Man calls 911 from tree after being mauled by a bear

A hiker who clambered 30 feet up a tree in the Alaskan woods after being mauled by a brown bear is recovering after state troopers rescued him.

From high up in the tree, Ben Radakovich called 911 early Sunday to report the attack three miles from the head of Bird Creek Trail.

“I was mauled by a brown bear,” he gasped in the call. “I’m bleeding bad.”

Radakovich told the emergency operator that he was bleeding from his back and neck, and asked for an ambulance. The call appeared to disconnect at one point, and when Radakovich got back on the line, he told the operator that a bear cub was also on the scene.

“I can hear the brown bear, it’s still huffing in the trees,” he said. “I was able to climb a tree. So I’m as high up in a tree as I can get.”

“The damn thing was batting at me,” he later added.

Troopers reached Radakovich about two hours after his 911 call, KTUU-TV reported.

“He was pretty cold, shivering,” Trooper Tim Lewis told the station. “He had multiple injuries, serious injuries.”

The Associated Press reported that Radakovich, of Eagle River, used ski poles to protect himself.

Radakovich has been released from the hospital, KTUU-TV reported.

original post at: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/06/12/12185917-alaska-man-mauled-by-bear-climbs-tree-to-escape?lite/

Febreze kills your pets

Please do not use Febreze anywhere near your pets! If you have used it near your pets or on their bedding, clean the bedding/area thoroughly to remove the Febreze, and move the animals away from the area.

Please pass this information on to other pet owners/caretakers,before more animals are injured or killed, and find a safer method of odor control.

Febreze: This product is marketed as something that removes odors without covering them up. However, there is a strong smell to it, but worse than that, Febreze contains zinc chloride. Many birds have already been killed after this product was used in any proximity to them whatsoever, and some dogs have also died. Other dogs have become ill without dying. This product is marketed as safe around animals, and people have sprayed their dogs' bedding to remove the doggy smell, only to discover later on that their dog became deathly ill from it. There is one dog who lost most of her hair after being accidentally sprayed with some Febreze, though this particular incident also had a second factor involved (diet change).The Febreze bottle, as of December, 1998, has a picture on the back of a dog, which leads some people to believe it's safe to use in their bedding.

original post at: http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/blfebrez.htm

Family Net Worth Drops to Level of Early ’90s, Fed Says

WASHINGTON — The recent economic crisis left the median American family in 2010 with no more wealth than in the early 1990s, erasing almost two decades of accumulated prosperity, the Federal Reserve said Monday.

A hypothetical family richer than half the nation’s families and poorer than the other half had a net worth of $77,300 in 2010, compared with $126,400 in 2007, the Fed said. The crash of housing prices directly accounted for three-quarters of the loss.

Families’ income also continued to decline, a trend that predated the crisis but accelerated over the same period. Median family income fell to $45,800 in 2010 from $49,600 in 2007. All figures were adjusted for inflation.

The new data comes from the Fed’s much-anticipated release on Monday of its Survey of Consumer Finances, a report issued every three years that is one of the broadest and deepest sources of information about the financial health of American families.

While the numbers are already 18 months old, the survey illuminates problems that continue to slow the pace of the economic recovery. The Fed found that middle-class families had sustained the largest percentage losses in both wealth and income during the crisis, limiting their ability and willingness to spend.

“It fills in details to a picture that we already knew was quite ugly, and these details very much underscore that,” said Jared Bernstein, an economist at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities who served as an adviser to Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. “It makes clear how devastating this has been for the middle class.”

Given the scale of those losses, consumer spending has remained surprisingly resilient. The survey also illuminates where the money is coming from: American families saved less and only slowly repaid debts.

The share of families saving anything over the previous year fell to 52 percent in 2010 from 56.4 percent in 2007. Other government statistics show that total savings have increased since 2007, suggesting that a smaller group of families is saving more money, while a growing number manage to save nothing.

