12-Year-Old Charged With Drunk Driving

Excerpts of a story that's a shocker the Minneapolis Star Tribune:
Barely old enough for junior high, a 12-year-old rural Minnesota girl may be charged with DWI, according to authorities.
She was at the wheel of a car that missed a curve Saturday in Winona County, according to Sheriff David Brand.
A deputy got a surprise when he asked the girl, whom he suspected of drinking, for her license. She said she didn't have one because she was only 12. The situation was even more remarkable considering that a licensed driver, 19-year-old Benjamin R. Repinski of Winona, was a passenger.
Brand said Repinski met the girl at a party and asked her to drive him home.

Find the full story at the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Seriel Stabbing Suspect Nabbed In Atlanta

Parts of a story from the Associated Press and Yahoo News:
A suspect in a string of 18 stabbings that terrorized people across three states and left five dead was arrested in front of startled passengers at an airport gate as he tried to board a plane for Israel, officials said Thursday.
A judge in Flint, Mich., where the attacks began in late May, signed a warrant Thursday charging Elias Abuelazam, 33, with assault with intent to murder in connection with a July 27 stabbing.
Antwione Marshall, 26, of Flint, the victim of that attack, told The Associated Press that the FBI visited him at 3 a.m. to show him a picture of the man arrested in Atlanta, and he identified him as the assailant. . . .
Find the full story at Yahoo News.

Dems Praying (And Paying) For Big Union Votes

Parts of a fine editorial from the Washington Times:

As President Obama's poll numbers continue to slide, congressional Democrats faced with increasingly tough re-election contests are turning to their best remaining friend, Big Labor, for help. Tuesday's enactment of a $26 billion "jobs bill" was carefully tailored to please public-sector unions, especially those representing teachers. The House majority hopes labor will reciprocate by delivering votes in the fall.

The latest federal cash infusion will help states avoid making tough budgetary decisions that might endanger the obscene salary and pension plans offered to teachers and bureaucrats at the state and local level. . . .

The spend-at-all-costs mentality even extends to punishing states that attempt frugality. A provision in the new law withholds federal money from the Lone Star State unless Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican, "offers assurances" to the administration that he will not make any cuts in his education budget through fiscal 2013. Mr. Perry insisted that such an assurance is prohibited by his state constitution.

"It is unfortunate that Washington continues to play partisan games with Texans' tax dollars and the very future of our children," Mr. Perry said in a statement. "Texas will not surrender to Washington's one-size-fits-all, deficit-spending mindset or let Washington do to the Texas budget what they have done to the federal budget."

Mr. Perry is not alone in his discontent with Washington's profligacy. According to the latest Rasmussen Reports daily tracking poll, 56 percent disapprove of the president's policies. The same number think their own member of Congress routinely trades his votes for cash or campaign contributions. . . .

Of course, it's hard to tell if such forethought went into the latest bailout, as it was rushed into law so quickly that nobody even bothered to offer a title for the bill. The measure was officially enrolled as the "______ Act of ____." One could hardly ask for a more fitting symbol of the fundamental emptiness of this congressional spending spree.

For the entire editorial see the Washington Times.

Elite Dems Party With Rangel At Po$h Plaza Ba$h

In part, here's how the New York Daily News told the story:
New York's Democratic elite showered love and cash Wednesday night on scandal-soaked Rep. Charles Rangel at a lavish 80th birthday party fund-raiser.
"This damn sure ain't no funeral," declared a defiant Rangel.
But the threat of political mortality over the 13 ethics charges the congressman faces hung in the air of The Plaza hotel's Grand Ballroom. "Please remember me in your prayers," Rangel said as the party ended.
The turnout of 800 guests - including Gov. Paterson, U.S. Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand and Attorney General Andrew Cuomo - showed New York's top Democrats still willing to stand with Rangel, even if some had played hard to get until Wednesday.
The crowd paid $200 to $2,500 to munch on vanilla cupcakes and kosher food, sip free-flowing cocktails and sway to Dionne Warwick singing "That's What Friends Are For." . . .
Before entering The Plaza, former Mayor David Dinkins called Rangel his "brother" - and went on to give a loud-voiced protester a one-fingered salute.
Schumer, who hedged on whether he would attend until the last minute, called Rangel "a leader," adding, "He has fought for New York through thick and thin. ... He is somebody who has always cared."
For the full story see the New York Daily News.

Hapless Biden Vacations With The Wealthy

So, Michelle Obama hobknobs with royalty on the Costa Del Sol in Spain. Biden retreats to the Hamptons, a favorite playground for the rich. And now the Obamas are off to chic Mahhthaahhs Vinyaaahhhd. These are the people who are supposed to be championing the cause of ordinary Americans.
But they wouldn't know ordinary taxpayers from centipedes.
Well, we're very happy to be here with those ordinary Americans in America's heartland -- Branson, MO. We're havin a great time in Branson -- America's happiest, most patriotic, most economical family resort.
When we asked a visitor here how she felt about Michelle's trip to Spain, she said it meant that the First Lady simply doesn't care. "She doesn't care what we think. She doesn't care. They don't care about us. They do whatever they want. I don't know what's in their minds but it isn't us." she concluded. "They don't care."

