Women in their 40s should stop routinely having annual mammograms and older women should cut back to one scheduled exam every other year, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force has concluded, challenging the use of one of the most common medical tests.

But the American Cancer Society, the American College of Radiology and other experts condemned the change, saying the benefits of routine mammography have been clearly demonstrated and play a key role in reducing the number of mastectomies and the death toll from one of the most common cancers.

Yea, so women do not get so many mammograms!

WASHINGTON – Taxpayers were billed an average of $45,000 in overtime and extra pay for each FBI agent temporarily posted to Iraq over the course of four years, according to a new Justice Department report. In some cases, agents were paid to watch movies, exercise and attend parties.

In all, the audit by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine found the FBI racked up $7.8 million in improper wages between 2003 and 2007.

Thursday’s report blamed a faulty FBI policy that allowed agents to claim the extra time and money. An FBI spokesman said that policy — which initially sought to enlist volunteers to go to dangerous war zones — is no longer in place
“Several FBI employees noted that they periodically spent time during the work day washing clothes,” the report noted. Asked whether he should have been paid for the time spent in this activity, one employee defended the practice, saying, “‘When you’re in that environment, anything you do to survive is work for the FBI.’”

Other agents defended being paid to go to a regular Saturday night cocktail party, calling it an important “liaison” meeting. And in another case, one supervisor said he “had to laugh” when he saw how many agents were assigned to the office charged with preparing evidence for court trials of Saddam Hussein and his associates.

“Maybe they needed extra poker players,” said the unnamed supervisor.

16 hours a day?
The report concluded: “We found that, on the whole, few if any employees worked exactly 16 hours a day, every day, for 90 days straight, within the meaning of the term ‘work’ as it is used in applicable regulations and policies.”

Since March 2003, the FBI has temporarily deployed 1,150 agents and other employees to Iraq, usually for three-month periods. Fine’s investigators reviewed the time and attendance records for each.

Over the four-year period, the report found, the FBI spent $63 million in overtime and extra pay for employees in Iraq — $7.8 million of which was improperly billed.

In a statement, FBI Assistant Director John Miller said the now-defunct policy was only supposed to be a short-time pay solution in the early days of the war. He said managers at FBI headquarters “allowed a flawed system to develop and remain in place too long.”

“FBI employees lived with sniper attacks, mortar fire, and roadside bombs as part of their daily work environment,” Miller said. He said FBI managers “attempted to adapt a long established, domestic pay system for domestic law enforcement to unprecedented wartime assignments for FBI personnel.”

Fine’s investigation found that agents claimed at least eight hours of overtime a day, every day, for the three months they were stationed in Iraq. Until this year, FBI supervisors in the United States routinely approved the hours billed, despite having no personal knowledge of the time the agents were working.

Oh come on! I would love to get paid for washing my clothes but the FBI should know better. However, will they be paying this money back? Honestly, they should not get to keep these fraudulent funds!

A man carrying a trash bag entered a sandwich shop Sunday night, claimed to have a gun and demanded money, South Whitehall Township police said.

Spooked employees ran out a rear door and startled the would-be robber enough that he took off out the front door before completing his robbery, police said.

No one was hurt in the incident, which happened about 7:30 p.m. at Subway, 3337 Hamilton Blvd., police said.

They said the robber went into the restaurant, approached a manager, said he had a gun and demanded the safe be opened. Two female employees quickly darted out the back door.

The attempted robber dashed out the front.

Police said he is about 5-foot-8 with a medium build. The man had a scarf covering his face and wore a blue plaid jacket and blue jeans. He was carrying a black garbage bag, police said.

Running out the front door of your local subway, or possibly your local bank or any other store that might be in the process of being involved in a robbery sounds like a great way to throw the robber off guard. After all, they are not really all that intelligent anyways…

1. Shouldn’t you have jumped in front of that shoe?
2. Shouldn’t you have jumped in front of that second shoe?
3. Second shoe = the one thrown after being removed from foot after first shoe was thrown.
4. Let’s say people had three feet. Would you have allowed a third shoe to fly unimpeded?
5. While the shoe was in the air, were you like, “Oh, its just a shoe.”
6. Same question about the second shoe.
7. Do you think this is funny, “Throw a shoe at me once, shame on–you. Throw a shoe–you throw a shoe, you can’t throw a shoe again.”
8. Is there not “protection training” for lunatics launching objects?
9. Let’s say there isn’t training for that–but do they tell you that if someone does throw (or shoot) something to be on the alert in case they want to repeat this behavior?
10. Where were you?

