Lupe Lasano’s Dirty Gossip Burger

HONG KONG (AFP) –

The aviation industry on Tuesday urged governments against using taxes and levies on airlines as a quick-fix solution to cutting harmful gas emissions.

Tony Tyler, chairman of the International Air Transport Association (IATA)’s board of governors, said the industry was wrongly charged by environmentalists as the “bogeyman of climate change” and viewed by policymakers as a “cash-cow for much-needed revenue” to cope with the economic downturn.

“We have determined, ideologically-driven detractors in the environmental lobby who actively support aviation being subject to further charges, perhaps in the form of a global levy on air passengers,” he told the region’s airline chiefs in an annual conference on the industry’s response to climate change.

“Frankly, such a levy would simply make us a sitting duck for governments looking to raise revenue. And show me a …

See the full post at IATA says taxes and levies no quick-fix

ISLE OF WIGHT, England, Oct. 5 (UPI) –

Microchipping allowed a cat in England to be reunited with its owners after it disappeared for three weeks, the cat’s owners said.

Cindy and Tim Whitbread of the Isle of Wight, England, got a telephone call from Chris Archibald of the Yorkshire resort of Whitby — 300 miles away — to say she had Geoffrey, their cat, the Daily Telegraph reported Saturday.

The Whitbreads said they believe Geoffrey, a Bengal cat, must have jumped into the luggage compartment of one of the many vehicles that stop to pick up tourists from their area’s hotel and bed-and-breakfasts, and then ridden for about 10 hours to Whitby, in the north of England.

At least he went somewhere lovely. It has made it a whole lot nicer to come and pick him up, said Cindy Whitbread.

Geoffrey was discovered in a Whitby field by Archibald’s son, Zac, 10, who brought the cat home.

We put posters up and asked around the village in the hope of finding his …

See the full post at Pet cat travels 300 miles, is returned

NEW YORK CITY, NY, Aug. 7 (TOTI) –

Citigroup is currently up 7% on what can only be described as huge trading volume. So far 1.4 billion shares have traded hands. Yesterday, Citigroup set a single day volume record when 2.67 billion shares traded hand. The best part of the news for C shareholders is that the stock continues to rise on these record trading days.

Assuming today’s trend continues, Citigroup will finsh the day at above $4/share for the first time since April 16.

The appetite for financial stocks has been huge this week. On Wednesday, trading in Bank of America and C accounted for 25% of the entire trading volume on the NYSE.

Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit has issued upbeat commentary concerning the banking behemoth during multiple visits to Asia this week. The company has stressed that they are eliminating tox…

See the full post at Citigroup Up 7% On HUGE Volume

PHILADELPHIA, June 16 (UPI) –

Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Derian Hatcher announced his retirement from the NHL Monday.

Hatcher is staying with the club, though, as player development coach. He replaces Eric Desjardins, who left to pursue other business interests, the team said.

Hatcher, 37, missed all of this past season with an injury that eventually required knee replacement surgery.

In 1,045 career regular-season games with Minnesota/Dallas, Detroit and Philadelphia, Hatcher scored 80 goals. He had 251 assists and 1,581 penalty minutes. He also had 33 points in 133 career playoff games.

The Michigan native was drafted eighth overall by the Minnesota North Stars in 1990 and twice played for the U.S. Olympic team.

See the full post at Hatcher retires, joins Flyers\’ staff

TOKYO (AFP) –

Japan’s central bank has left its key interest rate unchanged at 0.1 percent, while upgrading its assessment of the world’s number two economy for the second consecutive month.

“Japan’s economic conditions, after deteriorating significantly, have begun to stop worsening,” the Bank of Japan said in a statement. “Japan’s economy is likely to show clearer evidence of levelling out over time.”

Copyright © 2009 AFP All Rights Reserved

See the full post at Bank of Japan holds rate, upgrades economic view

CLEVELAND, Oh., May 6 (TOTI) –

The identity of the first person to undergo a successful face transplant has been revealed. Her name is Connie Culp.

Culp, 46, was the victim of domestic abuse at the hands of her husband. He shot her in the face after being involved in a dispute in 2003.

