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Some would-be China protesters sentenced to hard labor

BEIJING – The park around the Temple of the Sun – built four centuries ago for ritual sacrifices to the sun – buzzed with modern activity, including badminton and table tennis. A boy ran around with a toy helicopter. Little kids bounced on a trampoline.

The park was one of three sites in Beijing set aside by the Chinese government for legal protests during the Olympics. The only discontent spotted here one morning this week came from a young boy upset that his mother wouldn’t let him keep chasing a butterfly.

There was no protest zone ever set up. The China Daily, an English-language outlet for the Chinese government, had a headline this week: “77 requests, no protests at Games.” The newspaper went on to say: “Up to yesterday, 74 applications had been withdrawn after amicable settlement between the parties and authorities.”

If anything, the protest application process has made it easier for China to arrest dissidents.

Georgians talk of resisting invasion

GORI, Georgia – After more than a week of Russian troops occupying his town, Kishvardi Taturashvili said the time for resistance was drawing near.

The Russian armored fighting vehicles that are blocking routes in and out of Gori are slowing the flow of humanitarian aid and stifling trade, he said.

“If they stay, we won’t get enough supplies and the war will start again,” Taturashvili, who works for the local power company
said. “People will take their guns and go to the forests.”

Gori sits near a route to South Ossetia, the breakaway region that Georgia tried to take earlier this month. The way to South Ossetia – where the Red Cross was allowed access only on Wednesday – is guarded by Russian armored vehicles and machine gun bunkers fashioned from concrete blocks.

Kremlin officials said Thursday that their troops were set to pull back to South Ossetia within a day.

National

Intel demonstrates wireless electricity

The wall-outlet crawl is a familiar dance that takes place in cafes
and airport terminals: laptop computer and cell-phone users desperately hunting for a place to plug in their gadgets, rearranging furniture or settling uncomfortably
on the floor to access an outlet.

If only there were a way to pull electricity out of the air, letting consumer electronics operate and recharge while untethered.
Scientists are now hot on the trail, trying to do for electricity what Wi-Fi did for the Internet. The idea is to perfect a transmitter
that sends electricity coursing through a room to gadgets, eliminating the need for messy and inconvenient cords.

Not all Democrats want Biden

Texas Democratic leaders praised Joe Biden as a straight-talker but acknowledged he wasn’t their first choice – or perhaps
even second – to add punch to the party ticket.

And Texas Republicans said the pick wouldn’t ignite Texas independents and conservatives to embrace other statewide or local Democratic candidates.

Many Democrats, perhaps unrealistically, were hoping for Bill Richardson, a Hispanic governor from a neighboring state; Chet Edwards, a homegrown Waco congressman; or Hillary Rodham Clinton, who won the Democratic primary vote in Texas.

“I don’t know how much someone from the northeast helps or hurts anyone from Texas,” said former House Speaker Pete Laney, a conservative Democrat who knows virtually every district in the state.

“If we had our picks it’d be a Chet Edwards or Bill Richardson,” he said.

Boeing threatens no tanker contract bid if not given more time

Boeing’s chief executive, James McNerney, told a top Pentagon official this week that his company might not compete for a $35 billion contract to build Air Force refueling tankers unless it gets an additional four months to prepare a bid.

Accompanied by James Albaugh, head of Boeing’s defense unit, McNerney met face to face with Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England for a half-hour Thursday at the Pentagon, Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., said Friday. Industry and defense sources confirmed the meeting. England is the department’s second-ranking official, behind only Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

The meeting came as the Defense Department prepared to issue a final request for proposals next week on the tanker contract.

Boeing said a version released several weeks ago favored a European aerospace company and its American partner.

Local/BSU

Fair volunteer files claim with human rights agency

A Nampa man who claims the Western Idaho Fair discriminated
against his disabled wife has filed a complaint with the Idaho Commission on Human Rights.

Director Leslie Ruth Goddard said complaints are kept confidential, but confirmed that Michael and Rose Harn met with a representative from the human rights agency Thursday and that a complaint had been filed.

Harn, 64, alleges that a fair employee ordered him and his wife off the fairgrounds because his wife’s severe condition left fairgoers and vendors uncomfortable.

Fair officials received complaints that Rose Harn, who is paralyzed and can only communicate by blinking her eyes and sticking out her tongue, was being neglected while her husband volunteered at a Mothers Against Drunk Driving booth. Officials also fielded criticism that the hard-hitting display was “over the top.”

Nampa woman attacked at home

Nampa – Police are on the lookout for a man who they say walked into a 19-year-old woman’s home and attacked her.

Nampa Police Lt. Brad Daniels said the unidentified suspect, a stranger to the victim, came in “unannounced and unwanted”
to the victim’s home, located in the 100 block of 21st Avenue South in Nampa.

“We haven’t pinned down the exact title, but basically it was a home invasion,” Daniels said. The victim was at the residence when the suspect entered the home, he said.

According to a press release, the suspect enticed the victim to a secluded area of the home and attacked her. The victim fought off the attacker uninjured, Daniels said.

Anyone with information on this incident can contact Nampa Police dispatchers at 465-2257 or Crime Stoppers at 343-2677.

Local stores won’t stock same-sex greetings

Nampa – The Treasure Valley’s seven Hallmark greeting card stores will not carry the company’s new same-sex marriage cards, a manager for the Jordan’s Hallmark in Karcher Mall said Friday.

The Nampa store has already received complaints about the cards, which Hallmark is rolling out this year.

“I have had people saying they would no longer shop at Hallmark based on the fact that Hallmark is carrying them,” Cassi Jacobsen, assistant manager for the Nampa store, said. The seven Jordan’s Hallmark stores are owned by a family whose members were out of town Friday and not available
for comment, Jacobsen said. They have the option of carrying
the cards or not. The Nampa store is the only one of the stores in Canyon County – the rest are in Ada County.

What The?

So at least some good came of it

A man in Fardal, Norway, tried to get rid of the wasps that had nested in a woodpile beside his garage by spraying lighter fluid on them and lighting a match. The resulting blaze burned down his garage with his car inside. It did kill the wasps though.

Hey, long time no see

An old man was arrested for drunk driving in Kullavik, Sweden. The cops cited him, confiscated his license and car keys, and drove him home to Kungsbacka. Once inside, he got his spare key and had a cabbie drive him back to his vehicle. But the cabbie called the cops because the guy was still drunk, and they came and arrested him again.

Compiled By Arbiter Staff

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