BONUS QUESTION: Do you think the Iraqis want us there? (Hint: their journalists are throwing their shoes at Bush)

Don’t you think they should of jumped in front of the shoe?

Makers of a calendar chock-full of naked doctors have turned to the Prostate Cancer Foundation after a children’s charity refused to be linked with it.

The calendar of 12 naked male doctors, organised by Queenstown doctor Sam Hazledine, was designed to raise money for children’s charity KidsCan.

But KidsCan general manager Julie Helson was horrified, saying it had never agreed to be associated with the calendar and saw it as inappropriate.

“We appreciate they are trying to do a positive thing here, but you can’t just take money from anyone. We see it as something that’s more suited to a men’s health group or charity. It’s just one of those things that’s not appropriate for young children.”

However, Dr Hazledine said: “The brief was simple: no clothes, and no bits showing.”

Wellington GP Barney Montgomery was captured performing a daring high kick that reveals just the soles of his feet.

Dr Hazledine, who appears in the calendar as Dr December, said he understood KidsCan’s concern.

“In retrospect, we have realised this calendar is not the right initiative to raise money for a children’s charity.

“KidsCan is a fantastic charity that does a huge amount of good, but this is not the right thing.”

He said all proceeds from the 1000 calendars would now go to the Prostate Cancer Foundation of New Zealand.

“I can’t grow facial hair so I couldn’t participate in Movember, so I’m pleased to be able to contribute to such a great cause in a different way.”

Prostate Cancer Foundation president Barry Young said it would be happy to accept money from the calendar sales.

The calendars, which cost $27 each, can be ordered through medrecruit.com.

Honestly, why do you think you could give male porn contributions to a childrens charity? Plus, who wants to see a bunch of naked doctors! I already hate them, why do I need to hate them naked. Come on guys, use your brains!

VERO BEACH — It was $1,900 here and $10,000 there.

On Friday, it all added up to a sentence of 55 years in state prison for 42-year-old Johnnie Miles, whose criminal record — of bad checks and financial fraud — dates to when she was 14 years old, according to court officials.

A month ago, a six-member Indian River County jury found the 29th Avenue resident innocent of the latest charges against her: defrauding a store out of $7,500 during a three-month period in 2007.

But under state rules, Circuit Court Judge Dan Vaughn was allowed to take another look at the facts in the latest case. That’s because she was on probation for a 2003 conviction for grand theft and fraud in Indian River County.

Because of her record, Vaughn gave her the maximum for probation violation: 11 five-year state jail terms, all to be servedconsecutively, adding up to 55 years. Each five-year term is for the 11 offenses for which she served four years in state prison.

Her record goes back even further, including an additional 20 felony fraud and theft convictions, nine petty theft convictions and seven misdemeanor cases, according to county court records.

“She is one of the most notorious thieves” in the county, said Assistant State Attorney Adam Chrzan, who handled her latest case.

Her record, the attorney said, includes such things as making purchases using just credit card numbers. She told a store owner she was the victim of an identify theft and her card was stolen.

In the recent trial, Chrzan said the jury may have been swayed by testimony that a person identifying herself as Johnnie Miles called Riverside Bank claiming her checkbook and credit card were stolen, leading to fraudulent charges.

During sentencing on Friday, Miles made no comment.

I thought the American justice system helped the innocent?  How are judges allowed to avoid the law?  Why are we allowing judges to sentence by going around the rules.  This is just pathetic!  They are even sentencing her for crimes she commited when she was 14 years old, and this women is 42 now!  Our judicial system is really going down the toilet.

Palmerston North police are investigating the poisoning of an ash tree worth over $32,000, Senior Sergeant Brett Calkin said today.

The council-owned tree, on Totara Road on the outskirts of Palmerston North, was about 20 years old.

Mr Calkin said 13 large holes had been bored into the base of the tree, and it appeared agricultural chemicals were poured into the holes. The damage was first noticed by a resident on November 13.

It appeared likely the tree would die, and would have to be removed and replaced at a cost to ratepayers, he said. Palmerston North City Council had valued the tree at $32,452 using the standard tree evaluation method (STEM).

Damage to the tree was not a random act, Mr Calkin said, and some planning and preparation had been required.

Not only that, but tax experts say potentially millions of other taxpayers could benefit from his victory.

The accountant from Baxter, Minn., challenged the method the IRS has used for more than 20 years to tax shares and cash distributed by mutual life insurance firms to their policyholders when they reorganize as public companies.

A federal court recently agreed with his interpretation.

“There’s a tremendous amount of money at stake,” said Robert Willens, a New York City-based tax analyst at Robert Willens LLC. “Tens of thousands of people could be in line for a refund.”

