Jesus Malverde
Jesus Malverde's JournalFive safe after whale damages boat near Pescadero
A whale hit a pleasure boat off Pescadero on Saturday afternoon, leaving the disabled craft adrift toward rocky coastline before the five people managed to get ashore and call 911, authorities said.
San Mateo sheriff's officials got a call at 2:40 p.m. from people who had abandoned the damaged craft. They said the engine had failed after running into the whale about 10 miles off the coast and warned that their abandoned boat was taking on water and being driven toward the rocky coast by high winds, said Sheriff's Deputy Rebecca Rosenblatt.
No one was injured.
Read More: http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Five-safe-after-whale-damages-boat-near-Pescadero-5503370.php
Ukraine's chocolate king Petro Poroshenko preparing for the presidency
Source: Telegraph UK
He may not yet have been elected, but Ukrainian oligarch Petro Poroshenko is already beginning to act like a head of state
After weeks of campaigning, the man tipped to become Ukraine's new leader spent much of Friday in closed meetings with foreign diplomats, laying the ground for a foreign policy that he will almost certainly be in charge of by Monday morning.
Mr Poroshenko, the confectionery tycoon nicknamed the Chocolate King, is all but guaranteed a landslide victory when Ukrainians elect a new president on Sunday.
But it is not surprising that he wishes to hit the ground running. He will inherit a country on the brink of economic collapse, with a separatist rebellion raging in its main industrial region, and a Russian neighbour that has annexed one part of the country and quite finished toying with the threat of invasion of the rest.
Not that Mr Poroshenko wishes to see it like that. “There are no western Ukrainians or eastern Ukrainians,” he insists. “There are no Russian-speaking Ukrainians or Ukrainian-speaking Ukrainians – there is only one Ukraine, whole and indivisible.”
Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/ukraine/10854219/Ukraines-chocolate-king-Petro-Poroshenko-preparing-for-the-presidency.html
Popeye, the mussel-sniffing dog, visits Bay Area
On Memorial Day weekend, visitors to Lake Mendocino will have the chance to meet Popeye, the mussel-sniffing dog.
The Sonoma County Water Agency said this week that the 5-year-old chocolate lab will inspect boats for quagga and zebra mussels, shellfish that have terrorized California lakes and reservoirs.
Popeye is trained to sniff out the mollusks on motorboats and kayaks before the animals reach the water, where they can reproduce and crowd out fish and other critters.
“It’s his job. He just doesn’t know it,” said Popeye’s trainer, Debi DeShon of Denair (Stanislaus County). “He absolutely lives to sniff.”
Read More: http://blog.sfgate.com/stew/2014/05/22/popeye-the-mussel-sniffing-dog-visits-bay-area/
Prince Charles 'should abdicate' after comparing Putin to Hitler, says MP
Source: Guardian UK
Labour MP Mike Gapes calls for prince to 'abdicate and stand for election' if he wants to make controversial statements
Prince Charles is facing a call for his abdication and a frosty response in Moscow after reportedly comparing Vladimir Putin to Adolf Hitler over Russia's annexation of Crimea.
Charles blundered into the international crisis over Russia's actions in Ukraine during a tour of Canada, when he spoke to a woman who fled the Nazis and lost family members during the Holocaust.
According to the Daily Mail, the prince compared the Russian president to the Nazi leader when talking to Marienne Ferguson, a museum volunteer who moved to Canada with her Jewish family when she was just 13. "Now Putin is doing just about the same as Hitler," Charles is reported to have said.
Charles's remarks have been criticised across the political spectrum in Britain: the Labour MP Mike Gapes called for his abdication, while the outspoken Ukip leader, Nigel Farage, said the prince was wrong to get involved.
Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/may/21/prince-charles-vladimir-putin-adolf-hitler
House set to vote on measure to repeal America's post-9/11 war powers
Source: Guardian UK
A US congressman will launch a vote as early as Wednesday to repeal the US government’s vastly expanded post 9/11 war powers.
Adam Schiff, a California Democrat, has authored a measure that would force the expiration of the September 2001 Authorization to Use Military Force, or AUMF, the legal wellspring of America's so-called "war on terror", in one year.
The measure, offered as an amendment to the annual defense budget funding authorization, could come for a vote in the House of Representatives as early as Wednesday afternoon.
Schiff offered a similar measure last year that came about 30 votes short of passing the House. He told the Guardian on Wednesday that he was “optimistic” about it passing this time around, thanks to growing bipartisan discontent in Congress as terrorist threats have mutated in the 13 years since the law’s creation.
Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/21/house-vote-measure-america-post-9-11-powers
https://twitter.com/RepAdamSchiff/status/469153877015932929
Pentagon eyeing immigrants who arrived illegally
Source: AP
The Pentagon is weighing allowing some immigrants brought illegally to the country as youths to serve in the military, a unilateral step by the Obama administration as immigration legislation remains stalled in the Republican-led House.
The announcement came Tuesday as House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, defended his election-year decision to rebuff a narrow immigration measure pushed by a GOP congressman to achieve a similar goal.
The Pentagon consideration would apply to immigrants who arrived illegally as kids but already have received work permits and relief from deportation under a program President Barack Obama announced two years ago, called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. More than 500,000 immigrants have benefited from the program.
The Defense Department "continues to examine the laws and policies that address the eligibility of noncitizens to serve in the military in order to determine if and how our programs could be applied to DACA recipients," Pentagon spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Nate Christensen said in a statement.
Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_IMMIGRATION?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-05-20-17-48-52
Putin is behaving just like Hitler, says Prince Charles
Source: Daily Mail
Prince Charles has sensationally likened Vladimir Putin to Adolf Hitler.
In a withering verdict on the actions of the Russian president in Ukraine, he told a woman who lost relatives in the Nazi Holocaust: ‘And now Putin is doing just about the same as Hitler.’
The prince’s extraordinary intervention is certain to cause international controversy.
It is likely to be seen as a criticism of the West for failing to confront Mr Putin over his seizure of Crimea. The annexation was the first by a major power in Europe since 1945.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2634400/Putin-behaving-just-like-Hitler-says-Charles-Princes-controversial-verdict-Russian-leaders-invasion-Ukraine.html
Newsom among 1st politicians opening coffers to bitcoin
Source: SF Gate
California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom is used to being on the leading edge of controversial issues like same-sex marriage. This election cycle, he's out there again, as one of the nation's first high-profile politicians to accept contributions in bitcoin, the controversial virtual currency.
But while the political battle lines on same-sex marriage are stark, they couldn't be murkier for cryptocurrencies. Regulatory agencies and watchdog groups are miles behind the technorati in understanding the currency, and are struggling with how to monitor it.
There is, however, a political payoff for candidates who embrace bitcoin, which has the backing of top Silicon Valley venture capitalists and is favored by young techies for its transparency and disruptive nature.
"What it does is say, 'Hey, Millennial generation. I'm cool, too,' " said Robert Molnar, a former California Republican political strategist who is founder and CEO of KryptoBucks Capital, a startup in cryptocurrency. "This may not be a big policy issue this year, but in 2016 it will be huge."
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/politics/joegarofoli/article/Newsom-among-1st-politicians-opening-coffers-to-5490356.php?cmpid=hp-hc-bustech
Duggars visit fertility doctor to explore having 20th kid
Nineteen isn’t enough. Michelle and Jim Bog Duggar, the reality star parents who star in TLC’s 19 Kids and Counting—shared on the Today Show this morning that they’d want to expand their brood if it’s medically possible.
In the segment, Michelle, 47, visits a fertility doctor in Little Rock Arkansas to determine whether she can become pregnant again.
http://blog.sfgate.com/sfmoms/2014/05/20/duggars-visit-fertility-doctor-to-explore-having-20th-kid/#1738101=0
Libya in crisis: Rival militias position themselves for civil war as country disintegrates
Libya is tipping toward all-out civil war as rival militias take sides for and against an attempted coup led by a renegade general that has pushed the central government towards disintegration.
In a move likely to deepen the crisis, the army chief of staff, whose regular forces are weak and ill-armed, called on Islamist-led militias to help preserve the government.
His call came after forces commanded by General Khalifa Hifter stormed the parliament building in Tripoli at the weekend, after earlier attacking Islamist militia camps in Benghazi.
The fighting has been the heaviest since the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 and there are signs that opposing militias and elements of the security forces in different parts of the country and with differing ideologies may be readying to fight a civil war.*
A Libyan air force base in Tobruk in the east of the country on Monday declared allegiance to Gen Hifter while Benghazi airport has been closed after being hit with rockets. Some 43 people were killed and 100 wounded in fighting in Benghazi at the end of last week.
Read More: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/libya-in-crisis-rival-militias-position-themselves-for-civil-war-as-country-teeters-on-brink-9399311.html#
Profile Information
Name: Jesus MalverdeGender: Male
Hometown: SF
Current location: Japan
Member since: Fri May 17, 2013, 11:44 PM
Number of posts: 10,274
