Believe It...Or Else
Yes friends, time once again for more of the bizarre, the insane, the highly improbable and the nearly impossible things going on in the world that make us all shake our head in utter disbelief.
So, without any further ado...let the pigeons loose.
** If you're planning a trip to Fort Wayne (or if you already LIVE here...both instances should give a normal person reason for pause), be very careful of those $100 bills you have or might receive.
(( Fake $100s invade area, police warn
Holly Abrams / Samuel Hoffman - The Journal Gazette
Despite the U.S. government's efforts to make currency harder to duplicate, criminals are conjuring up more ways to dupe consumers - and it's working, Fort Wayne police say.
Police have noticed an upswing since early May in the number of people reporting fake currency, said Sgt. Cleophus Jones, Fort Wayne police financial crimes supervisor.
"If you cannot detect this money, you will be hit by it yourself," he said. That includes both consumers and businesses. Area gas stations have been hit hard by people handing over fake bills because of the high number of customers served and quick transactions, Jones said. Area nightclubs have also been hit by counterfeit bills.
In the darkness of a club, it's harder to distinguish whether cash is real, he added.
Jones estimates at least $100,000 has been laundered by people cashing counterfeit bills.
He has been taking three to four calls a day, on average, regarding possible counterfeit currency.
Here's a link for a video:
http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20090827/LOCAL07/308279993#
"I would like to blame it on the economy, but I think there are a lot of greedy people out there," he said, adding that financial crimes are on the rise.
Most commonly, criminals are bleaching or washing $5 bills to create fake $100 bills.
The criminals then use the bill to make a small purchase, such as a pack of gum, to get change.
Because the fake bills are made from real money as opposed to computer paper, counterfeit markers commonly used by retailers to quickly identify valid currency do not work, Jones said. The markers are supposed to detect fake bills based on what color the marker's ink
changes when it comes into contact with the paper.
Instead, the naked eye, along with new fluorescent-light pens used to detect watermarks, are more valid tools to identify fake currency, according to Detective Dave Chrzan of the U.S. Secret Service. The pens cost about $10 each and are available at office-supply stores.
Another good defense is some basic knowledge of U.S. history."Just know your presidents, essentially," Chrzan said.
Counterfeit bills often have watermarks that do not match the presidents on the bills.
For example, a $100 bill created from a $5 bill will have an Abraham Lincoln watermark, as opposed to the Benjamin Franklin watermark a real $100 bill would have.
Police said the counterfeiting is being done by crime rings. Some of the currency is being produced in Fort Wayne, and other bills come from outside of the city, including Chicago, Chrzan said.
This crime is also being perpetuated across U.S. borders, with many of the large-scale counterfeiting schemes in foreign countries, according to Officer Michael Joyner, police spokesman.
Counterfeiting is a Class D felony.
According to police, anyone who thinks he has a counterfeit bill should take the money to a bank and inquire about the bill's validity.
Anyone with possible multiple counterfeit bills should call police at 427-1222.
habrams@jg.net))
Wow...this funny money might be coming from CHICAGO (what a surprise), or even from ACROSS THE BORDER (say it ain't so?).
Sure is going to make the local DRUG DEALERS wish they showed up for HISTORY class...LOL!
And that brings us to our NEXT article...
** ((Mexico relaxes drug-use laws -U.S. police fear change will boost narco-tourism
JULIE WATSON-Associated Press
MEXICO CITY – Mexico now has one of the world’s most liberal laws for drug users after eliminating jail time for small amounts of marijuana, cocaine and even heroin, LSD and methamphetamine.
"All right!" said a grinning Ivan Rojas, a rail-thin 20-year-old addict who endured police harassment during the decade he has spent sleeping in Mexico City’s gritty streets and subway stations.
But stunned police on the U.S. side of the border say the law contradicts President Felipe Calderon’s drug war, and some fear it could make Mexico a destination for drug-fueled spring breaks and tourism.
Tens of thousands of American college students flock to Cancun and Acapulco each year to party at beachside discos offering wet T-shirt contests and all-you-can-drink deals.
"Now they will go because they can get drugs," San Diego Police Chief William Lansdowne said. "For a country that has experienced thousands of deaths from warring drug cartels for many years, it defies logic why they would pass a law that will clearly encourage drug use."
Enacted last week, the Mexican law is part of a growing trend across Latin America to treat drug use as a public health problem and make room in overcrowded prisons for violent traffickers rather than small-time users.
Supporters of the change point to Portugal, which removed jail terms for drug possession for personal use in 2001 and still has one of the lowest rates of cocaine use in Europe.
Portugal’s law defines personal use as the equivalent of what one person would consume over 10 days. Police confiscate the drugs, and the suspect must appear before a government commission, which reviews the person’s drug consumption patterns. Users may be fined, sent for treatment or put on probation.
Foreigners caught with drugs still face arrest in Portugal, a measure to prevent drug tourism.
The same is not true for Mexico, where there is no jail time for anyone caught with roughly four marijuana cigarettes, four lines of cocaine, 50 milligrams of heroin, 40 milligrams of methamphetamine or 0.015 milligram of LSD.
That’s what concerns U.S. law enforcement at the border.