Don Alexander, an IRS commissioner in the 1970s and now a tax attorney in Washington, said while it’s not unusual for individuals to take on the agency, “most of them lose.”

Alexander called it “quite a significant case.”

The dispute arose when more than 30 mutual life insurance companies became publicly traded corporations in the late 1990s and earlier this decade, in a process known as “demutualization.”

Mutual companies are owned by their policyholders, so the companies provided stock and cash to compensate them for the loss of their ownership interests when they went public.

All told, roughly 30 million policyholders received distributions, Ulrich estimates. MetLife Inc. provided over $7 billion of stock to about 11 million policyholders when it went public in 2000, while Prudential distributed $12.5 billion in stock to another 11 million.

The IRS held that the recipients hadn’t paid anything for the shares and owed taxes on the full amount when the shares were sold. Cash distributions also were fully taxable, the IRS said.

That didn’t sound right to Ulrich, 72, an accountant for 49 years. He began researching the issue in 2001, when he received shares from two companies, Prudential and Indianapolis Life.

Ulrich concluded that policyholders had paid for their ownership rights through their premiums so the distributions should have been tax-free.

That could make a significant difference in what a taxpayer owes. If a company distributed shares worth $30 and a recipient subsequently sold them at $32, under the IRS’ view they would pay taxes on all $32. Under Ulrich’s interpretation, they would owe taxes only on the $2 per share gain.

In 2003, Ulrich publicized his views by contacting tax and insurance experts and setting up a Web site.

“Largely I was regarded as a lunatic,” he said, who “would never prevail against the IRS.”

Still, some people who’d paid taxes contacted Ulrich and asked him to file refund requests, which he did, for a fee. Some of those refunds were granted, he said. Tax experts say the IRS doesn’t always closely scrutinize small refunds.

One of his clients, Jean Prevost and her husband, Jim, who live near Minneapolis, received a refund of almost $1,500 in federal and state taxes in 2003.

“It wasn’t a huge amount of money, but it was ours,” she said.

But the IRS wasn’t pleased with Ulrich, accusing him of promoting abusive tax shelters and demanding the names of his clients, which he said he refused to provide.

The agency backed off in 2004 with help from the IRS’s Taxpayer Advocate office, Ulrich said.

IRS spokesman Bruce Friedland said the agency is prohibited from commenting on its interactions with taxpayers.

One of Ulrich’s clients, Eugene Fisher, a trustee for a Baltimore, Md.-based trust, sued the IRS in February 2004 after being denied a refund.

Judge Francis Allegra of the Court of Federal Claims in Washington sided with Fisher and called the IRS’ view “illogical” in an Aug. 6 decision. He ordered the agency to refund $5,725 in taxes plus interest to the trust overseen by Fisher.

It’s not clear how many people could benefit from the ruling. Many of the 30 million policyholders are probably too late to seek refunds, since claims must be filed within three years of the April 15 tax deadline. That means the statute of limitations for taxes paid for 2004 ran out April 15, 2008.

Many individual taxpayers may not have enough at stake to go to the trouble, said Burgess Raby, a Tempe, Ariz.-based attorney who represented Fisher. Still, millions of policyholders could benefit from the court’s ruling, he said.

Raby credits Ulrich with being the driving force behind the issue.

“The genesis for this was Chuck’s real feeling that this was an unfair position” by the IRS, Raby said.

The government could appeal the ruling and likely will fight future refund claims, perhaps hoping for a different outcome in a separate court, tax experts said.

Charles Miller, a spokesman for the Justice Department, said the government hasn’t yet decided whether to appeal.

Still, taxpayers should request refunds if they’re eligible, the tax experts said, because even if the IRS rejects the claim, doing so extends the deadline for a potential refund for two more years.

Ulrich will prepare refund requests for interested taxpayers, for a fee, and has posted additional information at his Web site, http://www.demutualization.biz. But he said the principle is more important to him.

“I think it’s important that taxpayers’ rights be protected,” he said. “We should have had a Boston Tea Party over this.”

A town ordinance adopted in 1974 forbids anyone from going topless in public buildings or on public streets and sidewalks. Possible penalties are a fine of up to $100 and up to 10 days in jail.

Easton Police Lt. Gregory Wright said people without shirts are considered a public nuisance. He said three citations have been issued since 2003.

Simsbury police Capt. Matthew Catania says a motorist noticed the chicken Monday morning. He says the bomb was large enough to harm a person if it went off.

The road was closed while the Hartford Police Department’s bomb squad came and blew up the chicken.

Nobody was injured. No arrests had been made Monday night.