Michigan Seeking to Punish Recycling Smugglers

For over thirty years Michigan has had a program of offering ten cents back for cans and bottles.

It began as a way to promote recycling and has been massively successful.

However, people have been abusing the system and coming in from other states to get more money.

To fight this the state had added a stamp for cans from Michigan.

This still didn't stop the "smugglers" and so now the state is considering more drastic action.

A bill, currently in the state house, would give the state the ability to charge and arrest people who bring in other states cans.

Under the bill, bringing in between one hundred and ten thousand nonreturnable containers would be punishable by up to ninety-three days in jail and a thousand dollar fine.

Six Strikes Your Off

AT&T, Cablevision, Comcast, Time Warner, and Verizon have announced their participation in a program created by the Center For Copyright Information.

Under the program anyone who is caught infringing on copy right will be sent a warning.

If someone receives six warnings, they will immediately find themselves with either severly limited or no internet access.

The companies involved believe that if someone refuses to change their ways after all of the warnings, then clearly they're not going to.

Opponents of the program worry that it will hurt the ability of businesses to offer wifi.

A similar program is set to begin March 2014, in the UK, but with only three strikes.

Hero Rats

A Belgian company is training rats to be mine detectors.

Apopo teaches the rats to sniff out mines so that humans can then come and remove them.

Training takes place in Tanzania, during a nine month long program.

They have been tested in Mozambique to great success.

People there are calling them Hero Rats.

Advantages of the rats are that they are quick workers, as they naturally use their nose to navigate due to their limited eye sight; they can be used by any trainer, not becoming bound to one, like dogs; they are light enough that they can't accidentally set off mines; and they are relatively cheap.

Unfortunately there are some draw backs, such as their short life span, their lack of ability to work in certain climates, and they sometimes require retraining.

Egyptian Opposition to Boycott Election

Egypt's opposition has announced that they will boycott the parliamentary elections.

An alliance of non Islamic parties united together to make the announcement.

Their goal is to take any legitimacy from the vote.

They believe that the election is already rigged, and that it would be impossible for them to beat President Morsi's people.

With the alliance out of the election, only Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood and more extreme Islamic parties.

The alliance says they will take part in the vote if new laws are passed to help guarantee free and fair elections.

Balloon Crash in Egypt Kills 19

Nineteen people were killed when the hot air balloon they were in crashed.

Almost all of those aboard were international tourists.

It apparently caught fire about ten feet off the ground and the flames made it rapidly gain altitude, before it burned itself to the point that it came crashing down.

The pilot and one of the passengers were able to jump out almost immediately, at a low enough altitude to survive.

Other passengers jumped out too late or were killed by the fire and crash.

All balloon flights have been cancelled while the incident is being investigated.

USMC Staff Sergeant Jonathan D. Davis

USMC Staff Sergeant Jonathan D. Davis, thirty-four, of Kayenta, Arizona, died on February 22.

Davis was a member of the Navajo nation.

His unit was conducting combat operations, in the Helmand province of Afghanistan.

He was assigned to Headquarters Battalion, 32nd Georgian Liaison Team, Regimental Combat Team 7, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expedition Force, Camp Pendleton, California.

Sergeant Davis had been with the Marine Corps since 1997 and had served in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

Among his awards are: Purple Heart, Combat Action Ribbon, Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal, Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal, Iraq Campaign Medal, Afghanistan Campaign Medal, NATO Medal ISAF Afghanistan, National Defense Service Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, and Global War on Terror Expeditionary Medal.

Gazan Rockets Strike Into Israel

Two rockets from Gaza struck Israeli territory, on Tuesday.

One of them hit inside the city of Ashkelon, while the other hit a field outside.

Neither caused any injuries.

They are the first rockets since the ceasefire began in November 2012.

It is also a blatant violation of that ceasefire agreement.

Colorado Man Arrested For Threatening Sponsor of Gun Control Bills

Forty-two year old Franklin Glenn Sain was arrested in Colorado Springs, Monday morning.

Police say he made threats, via voice mail and email, against State Representative Rhonda Fields.

Sain faces charges of harassment, threats, and attempting to influence a public official.

By Monday afternoon he had been released on bail.

State Representative Fields has been a leading opponent of gun rights, in Colorado.

Fields into politics after he son was killed in a 2005 shooting.

She is the sponsor of several extremely controversial gun control bills.


On Sunday, hundreds of Coloradans protested her bills as part of a national day to support gun rights and the Second Amendment.

And The Oscar Goes To...

Sunday night saw the eighty-fifth Academy Awards.

Argo took home the award for best picture.

Daniel Day-Lewis won the Oscar for best actor, for his role in Lincoln.

Jennifer Lawrence's role in Silver Linings Playbook gained her the Oscar for best actress.

Christoph Waltz won best supporting actor for his part in Django Unchained.

Anne Hathaway's performance in Les Miserables gave her the Oscar for best supporting actress.

Brave was given the award for best Animated Feature Film.

The Oscar for cinematography went to Claudio Miranda for Life of Pi.

Costume Design's award went to Jacqueline Durran for her work on Anna Karenina.

Ang Lee won best director for Life of Pi.

Searching for Sugar Man won the best documentary feature.

Documentary short's Oscar went to Inocente.

William Goldenberg took home the award for Editing, for his work on Argo.

Best foreign language film went to Amour, from Austria.

Lisa Westcott and Julie Dartnell won best makeup and hairstyling for their work in Les Miserables.

The best original score went to Mychael Danna for Life of Pi.

Adele won the Oscar for best original song, with her song Skyfall, from the movie Skyfall. 

The Oscar for production design and set decoration went to Rick Carter and Jim Erickson for Lincoln.

Paperman gained the Oscar for best short animated film. 

Best short live action film went to Curfew.

The award for sound editing resulted in a tie, going to Per Hallberg and Karen Baker Landers, for Skyfall, and Paul N.J. Ottosson for Zero Dark Thirty.

Sound mixing went to the Les Miserables team of Andy Nelson, Mark Paterson, and Simon Hayes.

Best visual effects was won by Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron, Erik-Jan De Boer, and Donald R. Elliott for Life of Pi.

Argo's Chris Terrio took home the Oscar for writing an adapted screenplay.

Quentin Tarantino won the academy award for writing an original screenplay, for his Django Unchained. 

North Korea Expanding Political Prison Camps

North Korea is expanding it's political prison camps.

According to sources in South Korea's government, satellite imagery shows that more buildings are being built at several of the camps.

This could mean that the North is planning on bringing in a lot more prisoners.

Alternately, they could simply be consolidating their camps, expanding some so that others can be eliminated.

Only time will tell which of those they are planning.