legislation, which many critics have panned as basically offering amnesty to illegal immigrants. The vote was 46 to 53 in favor of limiting the debate.

Certain senators in both parties said the issue is so volatile that Congress is not likely to revisit it this fall or next year, when the presidential election will increasingly dominate American politics.

The commander in Chief appeared glum as he spoke, according to the story. His negotiators had expressed optimism the vote would go their way — or, at least be a little bit closer than it turned out to be.

“Congress really needs to prove to the American people that it can come together on hard issues,” Bush said. He turned attention to other his other goals in Congress this year, including energy, health care and balanced-budget initiatives.

Last year a similar immigration effort was defeated by the Congress, and the House has not bothered with an immigration bill this year, awaiting Senate action.

The vote was a defeat for a bipartisan group of lawmakers who advocated the bill as an imperfect but necessary fix of current immigration practices in which many illegal immigrants use forged documents or lapsed visas to live and work in the US.

It was a victory for Republican conservatives who severely criticized the bill’s provisions that would have established pathways to lawful status for many of the estimated twelve million illegal immigrants. They were aided by talk radio and Television hosts who repeatedly verbally assaulted the bill and urged listeners to flood Congress with phone calls, faxes and electronic-mails.Voting to allow the bill to proceed by ending debate were 33 Democrats, 12 Republicans and independent Joe Lieberman of Connecticut. Voting to block the bill by not limiting debate were 37 Republicans, 15 Democrats and independent Bernard Sanders, Vt. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., did not vote.The bill would have toughened border security and also instituted a newer method for weeding out illegal immigrants from workplaces. It would have created a new guest worker program and allowed millions of illegal immigrants to obtain legal status if they briefly returned home.

Bush, making a last-ditch bid to salvage the bill, called senators early Thursday morning to urge their support. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez approached senators as they entered and left the chamber shortly before the vote.But conservatives from Bush’s own party led the opposition. They repeatedly said the government must secure the borders before allowing millions of illegal aliens a path to legal status.Sen. Elizabeth H. Dole, R-N.C., said many citizens simply “do not have confidence” that borders, particularly in the south, will be substantially tightened. “It’s not just promises but proof that the American people want,” Dole said.Many radio personalities assaulted the bill. Sean Hannity was very outspoken against it.On the Rush Limbaugh show it was reported that border agents had their hands tied and that the illegals had more rights than them. One caller on another conservative radio program and said “I am very upset that they are trying to ram this bill through and are not securing the border. You get on an airplane to go anywhere and you are treated like a criminal. 90 year old women have to strip and are prodded just to travel to see their relatives for Christmas. Yet millions of illegals literally pour across our border each year, about twenty percent of whom have a criminal record, and some have bodygaurds and are leaving korans along the side of the desert trails into the country. Meanwhile ordinary tax paying citizens are treated like common criminals.”

Real Estate and Housing Market Mixed Signals?

According to a recent article bythe excellent Associated Press journalist Martin Crutsinger, the real estate market in general and the house market specifically
has been giving off a lot of confusing mixed signals as of late…….

For example, sales of new house increased last month (o4) by the largest amount in some fourteen odd years, and yet the median price of a new house actually dropped by the most sizeable amount on record. These rather odd indicators
have seemingly left no clear picture as to whether or not the the country’s housing slump is finished. Real estae sellers and buyers a like are still quite wary
in this unpredictable atmosphere….
This is due to the fact that while sales of new one-family houses increased by some 16.2 percent in April,
the actual average price of a new house sold last month fell to $229,100, a record 11.1 percent decrease from the prior month!
Sales fell particularly in the Midwest, which saw a substantial four percent drop-off rate.
The country’s economy as whole cooled down in the first quarter of 2007 to an annual adjusted growth rate of merely 1.3%, which is the weakest rate in 4 years, while the big slump in housing continued to weigh on the economy’s overall performance.

In a story reported by Yahoo news by Hope Yen of the Associated Press,

it was reported that Congressional leaders on Thurs. demanded that the Veterans Affairs secretary explain why hefty bonuses were given to senior department officials involved in creating a budget which came up some billion dollars short and jeopardized our veterans’ health care.