The survey also found a shift in the reasons that families set aside money, underscoring the lack of confidence that is weighing on the economy. More families said they were saving money as a precautionary measure, to make sure they had enough liquidity to meet short-term needs. Fewer said they were saving for retirement, or for education, or for a down payment on a home.

The report underscored the limited progress that households had made in reducing the amounts that they owed to lenders. The share of households reporting any debt declined by 2.1 percentage points over the last three years, but 74.9 percent of households still owed something, and the median amount did not change.

The decline in reported incomes could have increased the weight of those debts, tying up a larger share of families’ take-home pay. But one of the rare benefits of the crisis, historically lower interest rates, has helped to offset that effect. Families also have been able to reduce debt payments by refinancing into mortgages with longer terms and deferring repayment of student loans and other obligations.

The survey also confirmed that Americans are shifting the kinds of debts they carry. The share of families with credit card debt declined by 6.7 percentage points to 39.4 percent, and the median balance fell 16.1 percent to $2,600.

Families also reduced the number of credit cards that they carried, and 32 percent of families said they had no cards, up from 27 percent in 2007.

Conversely, the share of families with education-related debt rose to 19.2 percent in 2010 from 15.2 percent in 2007. The Fed noted that education loans made up a larger share of the average family’s obligations than loans to buy automobiles for the first time in the history of the survey.

The cumulative statistics concealed large disparities in the impact of the crisis.

Families with incomes in the middle 60 percent of the population lost a larger share of their wealth over the three-year period than the wealthiest and poorest families.

One basic reason for this disproportion is that the wealth of the middle class is mostly in housing, and the median amount of home equity dropped to $75,000 in 2010 from $110,000 in 2007. And while other forms of wealth have recovered much of the value lost in the crisis, housing prices have hardly budged.

Those middle-income families also lost a larger share of their income. The earnings of the median family in the bottom 20 percent of the income distribution actually increased from 2007 to 2010, in part because of the expansion of government aid programs during therecession. Wealthier families, which derive more income from investments, were also cushioned against the recession.

The data does provide the latest indication, however, that the recession reduced income inequality in the United States, at least temporarily. The average income of the wealthiest families fell much more sharply than the median, indicating that some of those at the very top of the ladder slipped down at least a few rungs.

Ranking American families by income, the top 10 percent of households still earned an average of $349,000 in 2010.

The average net worth of the same families was $2.9 million.

 original post at: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/12/business/economy/family-net-worth-drops-to-level-of-early-90s-fed-says.html?hp

China Is Excluded From Waivers for Oil Trade With Iran

WASHINGTON — Less than three weeks before stringent American sanctions intended to reduce Iran’s oil exports take effect, the Obama administration announced on Monday that it would exempt seven major importers of Iranian oil — but not China — from the measures because these countries had “significantly reduced” their oil purchases from Iran.

Administration officials said the United States was continuing to negotiate with China, the world’s No. 1 buyer of Iranian oil, after a confusing period in which Chinese purchases dropped sharply during a price dispute with Tehran but later rebounded.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced that the administration had issued waivers to India, Malaysia, South Korea, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Turkey and Taiwan. They joined Japan and 10 European countries that the United States had previously said would be exempt from sanctions for a six months.

“Today’s announcement underscores the success of our sanctions implementation,” Mrs. Clinton said in a statement. “By reducing Iran’s oil sales, we are sending a decisive message to Iran’s leaders: until they take concrete actions to satisfy the concerns of the international community, they will continue to face increasing isolation and pressure.”

Still, the absence of China from the waiver list indicates the hurdles the administration faces in persuading Iran’s largest customer to curtail its purchases. And it sets up a potential collision with China, which along with the United States is a member of the group of major powers that is negotiating with Iran over the future of its nuclear program.

Under legislation that President Obama signed in December, the United States must cut off a country’s financial institutions from the American banking system if that country continues buying large volumes of crude oil through transactions with Iran’s central bank.

