Unemployment Is Actually Going In The WRONG Directions

I realize that President Obama says that unemployment is going in the right direction but looking at the numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, I would say that blacks and teens would argue that this is far from true.

Unemployment rates for the major worker groups--adult men (10.2 percent),
adult women (8.2 percent), teenagers (27.1 percent), whites (9.0 percent),
blacks (16.2 percent), and Hispanics (12.9 percent)--showed little change in
December. The unemployment rate for Asians was 8.4 percent, not seasonally
adjusted.

Among the unemployed, the number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27
weeks and over) continued to trend up, reaching 6.1 million. In December, 4 in
10 unemployed workers were jobless for 27 weeks or longer.

These numbers are not not quite accurate due to the fact that these numbers would not include those individuals who are without jobs but whose benefits have run out or who were not eligible for some reason for benefits.

We do not know how many people are out there who are unemployed and have just quit looking. Some people say that if these numbers were factored in we'd have a much higher rate of unemployment.

I'm sorry Mr. President but the downward trend of unemployment is not moving in the right direction.

Josh Powell Allegedly Says" Well, It's Not Like I Stabbed Her."

I was watching the news tonight and heard that Josh Powell is going trying to sell his home. It appears he wants to move to a gated community in South Hill, an area near Puyallup to live with his father.

Later I checked the internet to discover that just yesterday there was a bit of a dusty up between Josh's brother and Tim Peterson a a member of the same LDS church ward that the Powells attend.

It appears he tried to be supportive of Joshua at first. Then he learned that Joshua Powell planned to sell his West Valley City house and pack his belongings for a permanent move to his hometown of Puyallup, Wash., Peterson grew angry and drove to the Powells' home Wednesday to retrieve a playground set he had given the family.

Peterson allegedly said to Josh's brother, "This playground was for Susan and the kids and for their enjoyment. I said, she's not here anymore and you guys don't appear to be looking for her. So just in case you haven't noticed, Susan's gone"

Peterson had been providing marriage counseling to Susan and Joshua previously but they eventually stopped seeing him. Peterson says he encouraged Susan to leave Joshua because he was an energy suck.

When Peterson finally received permission to retrieve the playground equipment his truck got caught in the mud in the front yard and the police were called.

According to Peterson he went by the Powell home two days after Susan was reported missing. Peterson says he observed severe "wind burn" on the back of Joshua Powell's hands and watched as Joshua Powell kept applying lotion to them as they talked in Peterson's front room.

Peterson said his wife asked Joshua Powell about Susan's whereabouts and Powell replied "Well, it's not like I stabbed her."

Where is Susan? The boys deserve that answers. Her parents and friends deserve the answers. Susan deserves peace. She deserves justice. I am still praying that a miracle happens and Susan is found safe and well but of course as the days go by the probability seems more bleak.

One more thing, when I retrieved the video for this post I noticed a post from someone called fleetingdays. This person said "Josh needs help. Maybe, a fund could be set up to help him with attorney fees and money for the move. Susan might be in Washington state."

Is this person kidding? Josh needs help but a lawyer won't be able to help him. God knows what happened and God's memory is long. There is no parole in eternity. I'm not advocating doing something to Joshua but he should realize that our stay here on earth is only temporary. Josh needs help because his two sons will be asking him, "What happened to Mom? Where's Mom? Why did Mom leave us? Didn't Mom love us?"

If you have ANY information please contact the the West Valley City Police at 801-840-4000.

Playboy Model's Body Found In Dumpster

Having been in an abusive marriage I don't ask the question that some people ask. I do understand why people ask the question but even I do not know the answer. The question on people's lips is always, "Why did they stay in an abusive relationship?"

Sociologist, pyschologists, and others have tried to find the answer to the question but really the answer lies in the heart of the people involved. For me, I couldn't imagine my life without my ex husband. I had grown up in an abusive family and so abuse was not alien to me. I always felt if I just a little more, did something different, things would work out in the end.

People will reach out to help you. They will speak the words that your hear knows are true. You know that you should leave but you seem almost paralyzed and caught in grip of a love that is destroying you bit by bit.

For me, the end of my marriage culminated in a violent act in which my ex-husband tried to bash my head in with a metal bed slat. I escaped with my life but my battered self-esteem craved him like a drug and would have willingly taken him back.

