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Thursday, June 23, 2011

Retired West Virginia engineer Lowell Jackson “Jack” Fellure won the presidential nomination of the Prohibition Party yesterday at the party’s National Convention in Cullman, Alabama. He won on the second ballot, defeating Thompson Township tax accessor James Hedges of Pennsylvania, who initially ran unopposed. Party Chairman Toby Davis of Mississippi received the vice presidential nomination.

The Prohibition Party is the third oldest existing political party in the United States, having been established in 1869. It reached its height of popularity during the late 19th century. As its name suggests, the party heavily supported the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which banned the sale of alcohol, and resulted in the US period known as Prohibition (1919–33). The party has declined since the repeal of Prohibition in 1933, but has continued to nominate candidates for the presidential election.

Fellure, 79, has run for president in every election since 1988, though usually as a Republican. This run marks his first as a member of the Prohibition Party. On his campaign website, he cites the Authorized 1611 King James Bible as his presidential platform, and calls for the teaching of the Bible in public schools, criminalization of homosexuality, and the elimination of abortion, the liquor industry and pornography. On economics, he supports reducing taxes and balancing the federal budget.

Hedges, the first Prohibition Party member elected to public office since 1959, announced his campaign in February 2010, and was the only candidate until last month. According to Vice Chairman June Griffin: “While Jim has contributed valuable resources to this Party…his positions regarding Environmentalism and passivity toward war forced me to vote for Jack Fellure. As well, his insistence on a moratorium on the building of nuclear plants caused much unrest among the membership. Yet he prevailed to install this plank.”

The ten voting Prohibition Party convention delegates and a few guests met for the National Convention, which began on Monday at the Holiday Inn Express in Cullman. Tuesday featured a short greeting from Cullman Mayor Max Townson, followed by addresses from Libertarian consultant Stephen P. Gordon, Ballot Access News publisher Richard Winger, and Eunie Smith of the Eagle Forum.

Gordon, who previously worked as the e-Campaign manager for the 2008 Bob Barr presidential campaign, jokingly commented that his speech “stunk”. He opened his address with the joke that “the way to pick out the libertarian at a Prohibition Party function is that I’m the one wearing the Jerry Garcia tie.” He discussed how third party candidates could utilize new media to their advantage, but avoided any ideological topics.

Winger, an expert on election law, discussed ballot access and the history of the Prohibition Party. He notably explained how the party had cost the Republicans presidential victories in the elections of 1884 and 1916, which forestalled the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment by Republicans, who wanted to do away with the alcohol issue. Gordon later commented that Winger’s speech was well-received by the audience.

After Winger’s speech, the convention broke for lunch. Afterwards, Smith, the widow of former Congressman Albert L. Smith, Jr., focused on immigration and education in her address. When asked about the Eagle Forum’s participation in the fight against alcohol, she commented that the group was focused on more pressing issues such as gambling.

After the nomination, some party members traveled to the grave of Sidney Catts in Florida. Catts, who died in 1936, was the first and only state governor elected from the Prohibition Party.

The party will now begin ballot access drives in Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida, New Jersey, Utah, Colorado, Tennessee and Arkansas. In 2008, the late Gene Amondson appeared on the ballot in Colorado, Florida and Louisiana and picked up a total of 653 votes.

Friday, May 15, 2009

American automobile manufacturer General Motors (GM) announced plans Friday to shut down about 1,100 of its dealerships, in an effort to evade bankruptcy and lower its expenditures.

GM’s move comes a day after Chrysler, another U.S. car maker, released a list of 789 dealerships that it was closing. Unlike Chrylser, GM will not publicly announce the dealerships that it intends to shut down. Instead, dealerships whose franchises won’t be renewed after October of next year will receive a private letter telling them of the decision.

At the moment, GM has 6,246 dealers in the U.S. It intends to reduce that number to 3,605 by the end of 2010. GM said the dealerships that were to be closed are “underperforming and very small sales volume U.S. dealers.”

“They’re dealerships that are in most cases hurting, losing money, and in danger of going out of business anyway,” said GM’s sales, service, and marketing vice president in a telephone conference. “It’s a move that people could argue should have been taken years ago but this leadership team had no choice but to do it today.”

The dealers that are to be closed represent 18% of the firm’s dealership network, but only 7% of GM’s 2008 revenue.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

On Sunday, Wikinews interviewed creator of memorial site LisaMcPherson.org, former Lisa McPherson Trust employee and long time Scientology critic Jeff Jacobsen.

LisaMcPherson.org is a memorial site created in 1997 containing information on her death and the resulting legal case against the Church of Scientology.