China’s case is complicated, since oil analysts estimate that its purchases from Iran declined by a third during the first quarter of 2012. China was in a price dispute with Iran, however, suggesting that it was cutting back as a negotiating tactic. In April, its purchases spiked again, and the upswing continued into June. There are also reports that China has been buying oil covertly from Iran.

Administration officials noted that China had played a constructive role in the nuclear talks with Iran and had voted for United Nations sanctions against Iran, even as they acknowledged that China had expressed reservations about the sanctions’ effectiveness.

“We’ve been able to work through sanctions-related issues with China in the past, and our hope is that we’ll be able to do the same with China over the next few weeks,” said a senior administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the delicacy of the negotiations.

The sanctions law gives Mr. Obama two other escape hatches: he can delay the enforcement of the measures if he concludes they are disrupting the oil market, or he can issue China a waiver based on national security considerations.

On Monday, however, the White House issued a statement saying the global oil supply had loosened somewhat in April and May, after a tight period early in the year. That clears the way for full implementation of the sanctions at the end of June.

In the statement, the White House press secretary, Jay Carney, said, “There currently appears to be sufficient supply of non-Iranian oil to permit foreign countries to significantly reduce their imports of Iranian oil.” He noted that many of Iran’s customers had cut back their purchases and tried to find alternative suppliers.

The administration’s action seems calculated to keep up the pressure on Iran a week before the next round of nuclear talks is scheduled to take place in Moscow. After meetings in Istanbul and Baghdad, the talks have bogged down over demands that Iran suspend its enrichment of uranium to 20 percent and that it shut down the Fordow enrichment facility.

Experts on sanctions said they were not surprised by the administration’s decision to withhold an exemption from China.

“They don’t want to issue the exception to China now, and then face pressure to revoke it in the next 180-day period,” said Mark Dubowitz, executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and an expert on Iranian sanctions. Even if the volume of China’s oil purchases does not decline, some experts predict that China might be able to comply with the American sanctions by arguing that it is paying a lower price for the oil, depriving the Iranian government of much-needed revenue. China is also using channels to buy oil that go around the Central Bank of Iran, which could give it a loophole to keep buying oil without triggering the sanctions.

Despite the White House’s decision not to exempt China, Republicans in Congress criticized the exemptions it did grant.

“While many of our allies are doing the right thing by significantly decreasing crude oil purchases from Iran, those who are violating the law must be held to account,” Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, the chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a statement. “There remains much that needs to be done to tighten the screws on Iran, and once again Congress will have to lead the way.”

Senator Robert Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat and a sponsor of the Iranian sanctions legislation, said he would reserve judgment on the justification of the latest waivers. But in a statement that also referred to the European Union, he said that since the president signed the law, “Iran is estimated to have lost approximately $10 billion in oil revenue, the Iranian currency has plummeted, and oil output has fallen to a 20-year low — and that is all before the U.S. and E.U. sanctions go into effect later this month.”

original post at: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/12/world/middleeast/china-not-issued-waiver-for-oil-trade-with-iran.html?hp

Explosion off the coast of New Jersey

An explosion aboard a yacht off the coast of New Jersey forced all 21 people on board to abandon ship on Monday with seven of them injured, a U.S. Coast Guard spokesman said.

According to U.S. Coast Guard officials, the boat, called Blind Date, exploded at about 4:20 p.m. Officials said people were on life rafts in the water about 17.5 miles east of Sandy Hook.

“Twenty-one people have been accounted for, so we’re hoping for the best,” Coast Guard Petty Officer Erik Swanson told NBCNewYork.com.

