atxhomeguide.com

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Police in La Grange, North Carolina have arrested two women after they received a tip that the Family Dollar store was being used as part of a marijuana ring. Pending an investigation, police shut the store down.

Belinda Pearson, 46, the store manager and her associate Melissa Collie, 40, were arrested when police found 23 pounds of the drug inside the store. Earlier in the week, police said the anonymous tipster stated that a delivery of two packages of the drug was made. After a week of investigating, police arrested both women on March 14 and charged them with drug trafficking. Both were freed after making bail and were scheduled to be in court on March 15.

“The marijuana has a street value of approximately US$35,000. It was about the only thing in the store you couldn’t buy for $1,” said Chris Hill, a major from the Lenoir County Sheriff. He said the whole operation lasted a week.

Owners of the store are said to be on the way to the location where they will take over the store’s management. Family Dollar is a United States chain that sells a variety of things from food items, clothes and housewares. Most items in the store cost less than $10.00. There are almost 6,600 stores across the U.S.

Monday, February 12, 2007

Cars drove home the big prize last night, from the 34th Annual Annie Awards. The animation industry’s highest honor, ASIFA-Hollywood’s Annies recognise contributions to animation, writing, directing, storyboarding, voice acting, composing, and much more.

As mentioned, Pixar took home the big prize last night, after facing stiff competition from four other Happy Feet, Monster House, Open Season, and Over the Hedge.

But the biggest winner of the night didn’t get a “Best Animated Feature” nod at all. Flushed Away won five feature animation categories including Animated Effects (Scott Cegielski), Character Animation (Gabe Hordos), Production Design (Pierre-Olivier Vincent), Voice Acting (Sir Ian McKellan as Toad), Writing (Dick Clement, Ian La Frenais, Chris Lloyd, Joe Keenan, and Will Davies).

Over The Hedge won awards for Directing (Tim Johnson and Karey Kirkpatrick), Storyboarding (Gary Graham), and Character Design (Nicolas Marlet).

Of little surprise, Randy Newman won an Annie for Cars in the “Music in an Animated Feature Production” category. Newman has won many Oscars for his movie music, and has a nomination this year for the song “Our Town“. Newman didn’t attend the Annies, instead picking up a Grammy for “Best Song Written For Motion Picture, Television Or Other Visual Media”.

DisneyToon Studios’ Bambi II won “Best Home Entertainment Production”, while “Best Animated Short Subject” went to Blue Sky Studios’ No Time For Nuts, which is based on Ice Age.

“Best Animated Video Game” went to Flushed Away The Game, while a United Airlines ad named “Dragon” won a “Best Animated Television Commercial” Annie for DUCK Studios.

Friday, November 2, 2007

With some topics on high-definition audio-visual era world-wide, Microsoft Taiwan recently announced HDMI support of new Xbox 360 console. With a Xbox 360 HD-DVD Player, consumers can fulfill enjoyment on a wide-resolution scale of 1080p (Full HD). In fact, Microsoft Taiwan demonstrated the player for the pre-market preparation in the X06 Taiwan show last year.

Microsoft Taiwan invited DeltaMac Taiwan (Movie Agency Member of CMC Magnetics Corporation) demonstrating their published and represented movie discs at the Press Conference. According to DeltaMac, those movie discs supported not only 1080p HD scales but also all HD-DVD players including Xbox 360 HD-DVD Player without DVD region code limitation.

Many medias and younger players in Taiwan focused on the latest Xbox 360 RPG game “Viva Piñata: Party Animals“ because of Halloween. Burger King Taiwan Branch announced some promotions with this game, and the animation film of “Viva Piñata“ will be available next month in Taiwan.

With announcements of several newly Xbox360 games, launch of Xbox360 HD-DVD Player, and HDMI support, topics of high-definition audio-visual market in Taiwan will be brought on the announcements and the 28th Taipei Audio Fair next week.

• CHIMEI DTL-752E600 will support Full HD (1080p) feature, in the left-down corner are Xbox 360 console and Xbox 360 HD-DVD Player.

• HD-DVD discs by Delta Mac Taiwan displayed on the table.

• A special Xbox 360 Console painted with “Simpsons, the Movie” theme.