The surgical procedure was conducted at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio on December 9 and took twenty two hours and 18 medical staff to complete.

Prior to the surgery, Connie Culp had lost many abilities that are taken for granted,that included being able to drink out of a cup and the ability to eat solid foods. She also suffered from tremendous amounts of physical pain.

Connie Culp is a survivor. She told local media, “You never know what might happen to you, you might get in a car wreck, think you’re beautiful one day, so don’t …

See the full post at Connie Culp – First Face Transplant Recipient Identity Revealed

CLEVELAND, Oh., Apr. 6 (TOTI) –

There comes a time in a webmaster’s life where they’ll have to decide between VPS Hosting and Dedicated Server Hosting. As usual, the proper decision will be based mainly on needs.

If you have a website that gets a lot of traffic, then nothing can beat hosting it on a dedicated server. The reason is, resources are not shared with other sites. All of the server’s process are “dedicated” to doing just one job for one site. VPS hosting doesn’t offer the same type of dedication. But it is cheaper. Therefore, if you need many of the features of a dedicated server, but don’t have immense amounts of traffic and you want to save cash, VPS hosting will likely beat dedicated for your needs.

Despite the lower cost, VPS hosting is generally adequate for most webmaster’s needs. Although the resources aren’t dedi…

See the full post at VPS Hosting Versus Dedicated Server Hosting

NEW YORK CITY, NY., Apr. 4 (TOTI) –

Bryan Ewing of the Wheeling Nailers has been named the 2009 CCM ECHL Rookie of the Year and the latest recipient of the John A. Dailey Memorial Trophy.

Ewing won the award based on an outstanding season.

Ewing, who was named to the ECHL All-Rookie Team on Wednesday and First Team All-ECHL on Thursday, leads league rookies with 43 goals, six shorthand goals, 91 points, 19 power-play assists and 32 power-play points while his 48 assists and six shorthand points tie him for the rookie lead and his 13 power-play goals tie him for second among rookies. His six shorthand goals are tied for the overall lea…

See the full post at Bryan Ewing Named ECHL Rookie Of The Year

DENVER, March 26 (UPI) –

Corey Perry scored twice Wednesday and Anaheim produced the game’s first six goals in crushing Colorado 7-2.

The Ducks took advantage of poor goaltending to win their fifth straight and their sixth out of seven.

Anaheim moved into seventh place in the tightly bunched Western Conference with 80 points. Colorado, in last place in the West, has lost 12 out of 15.

Peter Budaj and Andrew Raycroft took turns in goal for Colorado and neither had any success.

Budaj opened the game and allowed a long-range wrist shot by Erik Christensen to skip off his glove 2:11 into the contest. After giving up three goals on 14 shots in the first period, Budaj was replaced by Raycroft.

Raycroft then surrendered four goals on eight shots in the second period before Budaj came back into the game.

Jonas Hiller made 34 saves to get the easy win. The teams will play for the fourth and final time Sunday in Anaheim. The Ducks have won the first three meeting…

See the full post at NHL: Anaheim 7, Colorado 2

TRENTON, N.J., March 23 (UPI) –

A New Jersey tribe has filed a federal lawsuit against the state to reclaim its ancestral land.

Filed by the Sand Hill Band of Lenape and Cherokee Indians, the lawsuit demands that the state recognize the tribe and pay $1 trillion in damages, to be paid in 1-ounce gold coins.

The newspaper noted that about 50,000 people in New Jersey claimed some form of American Indian ancestry on the 2000 census.

Although there are no federally recognized tribes based in the Garden State, the state legislature has passed resolutions acknowledging three groups — the Nanti coke-Lenni Lenape, whose tribal office is in Cumberland County; the Powhatan-Renape of Burlington County; and the Ramapough Lenape, headquartered in Mahwah.

The resolutions, however, do not provide the groups with special services or tax breaks.

As for the $1 trillion the tribe is seeking, one tribal member said it is to show how serious the tribe is in resolving the matter….

See the full post at Tribe sues New Jersey for $1 trillion