"It provides an officially sanctioned market for the consumption of the world’s most dangerous drugs," San Diego County Sheriff Bill Gore said. "For the people of San Diego, the risk is direct and lethal. There are those who will drive to Mexico to use drugs and return to the U.S. under their influence."
Don Thornhill, a retired Drug Enforcement Administration supervisor who investigated Mexican cartels for 25 years, said Mexico’s rampant drug violence will likely deter most U.S. drug users, and the new law will allow Mexican police to focus on "the bigger fish."
The Bush administration criticized a similar bill proposed in Mexico in 2006, prompting then-President Vicente Fox to send it back to Congress. But Washington has stayed quiet this time, praising Calderon for his fight against drug cartels – a struggle that has seen 11,000 people killed since Calderon took office in 2006.
"We work with Mexico every day to combat illegal drugs and cartel violence," State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said when asked about the law. "And we look forward to continuing that cooperation."))
As I reported HERE just last Friday, this is not a good sign of the times.
So, along with bogus bucks, we might now have to deal with narco-tourism as scores of people flock to Mexico for some handy dandy LSD (which can have flashback events lasting for YEARS). Yeah, those are the people I want sharing MY highways and neighborhoods!
NOT!
But if that's not enough to burn your biscuits, how's about this?
** ((Stimulus Checks Mistakenly Sent to 1,700 Inmates, Federal Agency Says
The inspector general's office for the Social Security Administration is looking into the problem as part of its broader audit on stimulus spending. The Social Security Administration acknowledged the $425,000 glitch following a report that nearly two-dozen
inmates in Massachusetts had wrongly received the $250 stimulus checks.
By Judson Berger-FOXNews.com
Social Security spokesman Dan Moraski told FOXNews.com in a written statement that the money went out because official records "did not accurately reflect that they were in prison."
The inspector general's office for the Social Security Administration is now looking into the problem as part of its broader audit on stimulus spending. The Social Security Administration acknowledged the glitch following a report that nearly two-dozen inmates in Massachusetts had wrongly received the $250 stimulus checks.
Even before the agency disclosed that the problem was more widespread, the discovery prompted complaints from Republicans critical of the $787 billion stimulus and the way it has been managed.
"It is unacceptable for convicts to be getting stimulus funds. It speaks to the lack of oversight and accountability to have such nonsense coming out of Washington. Where is the accountability?" House Minority Whip Eric Cantor said in a written statement.
Though it might strike taxpayers as unusual, some inmates were legally eligible for the stimulus checks.
Under the law, the $250 checks were supposed to be sent to those legally receiving benefits under the Social Security Administration, the Department of Veterans Affairs or the Railroad Retirement Board between November 2008 and January 2009.
So while inmates generally aren't eligible for Social Security benefits, those who were not incarcerated between November and January got the stimulus checks fair and square.
Moraski said a total of 3,900 inmates not receiving benefits were sent a stimulus check and that of those, 2,200 were due the payment because they were out of prison late last year. The other 1,700 were mistakenly sent the checks.
But Moraski said that the number was "relatively small" given the fact that 52 million total payments were made, and that most of the mistaken payments have been returned by the correctional institutions. He did not provide specifics for how much of the $425,000 had been returned.
The Boston Herald reported the administration is asking for the Massachusetts money back.
But Diane Wiffin, a spokeswoman with the Massachusetts Department of Corrections, told FOXNews.com that her department tried to alert the Social Security staff months ago when it first discovered that the checks had been sent to 23 inmates.
"It was the DOC's opinion that the inmates were not eligible for the payments because of their incarceration, and we withheld the checks from the inmates at that time and immediately contacted the federal Social Security Administration," she said in an e-mail.
But she said that the administration "failed to provide a directive despite several requests," so the department could no longer withhold the checks from the inmates.
George Penn, a spokesman for the Social Security Administration's inspector general, said his office is examining the issue and likely will fold the inquiry into part of its audit of stimulus spending.
"(In) our initial analysis, we found that there were some (recipients) that were in prison," Penn said.
It's unclear whether beneficiaries thought to be eligible under the Department of Veterans Affairs received the stimulus money mistakenly due to incarceration.
Steven Bartholow, general counsel with the Railroad Retirement Board, said inmates receiving railroad benefits easily could have received stimulus checks -- but that it would have been totally legal, since in almost all circumstances inmates are eligible for railroad retirement benefits.))
More classic cases of the "system" being BROKE...
We can hope that any stimulus money those inmates get might be turned into some fake $100 bills...LOL!
That might keep 'em all behind bars a little longer... These are exactly the kind of things WE, the PEOPLE should be questioning when it comes to the manner in which our government operates. Why does this happen? How can so much fall between SO many cracks? And WHY aren't such problems being addressed?
We SHOULD be hearing answers instead of "crickets", right?
It boggles the mind to see such things occurring in a country we USED to have faith in.
I think many people STILL do have faith in AMERICA...it's the POLITICIANS who have no credibility these days.
It's the "hired help" that has caused much of the problem, so perhaps WE should (as any good employer does) get rid of all the "dead wood". After all, politicians ARE "civil SERVANTS", aren't they?
They work for US...not the other way around.
Time to reclaim our "manor", and get it functioning as our founding fathers intended it to.
We need not lose our America for the sake of the hired help's agenda.
Stay safe out there, America.