The Coast Guard is sending rescuers from several stations, and Swanson said a civilian in a sailing vessel was also on site, helping with the rescue.

more info at: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/06/11/12170806-yacht-explodes-near-sandy-hook-nj-several-injured?lite

Cops think someone dropped a pair of lungs on LA sidewalk

 

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has a lot of questions about what was discovered Sunday night on a south L.A. sidewalk, starting with “Is that really a pair of lungs?” A citizen spotted the unsettling scene near the Compton neighborhood and called authorities, who are currently stumped. “We don’t know what they are,” Sgt. Robert Dean said. “It’s really weird.” The coroner was called to aid in the investigation and will test the freakish find to determine if they really are (formerly) internal organs and if they’re human. We’ll be waiting, um, breathlessly for further developments.

original post at: http://now.msn.com/now/0611-lungs-found-sidewalk

Forced to Early Social Security, Unemployed Pay a Steep Price

PALM SPRINGS, Calif. — This retirement oasis in the desert has long beckoned those who want to spin out their golden years playing golf and sitting by the pool in the arid sunshine.

But for Clare Keany, who turned 62 last fall and cannot find work, it feels more like a prison. Just a few miles from the gated estates of corporate chieftains and Hollywood stars, Ms. Keany lives in a tiny mobile home, barely getting by on little more than $1,082 a month from Social Security.

“I would rather be functioning and having a job somewhere,” said Ms. Keany, whose pixie haircut, trim build and crinkling smile suggest someone much younger than her years. “I really don’t enjoy living like this. I’ve got too much to do still.”

Even as most Americans are delaying retirement to bolster their savings accounts, the recession and its protracted aftermath have forced many older people who are out of work to draw Social Security much earlier than they had planned.

According to an analysis by Steve Goss, chief actuary for the Social Security Administration, about 200,000 more people filed initial claims in 2009 and 2010 than the agency had predicted before the recession and he said the trend most likely continued in 2011 and 2012, though that is harder to quantify. The most likely reason is joblessness.

Ms. Keany had always expected to work into her 70s and add to her retirement cushion. But after losing her job as an executive assistant at an advertising agency in 2008, she searched fruitlessly for full-time work and exhausted her unemployment benefits. For a while, she strung together odd jobs and lived off her 401(k) retirement and profit-sharing accounts. Then, this year, with her savings depleted and no job offers in sight, she reluctantly applied for Social Security.

Gazing out the window where the Santa Rosa mountains rise behind the mobile home park, she said, “It just seems a waste of a life, to be honest.”

Drawing Social Security early has repercussions that will be hard to overcome even if the economy — and her work prospects — improve. By collecting four years shy of her full retirement age, Ms. Keany will receive a reduced monthly benefit for the rest of her life. Those who collect early get 20 to 30 percent less a month than they would get if they waited until full retirement age, which varies by year of birth. People in Ms. Keany’s age bracket are expected to live an average of close to 23 more years.

“The most potent lever that individuals can pull in trying to get themselves a secure retirement income is to postpone claiming” Social Security, said Alicia H. Munnell, director of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.

As recently as a decade ago, half of those eligible claimed Social Security at 62. But that share has been falling because people are living longer and still want to work as well as shore up retirement funds. That makes it even more galling for those who are forced to claim early because of unemployment. Several people interviewed mentioned blows to their self-esteem along with abandoned dreams of a more comfortable old age.

According to an analysis by Richard W. Johnson, director of the retirement policy program at the Urban Institute, 37 percent of older workers who lost their jobs between 2008 and 2011 and did not return to work ended up claiming Social Security as soon as they turned 62.

Ms. Keany, who was born in Britain, was making $64,000 a year as an administrative manager for a boutique advertising agency in Santa Monica when the firm lost two of its biggest clients in one week. She has nearly three decades of experience in the United States. She has managed offices, arranged visits by foreign dignitaries, composed employee handbooks and finessed demanding bosses. She said she had also run errands for movie producers, organized home offices and coordinated the administrative details of a drug study.

Those years of experience now work against her, she thinks. “I’m overly qualified, overly skilled,” she said.

Her age is also most likely an impediment. After they lose a job, older workers tend to have a much harder time finding another than younger workers.

A Government Accountability Office report found that just under a third of those 55 to 64 who lost their jobs from 2007 through 2009 had found full-time work by January 2010, compared with 41 percent of people 25 to 54. The median duration of unemployment for those 55 and older was 34.1 weeks in May, according to the Labor Department, in contrast to 22 weeks for all jobless people over 16.