Blind, Abducted California Cat Turns Up In NYC

Portions of an engaging story from Carolyn Jones at the San Francisco Chronicle:
If Jack Daniels could talk, he could probably explain everything.
But alas, Jack can only meow. So it remains a mystery as to how the nearly blind black cat, abducted from the San Francisco Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals a year ago, ended up on the streets of Harlem last week.
Tuesday morning, Jack Daniels' journeys brought him back to San Francisco, courtesy of JetBlue and a cat-loving book designer from Brooklyn named LeeAnn Falciani.
"He's this superstar cat," said Falciani, who took a week off work to escort Jack Daniels from New York's animal shelter to San Francisco's SPCA. "He's wonderful. I'm actually kind of sad right now to say goodbye."
Jack Daniels' saga began in May 2009, when San Francisco animal control officers brought him and his brother, Jim Beam, to the SPCA for adoption. Jack Daniels was suffering from scarred corneas because of a viral infection, a common condition among kittens, SPCA veterinarian and interim co-president Jennifer Scarlett said.
With his milky gray eyes, Jack Daniels relied heavily on his brother, who acted as a sort of seeing-eye cat, Scarlett said. SPCA staff intended for the brothers to be adopted together.
But a week after the pair were put up for adoption, Jack Daniels vanished from his enclosure. Someone had catnapped him. . . .
But on Aug. 4, New York City animal control officers spied a nearly blind, apparently homeless, black cat ambling along 110th Street, and they brought him to the city's nearby animal shelter. Staff scanned his microchip and contacted the registered owner: the San Francisco SPCA.
For the full story see the San Francisco Chronicle.

Did Donald Duck Grope Woman's Breast?

Portions of a story from William Bender at the Philadelphia Daily News:

This might sound Goofy, but a Delaware County mother suing Walt Disney Parks and Resorts claims that she suffers from posttraumatic stress disorder and about a dozen other "permanent" maladies because Donald Duck grabbed her breasts two years ago at Epcot Center.

April Magolon, 27, of Upper Darby, states in her lawsuit that a Disney employee dressed in a Donald Duck costume touched one of her breasts and continued to "molest her" when she approached him for an autograph in May 2008, while she held her child.

Beyond the humiliation of being groped by an anthropomorphic duck in a sailor suit, Magolon claims that the incident caused "severe physical injury," a "shock to her entire nervous system," plus "muscle contraction headaches," "acute anxiety" and "nausea, cold sweats, insomnia, nightmares, flashbacks, digestive problems" and other conditions that are "permanent in nature."

The episode also forced her to spend "large sums of money for a ruined vacation" with her children and fiancé, according to the suit, which was first posted online yesterday by The Smoking Gun Web site. . . .

Read the full story at the Philadelphia Daily News.

Obama's Fall From Grace As Precipitous As LBJ's

Portions of an excellent column from Fouad Ajami in the Wall Street Journal:
Not long ago Barack Obama, for those who were spellbound by him, had the stylishness of JFK and the historic mission of FDR riding to the nation's rescue. Now it is to Lyndon B. Johnson's unhappy presidency that Democratic strategist Robert Shrum compares the stewardship of Mr. Obama. Johnson, wrote Mr. Shrum in the Week magazine last month, never "sustained an emotional link with the American people" and chose to escalate a war that "forced his abdication as president.
A broken link with the public, and a war in Afghanistan he neither embraces and sells to his party nor abandons—this is a time of puzzlement for President Obama. His fall from political grace has been as swift as his rise a handful of years ago. He had been hot political property in 2006 and, of course, in 2008.

Read the full column at the Wall Street Journal

Obama's Shamelessly Recreational Presidency

Some graphs from Dana Milbank's exceptionally insightful piece at the Washington Post:
"You must always remember that the president is about 6."
This advice was offered more than 100 years ago by a British friend of Teddy Roosevelt's. The nation has matured since then, and so has the presidency. Now the president is about 12.
While President Obama's wife and younger daughter were conducting international relations in Majorca on Sunday with Spain's King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia, the commander in chief was at home hosting a fantasy camp for himself. He and his buddies had a birthday weekend barbecue and basketball game with LeBron James, Alonzo Mourning, Magic Johnson and other legends of the sport.
The day before, it was a four-hour golf outing for Obama and the boys. On Monday, he hosted the Super Bowl champion New Orleans Saints at the White House and talked about his own exploits on the gridiron last year with Saints quarterback Drew Brees. "He tossed me a nice tight spiral that I then lateraled to a kid on [Dallas Cowboys linebacker] DeMarcus Ware's shoulders," the president recalled. "I also want to point out I beat [Pittsburgh Steelers safety] Troy Polamalu over the middle on that throw." Obama turned to Brees. "You remember?"
Boys will be boys -- even if they're presidents. . . .
Read the full story at the Washington Post.

DRPA Accepted, Then Ignored Ethics Code

Excerpts from a Paul Nussbaum story at the Philadelphia Inquirer:
An expanded code of ethics written in 2003 for the Delaware River Port Authority, but never implemented, could have saved the DRPA from much of the trouble it's now in, DRPA board member John Dougherty said in a letter to the agency's chief.
Criticism of the agency continued to mount Monday, as Pennsylvania Auditor General Jack Wagner said he "will be asking for a change in leadership at the DRPA" if significant improvements are not made quickly.
Wagner is a Pennsylvania member of the bistate agency's 16-member board who, along with Dougherty and Pennsylvania State Treasurer Robert McCord, has been among the chief DRPA critics. Govs. Christie and Rendell also have called for policy changes, which DRPA Chairman John Estey said last week would be voted on at an Aug. 18 board meeting. . . .
The revised ethics code was shelved without action by the DRPA management. It was not distributed to the board for review.
Read the full story at the Philadelphia Inquirer