It took lots of introspection to take me to a place where I understood that I deserved so much better.

How could love take you to a place where you could destroy that which you profess to cherish? How can you brutalize the person you once held in a loving embrace? I don't know that we will ever know and I don't belive that Kevin could answer this question either.

Playboy model Paula Sladewski was found inside a flaming trash can in North Miami. Her body was found on Sunday, January 3, 2009. Dental records were used to identify Sladewski, because her body was "burned beyond recognition," according to North Miami police spokesperson Lt. Newl Cuevas. Police found the body in the 1400 block of Northeast 131st Street.

Paula Sladewski's family says the lovers had a volatile relationship, telling reporters that Klym recently broke the models nose, and that there had been other charges of domestic violence.

Sladewski and her boyfriend Kevin Klym, 34, who resided in both Michigan and California, had traveled to Florida to ring in the New Year with a Lady Gaga concert and a weekend of bar-hopping.

She was last seen in the early morning hours at the nightspot Club Space, where she’d gotten into a fight with Klym.

Klym told cops his girlfriend was “too drunk,” the newspaper reports, and he tried to convince her to leave the bar.

After the ensuing screaming match, he said, bouncers tossed him out - and he took a cab back to their swanky digs at a Miami Beach hotel.

She did not deserve to die this way. If anyone who saw Paula at the club or afterward contact police.

Lottery Winner Missing

We all love stories of rags to riches. Many of us have dreams that one day we will buy the lucky lottery ticket that will help us live our dreams. Oh sure we've all seen the stories of lottery winners who suffered personal and or financial downfalls after their big win. Still we are certain that if we were the lucky one, we would know how to avoid the problems.

Who doesn't remember Andrew Jackson "Jack" Whittaker, Jr.? He won $315 million and after taxes collected $113.4 million. You would like to believe his life would then be all sunshine and roses. Sadly he learned first hand the devastation his big win would bring his way.

He lost his granddaughter, whose body was found under a tarpaulin near her boyfriend's home. He was sued for wrongful death of a friend of his granddaughter and had to pay a multi-million dollar settlement. He had money stolen out of his vehicle, not once but several times, at a local strip club.

In January of 2007, Whittaker came forward to the police alleging that thieves had stole the remainder of his fortune. He stated that thieves, in a coordinated plan had cashed 12 checks effectively emptying his bank account.

Whittaker now claims to be struggling financially and barely able to make ends meet with the payouts from previous lawsuits. He has frequently stated that no amount of money lent to friends and family was ever enough and that his experiences with the lottery destroyed his life. He states that if he could do it all over again, he would have just filled up his tank, bought a sandwich and gone on his merry way.

There are some people who shake their heads at stories like this certain that this is something that never would have happened to them. Some people are secretly happy. Those kinds of people are happy at anyone's misfortune. There are other people who are of the idea that lottery wins are ill-gotten gains anyway and that any misfortune that falls upon the winner was well deserved. There are still others, like me, who have some sympathy for the human being who learned that money does not hold all the answers.

When I heard the story of Abraham Shakespeare who won $30 million in the Florida lottery in 2006 I felt truly sad.

It begins much like many other great stories do. A young man who is living a life with much to be desired. He's had been working a job making $8 an hour. He'd had some brushes with the law.

Then comes the fateful day when one lottery ticket changes his life. When he won he bought a Nissan Altima, a Rolex from a pawn shop, a $1 million home in a gated community. He talked about starting a foundation for the poor and insisted the money wouldn't change him.

His mother said he was generous, paying for funerals, lending money to friends starting businesses and even giving a million dollars to a guy known only as "Big Man."

Not long after he bought the million-dollar home in early 2007, he was approached by a woman named Dee Dee Moore, said family and officials.

Ms. Moore said she was interested in writing a book about Shakespeare's life. She became something of a financial adviser to Shakespeare, who never graduated high school.

According to The Ledger of Lakeland, the 37-year-old Moore contacted reporters at the newspaper in April, saying Shakespeare was "laying low" because people tried to suck money out of him.

His family reported him missing on November 9, according to the Polk County Sheriff's Office but he's actually had no contact with his family since April.

Police believe DeeDee Moore has information about Shakespeare.