Ms. Keany, who is single and has no children, tried a change of geography. Because the economy in California was so weak, she moved in with friends in Charlotte, N.C., three years ago in hopes of having better luck there. She signed up with employment offices and volunteered, but did not find paying work.

Another friend invited her to stay on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, where Ms. Keany eventually began work at a women’s recovery house in exchange for room and utilities. Then Hurricane Irene hit last August and damaged the house. Ms. Keany could not afford to stay.

In a panic, she used the last of her savings to move to Palm Springs last October and buy a $19,000 one-bedroom mobile home in the same park where friends lived two doors down.

“I was so frantic at that point and I was at my wit’s end,” said Ms. Keany, saying she still planned to find a job. “I thought at least with Palm Springs it’s a retirement resort community and I know there’s a lot of business here as well.”

She scoured Craigslist for affluent residents seeking personal assistants. She took a one-month job in Los Angeles, chauffeuring the principal actor on a movie. She applied for a job as a concierge at a Marriott Hotel, but withdrew after hearing it offered only eight hours a week.

Finally, in January, she gave in and filed for Social Security. Her monthly check covers the $336 mobile home park fee plus utilities, her cellphone bill, insurance and a satellite dish. She is also paying $100 a month in credit card debt. To save money, she has canceled the data plan on her BlackBerry and cut back on fresh fruits and vegetables.

After a wind storm blew out a window, she covered it with a tarp because she could not afford to replace the glass.

Ms. Keany is still hoping to find work. Social Security recipients younger than full retirement age can earn up to $14,640 a year without sacrificing any of their monthly benefit. At Ms. Keany’s age, for every $2 earned over that amount, Social Security deducts $1 in benefits.

This month, she flew back to the Outer Banks to stay with friends and work part time in two gift shops over the summer. If she cannot find permanent work in North Carolina, she plans to return to Palm Springs in the fall.

She is discouraged by what she sees as youth-obsessed employers. “We’re already has-beens, which is so sad,” Ms. Keany said. “Some of us are still pretty productive.”

original post: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/forced-early-social-security-unemployed-011603328.html

Buildings destroyed, people missing in Colorado wildfire

An out-of control Colorado wildfire fueled by high winds and hot temperatures left an unknown number of people missing, destroyed 10 structures and prompted evacuations on Saturday, fire officials said.

A blaze in northern Colorado was first reported Saturday morning and had grown to about 8,000 acres by mid-evening, while a fire in southern New Mexico was small for a few days until it began growing Friday, reaching about 10,000 acres.

Larimer County Sheriff’s Office spokesman John Schulz said the fire expanded rapidly during the late afternoon and evening and by Saturday night, residents living along several roads in the region had been ordered to evacuate and many more were warned that they might have to flee. An evacuation center was set up at a middle school in Laporte.

Video: Massive flames erupt in Colorado (on this page)

Officials didn’t specify how many residents had been evacuated from their homes but the Colorado fire incident command reported it had sent out 1,200 emergency evacuation notices.

“Right now we’re just trying to get these evacuations done and get people safe,” Schulz told Denver-based KMGH-TV, adding that “given the extreme heat in the area, it makes it a difficult time for (the firefighters).”

Fire spokeswoman Jennifer Hillman said the so-called High Park Fire was zero percent contained, and said that authorities had been unable to locate or make contact with an unknown number of people who live in the area.

Ten structures have been damaged, although authorities were unsure if they were homes or some other kind of buildings. No injuries have been reported. The cause of the fire was unknown.

The fire incident command rated the fire’s growth potential as “high.”

The High Park blaze was reported about dawn Saturday and is believed to have started on private land and quickly spread into the Roosevelt National Forest, the forest service said.

It is the third major wildfire to hit Larimer County this spring in what has already been an active early wildfire season.

