All Purpose Politics and News Thread

[Natalka]

Yes, that's an absolutely terrible accident - waiting to hear names, know lots of people from that area from when we lived there...

[DaveP]

That's just horrible. A parent's worse nightmare and what we fear every time we give them the car keys.

[Patty Smyth]

http://globalnews.ca/news/746635/two...sh-identified/

EDMONTON- Saskatchewan RCMP say the investigation into what caused a deadly collision near Lloydminster early Saturday morning could take months.
A roadside memorial has been set up at the scene of the collision. RCMP confirmed six people between the ages of 13 and 17 died after a collision involving a semi truck and a car.
Police have yet to release the names of the victims, however, family members have confirmed two of the victims are Tarren Attfield, 15, and Kenzie Moan.
Attfield’s family made their way to the crash site Sunday, where a cross with Tarren’s name on it was placed. Six pink ribbons were also placed at the crash site, one to honour each of the victims.
Attfield’s father was extremely emotional as he stood at the site of the collision Sunday.
“He’s the handsomest little man ever. I don’t know what to say, he was my little man. Everybody loved him. He had three brothers. I just don’t know what to say. He was a good kid,” Dalbert Attfield said as he held back tears and rubbed his eyes.

[DaveP]

The driver of the Semi must be torn up. I know the circumstances haven't been investigated yet, but it's unlikely that a professional driver would be at fault (if there even is fault). Still, that would haunt him or her forever. 6 teens with their lives cut short. Just horrific.

[Patty Smyth]

Good grief

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2....html?cmp=fbtl

Rescuers say 37 dead in Italy bus plunge


11 survivors pulled after 30-metre drop into ravine near Naples



A tour bus filled with Italians returning home after an excursion plunged off a highway into a ravine in southern Italy on Sunday night after it had smashed into several cars that were slowed by heavy traffic, killing at least 37 people, said police and rescuers.
Flashing signs near Avellino, outside Naples, had warned of slowed traffic ahead along a stretch of the A116 autostrada, a major highway crossing southern Italy, before the crash occurred, said highway police and officials, speaking on state radio early Monday. They said the bus driver, for reasons not yet determined, appeared to have lost control of his vehicle.
Hours after the crash, firefighters said that they had extracted 37 bodies — most of the dead were found inside the mangled bus, which lay on its side , while a few of the victims were pulled out from underneath the wreckage, the Italian news agency ANSA said.
State radio said 11 people were hospitalized with injuries, two of them in very critical condition.
It was not immediately known if there were other survivors or any missing. Reports said as many as 49 people had been aboard the bus when it ripped through a guardrail after slamming into several cars, then plunged some 30 metres off the highway and into a ravine near a wooded area.
State radio quoted Avellino police as saying the bus driver was among the dead.
Occupants of cars which were hit by the bus stood on the highway near their vehicles. One car's rear was completely crumpled, while another was smashed on its side. It was not immediately known if anyone in those cars had been injured.
The highway links western and eastern Italy across the south, and first reports said the passengers had spent the day in Puglia, an area near the Adriatic on the east coast famed for religious shrines. But on Monday, a state radio reporter at the scene said authorities told him that the bus had been bringing the passengers home after an outing to a thermal spa near the town of Benevento, not far from Avellino.
Most of the passengers were from the Campania area around Naples, ANSA said.
The bus dove off the highway near the town of Monteforte Irpino in Irpinia, a largely agricultural area about 60 kilometres inland from Naples and about 250 kilometres south of Rome.
A reporter for Naples daily Il Mattino, Giuseppe Crimaldi, told Sky TG24 TV from the scene that some witnesses told him the bus had been going at a "normal" speed on the downhill stretch of the highway when it suddenly veered and started hitting cars. He said some witnesses thought they heard a noise as if the bus had blown a tire.
A local prosecutor arrived at the crash scene to begin an investigation into the cause of the crash.

[vesper]

well finally some good news for my point of views!! Yahoo!!

Libertarian Issues Win California State Senate Seat!
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...ublican-again/

According to the logic of politics, Leticia Perez should have handily won the heavily Democratic and Hispanic district in California’s central valley, and her failure to do so has Republicans eager to develop a victory template for struggling GOP candidates elsewhere in the deep-blue state and across the country.

“common-sense” approach that focused on job creation, affordable energy and opposition to big government.

NOTHING scares the hell out of the political privileged as 'Libertarian' movements! Yahoo!!

[Natalka]

Good news for Saskatoon - new bridge opened yesterday!



Three years (a year behind schedule) and $300 million - but it's finally done.
It's been badly needed - the city has grown tremendously and traffic has been a nightmare.

Biggest bonus is that it finally makes our Circle Drive a 'real' circle - so traffic can be rerouted right around the city.
So that's now eight bridges for the city - and they are working to get another bridge for a north crossing, hopefully in three years.

[vesper]

300 million for that bridge? I admit, I'm rather shocked it cost so much! But good for the city.

[Natalka]

It's because it was really for much more thatn the bridge itself - since it had to link up so many areas - so there are new interchanges and they also had to add 10k of highway, provisions for railway grades, land aquisition, etc.
Good thing it was cost-shared between the city, province, and feds.

The coming north crossing will be over $85 million - but that will go higher with other costs...

All expensive, you betcha, but it's all been sorely needed.

[Patty Smyth]

In Quebec it would have been $300 mil just for the bridge lol

[Darth Penguin]

[DaveP]

Darth, seriously, can you at least post a link so we know what the heck you're talking about?

It was one thing when you posted a link to a story or pic with no comment, but now it's a pic with no link or comment? We've got to google to find out what is so important that you almost tell us about it?

[Patty Smyth]

Can't wait to see this guy pack his bags. How many days until the election?

[Darth Penguin]

Barrister criticised for calling child abuse victim "predatory"

The Crown Prosecution Service has criticised one of its own barristers for referring to a 13-year-old sex abuse victim as "predatory".
Robert Colover QC also called the girl "sexually experienced". The CPS said his language had been "inappropriate".
Neil Wilson, 41, admitted abusing the girl at his home in Romford, London, and was given a suspended jail term.
The Attorney General's Office said the sentence had been drawn to its attention as "possibly unduly lenient".
The police were alerted to the actions of Wilson, who now lives in York, after his victim had told a friend. Images of child sex abuse were also found on Wilson's computer.
Wilson later admitted two counts of making extreme ographic images and one count of sexual activity with a child.
Mr Colover, who was representing the CPS at Wilson's sentencing hearing at London's Snaresbrook Crown Court on Monday, said: "The girl is predatory in all her actions and she is sexually experienced."
The judge, Nigel Peters, said that when deciding Wilson's punishment, he had taken into account the prosecution's comments that the girl looked and behaved older than she was. Wilson's eight-month jail term was suspended for two years.
Speaking about Mr Colover's remarks, a CPS spokesman said: "The language used by prosecution counsel was inappropriate.
"The transgressor in this case was the defendant and he bears responsibility for his criminal acts."

While I know that barristers have to defend thier clients by using whatever words they can to get them freed.....sometimes you just can't find a desk big enough to head-desk!

[xox2010]

Can't wait to see this guy pack his bags. How many days until the election?

I really don't get the up roar. English is the international business language and it saves money by just having the cards printed in English.