Blog Heap of Links for the day 21 May 2011

The AARP is the nation's biggest seller of Medigap policies, or supplemental healthcare plans that add onto what Medicare won't cover for seniors. The senior citizens interest group advocated for Obamacare to include an attack on Medigap policies' biggest competitor, Medicare Advantage. Though the White House and HHS dismiss allegations of political favoritism when it comes to who's getting exceptions from the new health care regulations — such as in the recent uproar over the disproportionate number of Obamacare waivers that went to companies in House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi's district — Obamacare critics say the mere appearance of the administration helping friends is disturbing.

created a quandary about how best to deal with a student to whom some referred as "dark," "creepy," "strange," "bizarre" and "psycho." Although administrators ultimately did suspend Loughner, the e-mails raise questions about how far colleges and other schools should go in reacting to disruptive students and at what point officials should take serious steps.

The Tucson community college that booted attempted assassin Jared Lee Loughner asked federal firearms agents to check his background three months before his shooting rampage. ... eventually suspended him ... student emailed a writing teacher that Loughner put a knife on his desk ... similar complaint from another student... in trouble again four months later after a math teacher said in an email that he appeared to be on drugs... returned to class and was laughing inappropriately and staring at classmates with an "evil" smile... More disruptions... campus cops contacted the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to look into him as a "person of interest." ... "Arizona has one of the most lenient criteria for a commitment procedure which, having read the police reports, should have been initiated...."

A Palestinian radical group believed to be responsible for a series of abductions and attacks has been labeled a foreign terrorist organization by the United States. Known as the Army of Islam, the group "has been responsible for numerous terrorist acts against the governments of Israel and Egypt, as well as American, British and New Zealander citizens," the State Department said.

In August 1998 al-Qaeda killed 12 Americans and 200 others in bombings at two American embassies in east Africa. President Clinton ordered the CIA to dismantle al-Qaeda and, in Scheuer's words, "take care" of bin Laden. The Pentagon launched cruise missile attacks on bin Laden's training camps, but he had left the compound hours earlier. Scheuer estimates they had at least eight further opportunities to assassinate bin Laden in the following months. "I'm not saying it would have been simple to take care of the problem, but it got progressively harder when we didn't take those opportunities. One 50 cent round could have put us all out of our agony." In June 1999, he sent off an angry memo to senior officers asking why his men were risking their lives on someone America apparently had no interest in stopping. "I don't know what you are doing when you talk to the President but he will not get a better opportunity than this," he told them. Scheuer was dismissed from his job and spent the next two years running counter-heroin operations in Pakistan and the Middle East. On September 11, 2001, he was back at CIA headquarters in Langley. Arriving home exhausted at 11.30pm, he took a shower and crawled into bed when his phone went. It was his successor at the bin Laden unit. "We need you back," he said. ...And the next generation of al-Qaeda? "They will be even more cruel and bloody-minded."

Timothy, who is about 4 feet 2 inches tall and weighs about 70 pounds, was last heard from May 13 during a cellphone call with a relative, authorities said. At the time, he was near Sterling and Rock Falls with his mother, Amy Fry-Pitzen. The next day, Fry-Pitzen's body was found in a Rockford motel room, where she apparently had committed suicide. Fry-Pitzen stated in a note that she'd left Timothy with adults she didn't identify.

...threatened to kill her by cutting her up and cutting up the two-year-old and a nine-month-old boy. Court records indicate [he] has at least five felony convictions and is currently on probation.

A Bartlesville man, asked to change a diaper for a 2-year-old, went into a rampage Thursday evening and threatened to "cut up" a mother and her two children ... [42yo] faces charges of domestic abuse, assault with a dangerous weapon, felony threats to kill and child abuse. ... she had asked Blakeley to change her 2-year-old daughter's diaper when he picked up the girl by the hair, threw her onto a bed, grabbed her legs and pulled her off the bed. Police examining the toddler saw fingernail marks on the upper part of her left leg. The woman reportedly proceeded to tell police that during the incident Blakeley had been making threats to kill her and her two children — the 2-year-old and a 9-month old — saying at one point he threatened to cut her up and her kids and to "pile them on top of her...."

It's been more than two months since 8.9 magnitude earthquakes struck Japan and took a toll on Japanese people and crippled the economy. Various relief measures are underway at various stages to restore normalcy in the ravaged island nation with aid flowing in from various quarters and volunteers pledging their support to restore the lives.

The ocean floor shifted sideways by 79 feet in the Japanese earthquake in March - much further than scientists originally predicted. And researchers are warning that immense amounts of seismic stress remain stored in the area, putting it at risk of further devastating earthquakes.

Indiana Republican governor Mitch Daniels was hit in the forehead by a swinging door [What's that meta phor?]