‘Good conditions to grow’
Deputies and firefighters went door-to-door telling residents to flee before flames forced them to leave the area, Larimer County Sheriff Justin Smith told reporters at a Saturday evening briefing.

One firefighter was hospitalized for heat exhaustion earlier in the day, he said.

Aerial footage from KMGH-TV showed flames coming dangerously close to what appeared to be several outbuildings and at least one home in the area, as well as consuming trees and sending a large plume of smoke into the air. Plumes of smoke could be seen from the Denver metropolitan area.

original post at: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/47754113/ns/weather/

Indian suspect kills family and himself

Avtar Singh

A man wanted for murder in India apparently killed his wife and two of their children and wounded a third before committing suicide Saturday morning at his Selma, Calif., home, officials say.

Avtar Singh, 47, called Selma police around 6:15 a.m. and told them that he had killed members of his family and was going to kill himself, the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office said.

Selma police sought aid from Fresno County sheriff’s officials because Singh reportedly had military experience in his native India, Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims said in a prepared statement obtained by NBC station KSEE of Fresno.

Sheriff’s officials tried to contact Singh verbally and by phone, but he did not respond, Mims said.

When a sheriff’s SWAT team entered the home after first examining it with a robot, members found the bodies of Singh, his wife and two children, ages 3 and 15, Mims said. A wounded teen was also found in the home, she said.

The teen was taken to a hospital and is in critical condition with life-threatening wounds, Mims said.

A motive was not immediately clear.

An Indian army major in the 1990s, Singh is accused in the March 1996 killing of human rights lawyer Jaleel Andrabi in the Kashmiri city of Srinagar.

Watch US News crime videos on msnbc.com

Avtar Singh on March 8, 1996, allegedly arrested Andrabi, whose body was recovered March 27, 1996, from the Jehlulm River near Srinagar, according to Indian reports of the case.

Andrabi had been shot in the head and his eyes were gouged out, the Fresno Bee reported.

See the story at NBC station KSEE of Fresno

In Srinagar on Thursday, a court granted Afaq Ahmad, chief prosecuting officer, five more days to prepare an error-free charge sheet and English translation to be submitted to the Ministry of External Affairs so Singh could be extradited, the South Asian News Agency reported.

The ministry earlier sent back the charge sheet, claiming it was neither clear nor legible and that it contained errors, SANA reported.

Andrabi’s family has claimed the government for years has delayed prosecuting the case.

Singh had contended he was made a scapegoat in Andrabi’s murder case and that his battalion was nowhere near the place where Andrabi was kidnapped at the height of an anti-India uprising, SANA reported.

On Feb. 20, 2011, Singh was arrested and then freed from the Fresno County jail, after he got bail in a domestic violence case registered against him by his wife. Although his fingerprints led police to contact Interpol, the agency said he did not have to be held, SANA reported.

In Selma, a city of 23,000 in California’s agriculturally oriented Central Valley, Singh ran Jay Truck Lines, according to U.S. Department of Transportation records. The interstate trucking company specialized in refrigerated trucks for hauling produce and other products, records indicate.

original post at: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/06/09/12143817-india-murder-suspect-apparently-kills-wife-2-kids-self-in-california?lite

Snooki nude pics released?

• 

  Nude photos that look shockingly like a pre-pregnant Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi have gone viral on the internet, reports the U.K. newspaper, The Daily Mail. The story was picked up in the U.S. by E! Online.

  Neither the pregnant-with-a-baby-boy “Jersey Shore” star nor her reps have confirmed the cell phone self-portrait photos are Snooki, but the provocative pics have gone viral on the Web.

  Snooki has reportedly given up tanning, amongst other pastimes considered not good for pregnant women, but she’s not given up her Catholicism, and observers are concerned the nude photos will embarrass Snooki, her fiancé Jionni LaVelle, and her Italian family.

  original post at: http://wonderwall.msn.com/tv/are-those-viral-photos-of-a-nude-snooki-1686831.story