February 14, 2010 – Capitol Hill Blue

Anderson Cooper sued over fall in new home

February 14, 2010

An interior designer is suing CNN anchor Anderson Cooper after she took an unusual fall at an old New York City firehouse that he is converting into a new home.

Killian O’Brien, of Brooklyn, says in her suit that she plunged 17 feet through the hole that once held the station’s fire pole. The pole had been removed, but the hole was uncovered.

The accident happened in September. Her lawyer, Neil Greenberg, says she is lucky to be alive.

Cooper’s spokesman declined to comment.

The Manhattan firehouse was built in 1906. It was the former home of a unit of the Fire Patrol, a private firefighting organization backed by the insurance industry.

O’Brien is also suing the developer of the building.

‘God-like’ Harem leader charged with rape, incest, slavery

February 14, 2010

An Israeli man who kept a cult-like harem of women and fathered dozens of children with them was charged in a Tel Aviv court Sunday with enslavement, rape, incest and other sexual offenses.

The 25-page indictment accused 60-year-old Goel Ratzon of setting himself up as a “godlike” figure who preyed on troubled women while treating them like “chattel.”

The case has captivated the Israeli public since Ratzon was arrested last month. Several of the women have come forward with details of their unconventional lives, describing their attraction to the man with flowing, long white hair.

Ratzon, who remains behind bars, has denied any wrongdoing and said the women joined him voluntarily.

According to the indictment, Ratzon kept at least 21 women who bore him a total of 49 children. It said he kept the women in a state of near-total obedience in crowded apartments in the Tel Aviv area, taking their welfare checks and making them take bank loans which he then confiscated.

Recalls challenge the ‘Toyota Way’

February 14, 2010

Assembly lines that run like clockwork. Supplies that arrive just in time. Dedicated workers trained to spot defects, churning out quality cars in the millions. Such are the trademarks of “Toyota Way” manufacturing.

That’s why the automaker’s recent bungling over a spate of global recalls appears so out of character.

Lugers slide with heavy hearts

February 14, 2010

Everyone made it down safely.

For luge, that meant progress, healing and normalcy.

Cowbells clanged, fans with painted faces waved flags, and even IOC president Jacques Rogge looked on as the celebration of this hyper-speedy sport resumed one day after tragedy rocked the sliding community and threatened to spoil the spirit of the Vancouver Games before they opened.

Germany’s Felix Loch was the leader after the first two heats of men’s singles were completed Saturday night without major incident on a track made shorter, slower and safer in the wake of Nodar Kumaritashvili’s death during a training run the day before.

“Life will go on,” said U.S. Olympic rookie Chris Mazdzer of Saranac Lake, N.Y. “And everyone’s classifying this sport as dangerous. It’s so unfortunate what happened. Every track in the world, there’s always spots where it can happen. This is just the first time that it actually has. It’s tragic, but everyone coming and showing up here, it builds you up as a slider.”

Alabama university shooter has killed before

February 14, 2010

More than 23 years before a college professor was accused of shooting six of her colleagues, her teenage brother died from the blast of a shotgun she held in the kitchen of her family’s home in Massachusetts.

The 1986 shooting was ruled accidental and no charges were filed against Amy Bishop. The case could get a closer look as authorities try to explain why they believe the Harvard-educated neurobiologist opened fire Friday, killing three.

Bishop, a rare woman suspected of a workplace shooting, had just months left teaching at the University of Alabama in Huntsville because she was denied tenure.

Some, including the husband of one victim and one of her students, have said she was upset after being denied the job-for-life security afforded tenured academics. Authorities have refused to discuss a motive, and school spokesman Ray Garner said the faculty meeting wasn’t called to discuss tenure.

It appeared the violent episode in Bishop’s past wasn’t known to her colleagues in Huntsville.

Ask…Just don’t ask when

February 14, 2010

As ordered by President Barack Obama, the military is looking at how it can remove the ban on gays serving openly in their ranks.

But don’t expect it to happen anytime soon.

As with any change in America’s bloated military bureaucracy, a complete repeal is the “don’t ask, don’t tell policy” is probably years away.

Biden on Cheney: ‘He’s misinformed and misinforming’

February 14, 2010

Vice President Joe Biden tore into his predecessor Sunday bluntly that former Vice President Dick Cheney is misinformed and is using that misinformation to mislead Americans.

On NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Biden said Cheney doesn’t listen to the facts and is trying to rewrite history.

Cheney claims the Obama administration is failing to treat the battle against terrorism as war. But Biden says Cheney’s criticism rings false.

U.S. debt continues to rise dangerously

February 14, 2010

It’s bad enough that Greece’s debt problems have rattled global financial markets. In the world’s largest economic and military power, there’s a far more serious debt dilemma.

For the U.S., the crushing weight of its debt threatens to overwhelm everything the federal government does, even in the short-term, best-case financial scenario — a full recovery and a return to prerecession employment levels.

The government already has made so many promises to so many expanding “mandatory” programs. Just keeping these commitments, without major changes in taxing and spending, will lead to deficits that cannot be sustained.