• Burger King Taiwan will hold some promotions with the launch of “Viva Piñata: Party Animals” Chinese Version in Taiwan.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Seventeen people have been killed after gunmen stormed a drug rehab centre in the city of Ciudad Juarez on the United States-Mexico border. Around a dozen gunmen entered the clinic and lined up patients against a wall before killing seventeen of them. Three others were injured in the attack. Around 1,400 people have been killed in drug related violence in the city this year alone.

This is not the first time drug rehab centres have been targeted before in Ciudad Juarez. In the past, dealers have been accused of using the centres to protect their members from rival cartels. Mexican President Felipe Calderon has fought to bring an end to the cartels. He said during his annual state of the union address “As never before, we have weakened the logistical and financial structure of crime”.

In a separate attack deputy police chief Jose Manuel Revuelta was murdered by several heavily armed men as he was driving in Morelia. Two cars intercepted his vehicle just blocks from the police headquarters. Revuelta had only been appointed to the position two weeks ago.

Saturday, July 23, 2011

File:Anders Behring Breivik (Facebook portrait in suit).jpg

A gunman, identified by Norwegian media as Anders Behring Breivik, has shot and killed at least 85 people at a youth camp on the island of Utøya in Norway. The 32-year-old man has been charged with both this attack and an explosion in the capital city of Oslo, which killed at least seven people. Police searched Breivik’s apartment in Oslo overnight and have been interrogating him.

Breivik is reported to have arrived at the camp dressed as a police officer, telling children to gather around him for protection before systematically shooting them. It is not yet known whether he acted alone; police say there are no concrete reports of a second gunman, but this cannot be ruled out.

The camp was organised by the Workers’ Youth League (AUF), which is affiliated with the Norwegian Labour Party. A number of sources, both inside and outside of Norway, are speculating that an opposition to the Labour Party’s immigration policies, especially regarding Muslims, was Breivik’s motivation for the attacks.

Islam is the second largest religion in Norway, after Christianity, and Breivik’s comments on the political website Document.no, where he posted using his real name between September 2009 and October 2010, expressed anti-Islamic sentiments. He described the religion as a “hate ideology”^{((no))Norwegian language: hat-ideologier} and compared it to Nazism. His Twitter account was used to post only a single comment, quoting social liberal philosopher John Stuart Mill: “One person with a belief is equal to the force of 100 000 who have only interests”.

Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, who described the island as “a youth paradise turned into a hell”, reports that a number of children have not yet been located. He, and the families of some of the children killed, met with King Harald V of Norway, his wife Queen Sonja, and their son Crown Prince Haakon, and was said to have been “deeply touched” by the meetings.

He also said that it is “too early to speculate” about the shootings, and that the police should be allowed to continue with their investigations before people “jump to any conclusions”.

Breivik, who ran a farm, reportedly recently purchased six tonnes of fertiliser, which is speculated to have been involved in the making of the Oslo bomb.

The island of Utøya is closed to the public, and an official at the British embassy in Oslo does not recommend travel to the immediate area of central Oslo where the bomb was detonated. However, she is not discouraging travel to Norway, nor to Oslo.

Friday, November 19, 2004

Bahia, Brazil – About 250 people from the MST (Movimento dos Sem Terra, in Portuguese) or Brazilian Landless Workers Movement has invaded a 223 hectares farm in the city of Ubaitaba, Bahia. According to Agência Folha, Fernando Rodrigues da Silva, 34 members of the movement says they want to press the Brazilian government institute called Incra (National Institute of Colonization and the Agrarian Reformation) to look after their cause.

Raul Pinto Farias, owner of the farm has said he will demand the expulsion of MST out of his property before the Court of Law.

The MST is a Marxist–Maoist inspired movement of landless peasants in Brazil. According to MST, in 2003 there were about 632 MST camps in Brazil. MST is a large organization with many settlements throughout Brazilian countryside, especially in the Brazilian Northeast. Their main visible tactic is invading lands around the country.

MST says they fight for agrarian reformation and justice in Brazil. Some Brazilians have already protested against MST tatics, saying they are against the law and are violent. Currently, MST funds itself by selling produce grown on its agricultural cooperatives and from donations from international organizations. Also the movement receives funds by selling videos of their invasions.