| American Lung Association Releases Report Card | | Posted Thursday, January 11, 2007 2:45:27 PM by Blog57 Team | | The American Lung Association has released its annual smoking report card. According to the report, Vermont and New York do well when it comes to preventing youth access to tobacco products, both earning an "A". New Hampshire got a "C" Vermont and New York got an "A" in the category of ensuring smoke-free air in public places, while New Hampshire failed. The Empire State got an "A" when it comes to tobacco prevention, the Green Mountain State got a "B", while the Granite State got an "F". .... | |
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| | | Finessing Blair's last card | | Posted Wednesday, November 08, 2006 6:45:51 AM by Blog57 Team | | Would Polly Toynbee (CCTV conspiracy mania is a very middle-class disorder, November 7) argue for, say, the death penalty and detention without trial on the grounds that they are popular with the working classes - and suggest that middle-class liberals like herself should overcome their "paranoia" about the wrong people being locked up or killed by the state? In fact no polls show much difference between social classes on ID cards; if anything, the rich favour them more than the poor, and the middle-aged more than the old or the young. .... | |
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| | | ICE pursues bogus green-card marriages | | Posted Sunday, October 22, 2006 2:45:33 AM by Blog57 Team | | ATLANTA (AP) -- A Gwinnett County man listed as the groom in eight marriages is one of three local suspects in a sham green card marriage ring, a common and expanding crime nationwide, immigration officials and prosecutors say. The defendants are accused of helping immigrants from Africa obtain their green cards, or permanent U.S. residency, and that does not surprise Gwinnett County Probate Court Chief Clerk Marlene Duwell. Miss Duwell has witnessed couples who couldn't converse with each other because of a language barrier, and marriage-license applicants who did not know their future spouse's last name or place of birth. Over the past year, authorities have broken up large green card marriage rings from coast to coast that made millions of dollars by providing spouses and fake documents to foreigners.... | |
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| | | No Green Card? No Apartment! | | Posted Saturday, October 21, 2006 12:45:35 PM by Blog57 Team | | Escondido, a community a few miles north of San Diego in Southern California has passed a new city ordinance making it illegal to rent property to undocumented aliens. This move is being called racist by it's opponents. I lived in the San Diego area for almost 10 years and it is clear to me that this move will cause nothing but grief. The basic economic infrastructure of the area needs the large undocumented alien population, without it the agricultural sector will lose a huge proportion of its work force. This controversial decision was made at a sometime rowdy council meeting on Wednesday, with at least two people being escorted out by police officers. One news station also reported that there were at least 100 riot police in attendence. According to one local TV station: Under the ordinance, a complaint not based on race or ethnicity can be filed by a resident, business or city official.... | |
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| | | The new rivalry | | Posted Friday, October 13, 2006 6:45:46 PM by Blog57 Team | | Mike Holmgren likes to tell a story from his early days as the head coach of the Green Bay Packers that illustrates the nature of rivalries. A few days before the Packers were to play the Chicago Bears, Holmgren was approached in a grocery store by a kindly-looking older woman. She had a message to deliver and it was about football, not food. "We've got to beat those stinking Bears on Sunday!" she said, only she didn't use the word stinking, choosing another versatile, and more coarse, word. Holmgren, now the coach of the Seattle Seahawks, saw first hand in Green Bay the passion of one of the NFL's best rivalries. Those Packers-Bears games have everything you need in a rivalry game: History, close games, high stakes and an intensity from the fans that drives gray-haired grannies to curse like Richard Pryor.... | |
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| | | Going green an uphill battle | | Posted Thursday, October 05, 2006 10:45:52 AM by Blog57 Team | | SCOTLAND'S environmental protection body yesterday unveiled a mixed report card on the country's efforts to go green. On the plus side, rivers are at their cleanest for 300 years, air pollution from industry is declining, the amount of waste going to landfill is falling, man-made radioactivity levels are falling, and awareness of environmental issues is rising. But the report by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) revealed an uphill struggle to counter the "potentially devastating" effects of climate change on air, land, and water quality and the subsequent impact on human health and animal life. It also said rising consumer demands are using up more resources, air quality on some days presents a health risk in some areas, and "run-off" discharges to water in both town and country remains a major pollution source.... | |
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| | | Chinese teenager who faced deportation gets green card | | Posted Wednesday, September 27, 2006 2:45:35 AM by Blog57 Team | | HOUSTON -- A teenager who begged not to be deported to China because human smugglers would kill him over a debt has been granted permanent residency in the United States, his lawyer said. Young Zheng, 18, had been fighting for asylum since his arrival in 2003. He said that he's not wanted by his father because he is the family's second-born and that he faces reprisals from human traffickers over an unpaid $65,000 smuggling fee. Officials with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services informed lawyer John Sullivan that Zheng's permanent residency was approved Sept. 19 and that his green card will be issued soon. "It's a dream come true," Zheng said Monday. Zheng is now a high school sophomore in the Houston area with plans to apply for citizenship, which he will be eligible to do in five years.... | |
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| | | LibDems push for greater green tax burden | | Posted Monday, September 18, 2006 10:47:33 AM by Blog57 Team | | The Liberal Democrats will launch a green tax campaign at their annual party conference, highlighting a plan to shift the tax burden on families to environmental charges. Sir Menzies Campbell, leader of the LibDems, has made ‘green’ taxation the heart of his struggle with Labour and the Conservatives. Tax plans - to be debated at the party's conference – would mean environmental taxes would rise by £8bn a year to fund significant cuts in income tax for families. Greater green taxes would come from a sharp increase in the tax on aviation as well as sharp increases in car tax on the most polluting vehicles, especially 4X4s. Addressing a rally of party activists over the weekend Sir Menzies declared that the party's environmental tax policies were ‘the most radical ever from any major UK political party’.... | |
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| | | Now, buy a green card | | Posted Sunday, September 10, 2006 4:45:38 PM by Blog57 Team | | AHMEDABAD: Ramesh Patel (55), a wealthy diamond merchant from Surat, and his wife were seeking US visas for a long time. Last week, his immigration consultant said they could get their green cards within a year for an investment of $1 million. Unfazed, the Patels are already packing their bags. Rameshbhai has applied for the EB-5 investor visa, the fastest way to emigrate to the US and acquire a green card. This is under the Employment Creation Aliens Programme, which requires a person to invest $1 million (nearly Rs5 crore) in a business and employ 10 full-time staff for two years. Though the programme began in 1991, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) started promoting it in Asia only recently. Mumbai-based immigration consultant Arun Vakil has already received more than 10 enquiries.... | |
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| | | Re: Have You Got Green Card Or Still Hanging Around? (Proportionate Response ... | | Posted Friday, September 01, 2006 2:45:39 AM by Blog57 Team | | [I have not accepted your epic- discussing those would have taken pages after pages. If Muslims are so dastardly, why do you (have to) continue using Muslim names, particularly after your enlightening and transcend? Is it for a strategy (once you baptize, you will have no value to the Christians anymore!)?] Response: Above comment came from a person who calls himself an Engineer! I do not know who certified him as an Engineer; to me, he is not fit even for a casual glance. Such people are a disgrace and baneful for the unfortunate country we call Bangladesh. Other remarks he made in response to my response do not deserve a comment, as all of them are full of foul language and filth. This so-called Engineer does not know one important fact and I am mentioning it here so that it can open up his blocked mind: Muhammad is not a Muslim name; it is an Arabic name that was in use before Islam came into being.... | |
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