Lisa McPherson died in 1995 while in the care of the Church of Scientology. After a car accident, she became mentally unstable. Scientologists removed her from the hospital and placed her in the Introspection Rundown, she died 17 days later while still in care of the Church. She was used as an icon during Project Chanology, the protest of the Church of Scientology by Anonymous. Protesters were pictured with signs that said “Remember Lisa McPherson” and “Ask Scientology Why Lisa McPherson Died”, other protesters had posters with her picture on it.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Police have found the body of a man they had been hunting in Cumbria, United Kingdom for a series of shootings. Police later confirmed that twelve people had been killed with a further thirteen injured, three critically. Shots were fired in Whitehaven, Seascale and Egremont, with a total of thirty different crime scenes. The Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant was locked down for the first time in its history.

The prime suspect was named as 52 year old local man Derrick Bird, a taxi driver. The first of Bird’s victims was a fellow taxi driver shot in Whitehaven at about 10.30 local time, with the following victims being shot at random as Bird drove down the west coast. Originally driving a Citroën Picasso, he was later said to be on foot when he crashed his vehicle.

Members of the public were advised by police to stay indoors, and for those who saw him not to approach him, but to call them. The manhunt covered the Boot or Scafell Pike area, and at 14:04 BST (13:04 UTC) the Deputy Chief Constable of Cumbria reported that a body believed to be Bird was found in a wood near Boot with a firearm, and that he had turned the weapon on himself.

The affected area is popular with walkers and hikers, and currently, many schools across England are on half term, meaning the pupils have no classes.

British news network BBC News spoke to several eye-witnesses in relation to the incidents, from each of the areas, including Peter Watson of Whitehaven. “When I first got here it must have just happened. There was a man lying on the ground with police stood over him and a jacket on him,” he reported.

Home Secretary Theresa May is due to make a statement on the incident to the House of Commons tomorrow.

Saturday, December 8, 2007

Fire fighters in the United Kingdom used a hand grinder to remove a metal ring from a man’s penis 2 days ago. They had been summoned after doctors at the Royal Wigan Infirmary in Greater Manchester became worried that the man may have required amputation of the penis as the ring was cutting off the blood flow.

The man had been taken to the infirmary’s Accident and Emergency department, where attempts were made to cut through the ring. However, this failed as hospital cutting equipment was not strong enough to sever the hard metal the ring was made of.

Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service responded to the call made at around 12.10 GMT Thursday, after the penis started swelling up. Two fire fighters spent twenty minutes cutting the ring off the then anaesthetised man, who is in his 40s. The mini hand grinder used for the job is more regularly used for tasks such as cutting through padlocks.

A thin sheet of metal was placed around the man’s penis to protect it during the operation. It is thought that the ring had originally been cut off the end of a pipe.

Wednesday, September 7, 2005

Astronomers have discovered that Saturn’s D ring, the innermost of Saturn’s 15 rings, has grown dimmer in the past 25 years and sections have moved up to 125 miles inward toward the planet. This discovery was made after astronomers compiled results predominantly from the Voyager 2 spacecraft, which passed Saturn in 1981, and the Cassini-Huygens probe which entered Saturn’s orbit last year.

Other rings were found to be rotating slower than had previously been estimated with computer models. It was also discovered that the matter composing the rings is of far more widely varying temperatures than had been expected. Sections of Saturn’s F ring were also recognised as breaking apart and reforming, depending on the location of one of Saturn’s moons.

The rings, which are now iconic to Saturn, and known to be common to all Jovian planets in general, were first observed in 1610 by Galileo. The rings have recently become a subject of scientific interest to modern astronomers who believe they are similar in structure to the dust which orbited the Sun, in a similar pattern, and formed the planets some 4.5 billion years ago.

This, and other Cassini-related discoveries, were discussed at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society‘s division of planetary sciences on Monday.

Thursday, March 2, 2006

Harry Browne, two-time US Libertarian Party presidential nominee and best-selling author died of Lou Gehrig’s disease in his home in Franklin, Tennessee, Wednesday night, 1 March 2006. He was born 17 June 1933 in New York City and grew up in Los Angeles, California.

He was the Public Policy Director for DownsizeDC.org and was a consultant to the Permanent Portfolio family of mutual funds.

He was nominated by the US Libertarian Party as its presidential candidate in 1996 and again in 2000.

He is also know for his articles (including those on LewRockwell.com) and books including:

• “How You Can Profit from the Coming Devaluation”
• “How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World”
• “You Can Profit from a Monetary Crisis”
• “Why Government Doesn’t Work”
• “The Great Libertarian Offer.”

His writings focused largely on supporting libertarian ideas[1] and investment advise. “How You Can Profit from the Coming Devaluation” predicted the future rise in gold prices in the 1970s.

He is survived by his wife Pamela Lanier Wolfe Browne and his daughter Autumn.