The 37-year-old Moore is believed to have offered to give away a home worth about $200,000 in exchange for making a false report to law enforcement regarding an alleged recent sighting of Shakespeare.

Detectives also say Moore paid one of Shakespeare's relatives $5,000 to hand-deliver a birthday card containing cash to Shakespeare's mother suggesting the card was from her son.

Moore began using Shakespeare's cell phone in April 2009 to text the man's relatives and friends to have them believe it was Shakespeare attempting to contact them.

His mother said: "I hope so much he is alive somewhere and I want people to know if they ever win the lottery they know how to handle the people that come after them.

"They can be dangerous."

The sheriff's office is now making a public plea for information. It's also offering a $10,000 cash reward for anyone who can lead investigators to Shakespeare.

Please Help Find Susan Powell

It is a new year and Susan Powell is still not home. Her friends and family have created a Facebook page and a YouTube page to solicit help in bring Susan home.

Susan Powell was last seen at her home in West Valley City, Utah on Sunday night, December 6, 2009. Anyone with information about this case should contact the West Valley City Police at 801-840-4000.

Paul Merhige Has Been Captured

Last night I was watching America's Most Wanted. For years I seldom missed an episode but as time went by I eventually did stop watching. I suppose I parted ways with the show when it was no longer on one of the big three stations and word of John's affair came out into the news. As a matter of fact I honestly didn't realize that it was still on the air.

One of the segments that was featured was about Paul Merhinge. Police say Merhige shot and killed his 33-year-old twin sisters, Carla Merhige and Lisa Knight (who was pregnant), both of Miami, along with his aunt Raymonde Joseph, 76, and his young cousin Makayla Sitton.

You could tell that the story of the brutal murder of a six year old really effected John, who lost his beloved son Adam at the same age. He told them not blame themselves and reminded them that there was only one person who is to blame and that is the monster who killed their beloved daughter. You couldn't help but be effected too as you watched video of Makayla Sitton singing what appeared to be a Christmas song.




Merhige sat through three hours of dinner and sing-a-longs around the piano before the shootings, Sitton has said. There were no arguments, warnings or red flags before the rampage.

Authorities have said Merhige carefully planned the killings. Sitton has said Merhige was heard saying after the shootings that he had waited 20 years to kill the relatives.

My husband looked at me and said, "This case is a case that the death penalty was made for." As the video of the little girl singing flashed on the screen, I couldn't help but agree.

Jupiter Police Sgt. Scott Pascarella said that Paul Merhige was arrested without a struggle Saturday night at a motel in the Florida Keys. Pascarella credited the TV show "America's Most Wanted" for the tip that led to Merhige's capture on Long Key.

According to US Marshals, Merhige was on his computer when U.S. Marshals and local deputies entered his motel room.

Authorities said Merhige checked into the motel in Dec. 2, using the name "John Baca" and a false Homestead address. He had the same blue 2007 Toyota Camry that had been a key part of the manhunt, but police said it was hidden with a covering at the Keys motel.

He faces four counts of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted first-degree murder in the shootings, which also injured two other people.

There was no indication Saturday that Merhige had an attorney. Authorities said he was being taken to the Palm Beach County jail.

This capture reminded me again why I always loved America's Most Wanted. In a society that proudly announces "Don't Snitch" I'm glad that there are some people out there who will help authorities and society by helping authorities.

I Take It All Back- Global Warming Is Real

That's right. I've been wrong. Mea Culpa.

Reports all point to a radical change in climatic conditions, and hitherto unheard of high temperatures in that part of the earth's surface.

It was all there for me to see but I was just too blind to see. Here is actual recorded data documenting the melting of polar ice caps:

Ice conditions were exceptional. In fact, so little ice has never before been noted. Dr. Hoel reports that he made a section of the Gulf Stream at 81 degrees north latitude and took soundings to a depth of 3,100 meters. These show the Gulf Stream very warm, and it could be traced as a surface current till beyond the 81st parallel.

Where formerly great masses of ice were found, there are now often moraines, accumulations of earth and stone. At many points where glaciers formerly extended far into the sea they have entirely disappeared.

Was Al Gore right all along? It's all there. Well it's all there except for the date when this report was published. You see this report was published in 1922.

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.