Newzity

There is a high chance if you got the child from Vietnam. In a nine-page report U.S. Embassy says that Vietnam has failed to prevent illegal and unethical practice of baby sold for adoption. Corruption and fraud are on the raise for the lucrative child adoption black market.

In 2003, U.S. imposed ban on all adoption from Vietnam due to corruption. The ban was lifted in 2006, and since then there is a boom in adoption from Vietnam. Angelina Jolie’s much publicized adoption fueled the fire. In the first 18 months since the ban was lifted a total of 1,200 babies were adopted by American families. That is more than two babies per day. In 2007 the adoption jumped more than 400 percent. The adoption also has become a lucrative business. American couples are ready to pay $25,000 for a baby, and some agencies pay $10,000 of that money to the Vietnamese orphanages. The increase in demand and the lure of the money have helped flourish a black market. People are scouring villages to buy babies; hospitals are coercing poor mothers to give up infants and then selling them; relatives are giving away babies for money without parents’ permission. The babies are sold to the brokers for as little as $400 dollars, and they sell it to the orphanages for a few thousands making a huge profit. Given the lucrative nature of the business, Vietnam government is not doing much to stop it.

Fortunately the current agreement expires in September, and it is not expected to be renewed. U.S. will impose the ban again, at least for a short time.

It is an irony that parents with good intentions are helping the black market to flourish and hurting the babies they wanted to help in the first place.

Yes. Florida Senate has voted to ban all Truck Nutz. The truckers in Florida hang the decorative items at the end of trailers. But the new ban makes such display illegal and anyone caught using them would be fined $60.

It is a common practice in Florida to accessorize the trailers with a pair of metal or plastic bull’s testicles to mimic a real bullock wagon. Truckers dangle the novelty item to their trailers with a cheek-in tongue masculine sense of humor. But many find it offensive and Republican Senator Cary Baker proposed the ban. In his view guns are better way to express manliness as he owns a gun shop in Florida. The measure is a part of transportation bill and had its critics. They say it is a matter of freedom of expression. The Republican Senator Jim King, the Senate Rules chairman, is one of them. He adorned his truck with a pair until his wife found out. Talk about manliness.

For now Florida Senators have gone nuts and the drivers lost their Truck Nutz.

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It seems TV reporters are the choice for a carjacker in Cleveland. No sane person would think of asking for directions from anyone while carjacking, let alone TV reporters. But a nineteen year old man stopped to ask for directions from a pair of TV crews as he was holding the driver at gunpoint.

Two members of the WOIO-TV stations - newswoman Shannon O’Brien and photographer Eric Walls - happened to be on the sidewalk on their assignment. They were there to report a problem with the local bank. A SUV stopped next to them and the passenger asked for directions to nearest US Bank. As they came close to help, the driver signaled them that he was held at gunpoint. They finished their directions, called the 911, and followed the car until police arrive. Police caught the man with a loaded handgun. The man was arrested for aggravated robbery without any incident and was held on $50 thousand bond.

How lazy and stupid the carjacker must be to ask for directions. The directions he got, led him directly to jail.

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Apparently sunny San Francisco. And this is not a movie plot. A thirty something couple was arrested for terrorizing their tenants. They wanted to force the tenants to leave.

Kip and Nicole Macy, both in their early thirties, unlawfully evicted one of the tenants from their six-unit building. Their motivation was to make more money by raising rent with a new tenant. But when the tenant fought the eviction in court and won the case, the couple decided on plan B: to make his life a living hell so that he would be forced to leave. They shut off his electricity, his phone line, and hired people to cut a hole in his living room floor from underneath. If that was not enough, they went on to remove the beam that supports his floor. This is not their first attempt. They had practice on other tenants. They broke into another apartment and poured ammonia all over the tenant’s belongings including clothes, beds, and TV.

The couple is not short on money. First of all they have a six-unit building in San Francisco and Kip is a software engineer and Macy is a real estate agent. I guess they are just greedy.

We are talking about a $297 dollar budget deficit here. One would naturally assume that is an absurd proposal. But labor leaders in Montgomery County are proposing to ration toilet papers for convicts to help solve their $239 million budget shortage.

Criminals lose most of their freedom when they are in prison. That is expected punishment for their crime. Tax payer money should also not be wasted to provide luxury for them. But one would think that toilet paper is neither matter of freedom nor considered luxury - rather it is a matter of necessity. But in Maryland some labor leaders think it is a luxury that inmates do not deserve. They are proposing to limit each inmate to no more than two or three rolls of toilet papers per week. The proposal comes as a part of the recommendation to save money to handle the $239 million dollar budget deficit in Montgomery County.

Besides the silliness, one might question the practicality of the proposal. How much money are we talking about saving per roll here? The total annual budget for low grade toilet papers used by inmate is about $67,500.

Of course they do. Otherwise how would we know that they are snobs? And it is no joke. The 25-th richest man of the world thinks all the money, fame, and luxury are not enough until the ultra-rich gets their own magazine. This summer he will start publishing Snob magazine.

There would also be website and television dedicated to all the Russians snobs. You see, all the magazines of the world are about the rest of us common people. It is not fair to the ultra-rich. It is high time they have their own. Forty two year old Mikhail Prokhorov, worth $22 billion, will spend $150 million to set up the magazine, website, and a TV station - all called Snob. He thinks boasting about money is justified if you earned it. A few in Russia in recent days have become rich from rising energy prices, and Moscow has most billionaires. At the same time one in five Russians lives under the poverty line. But Russian ultra-riches love to flaunt their money to underscore the depressing disparity.

The middle age bachelor Mikhail thinks the magazine would give a voice to the ultra-rich. Or could it be just the midlife crisis of a rich man?

Not in a big way, but there are signs. The two largest retails chains, Sam’s Club and Costco, are putting restriction on how much rice one can buy. They blamed the decision on the current change in supply and demand.

Following news of the global food crisis there is a surge in people stocking up large quantities of food items in the fear of rising price. To prevent supply shortage Costco warehouse in California started limiting purchases of flour, rice and cooking oil. Following that Sam’s Club, a division of Wal-Mart, is limiting customers to four bags at a time of imported jasmine, basmati and long grain white rice. The limit applies only 20-pound bags and not smaller retail size bags. Another chain BJ’s Wholesale Club said it is not imposing limits for now but watching the situation and may impose restriction later. Rising demand from all developing countries compounded by lower crop yields has incased the price of rice by more than 70 percent since January. The shortage of rice, a staple food for half of world population, can cause a serious problem days ahead.

The present restrictions seemed to target small business and restaurants that might be stocking up in anticipation of higher prices down the road. For now, there is no real shortage of food supply in US.

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