In fact, as AP reported, the chairman of the House Veterans’ Affairs subcommittee on oversight, said he would hold hearings to investigate after it was reported that budget officials at the Veterans Affairs Department received bonuses ranging up to thirty three thousand dollars a piece.

Sen. Daniel Akaka,  aDemocrat from the state of Hawaii, and who heads the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, stated that the payments pointed to an improper “entitlement for the most centrally located or well-connected staff.” He has sent a letter to VA chief Jim Nicholson asking what the department plans to do to get rid any bonuses based on such blatant favoritism.

He is quoted as saying, “These reports point to an apparent gross injustice at the VA that we have a responsibility to investigate,” said Mitchell, D-Ariz. “No government official should ever be rewarded for misleading taxpayers, and the VA should not be handing out the most lucrative bonuses in government as veterans are waiting months and months to see a doctor.”

This almost sounds like the case of wall street titans getting massive bonuses despite huge losses to investors, or corporate ceo’s getting incredibly lush retirement packages after heavy losses and downsizing.

When the phone started to ring and my email started to fill, I knew something must have happened again in the world of dog and cat food. As of this writing more foods have been recalled and a few more ingredients besides wheat gluten have been added to the list of “not to safe.” As reported by OregonLlive.com posted by The Associated Press and The Oregonian “Ingredients imported from China that went into recalled pet food may have been intentionally spiked with an industrial chemical to boost their protein content, federal officials said today. That’s one theory being pursued by the Food and Drug Administration as it investigates how the chemical, melamine, contaminated at least two ingredients used to make more than 100 brands of dog and cat foods. Melamine has been found by U.S. laboratories in both wheat gluten and rice protein concentrate imported from China.” Melamine, an ingredient in plastics and fertilizers could lead to kidney failure in animals. Stephen Sundlof, chief veterinarian for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), said melamine, which has turned up in more than 100 brands of cat and dog food, might have been used to falsely boost the apparent nutritional content of rice protein. Melamine can skew test results to make a product appear more protein-rich than it really is, Sundlof said. You think when you are buying food that all pet food manufacturers have your pet’s best interests in mind …………..right? – After all, who doesn’t love your pets more? Current pet food regulations allow manufacturers to use ingredients that you would never knowingly give to your pet. For example: by-products used (feet, bones and intestines, etc.), or as some of you heard the 4 D’s, dead diseased, dying and disabled Chemical preservatives (BHA and BHT) should not be in your pet’s food. Look for grains that are often difficult to digest (corn, wheat, gluten and soy), which are often used as a protein source instead of meat, should be avoided If you switch to premium dog food, switch your pet’s diet to premium treats, bones and supplements. Often times we over look what else we are giving them. Treats can contain the harmful and not so healthy ingredients as listed above. Life’s Abundance Premium Food for Puppies & Adult Dogs is made using only fresh, human-quality ingredients. It is a nutrient dense food with high quality meat proteins and NO by-products, corn, wheat, gluten or soy. NO artificial flavors, colors, sugars or chemical preservatives. Lori Matthews studies health, nutrition and wellness. She enjoys writing articles on health for both people and pets. Please visit healthy dog food by Lifes Abundance for additional information about premium dog food, premiuim cat food, the recall and pet health in general.

Sorry to have to bring you more bad news, but In a St.Petersburg Times editorial entitled ‘The Real estate slowdown is coming home across area’,
journalist CHUIN-WEI YAP stated in his April 16, 2007 article that, sadly, sales are still down and the glut of unsold homes is way up, which is contradicting the optimists who predicted that the market would turn around by the spring 2007.

Only 2 years ago, 1 in 2 homes sold in any particular month. But today, the same period would see 1 in 20 sell.
He also reports that a new vocabulary is emerging in the real estate market, referring to terms such as “short sale,” which means a seller getting less from his home sale than what he owes
 in loans; and “home staging,” which means the art of dressing up a home to look model-pretty just so a buyer might take another look at it.
….”Foreclosures have more than doubled,” states one Linda Pichler, vice president of business development for Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Central Florida.
Let us hope that this recent trend of negative news does not continue for very much longer.