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Holiday april 21

Double the fun

it’s two for one at the oval house theatre with rukhsana ahmad’s letting go and oladip agboluaje’s against rhyme night only.

Death row inmates

Two Downtown Parties With Free Booze This Week

deny-to-back rsvp-mandatory hard stuff-suffused parties you may call for to be aware of at this time: tuesday apr 22 boosted presents claw money’s case collection release afterparty (!?!?) featuring unconventional guest santogold devlin & darko, roxy cottontail, dj pube$ at the bordello bar; 9pm - 2am, 21+ complimentary drinks from skyy vodka you must rsvp benefit of entry! rsvp to rsvp@swindlemagazine.com by april 21 …
Related posts: Shawn avery, Screech, Mark shea, Samuel israel, Philadelphia eagles tickets

Bruising Democratic race in Pennsylvania nears finish

(CNN) — Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are wrapping up their push in Pennsylvania with sharp attacks a day before the state’s crucial primary.

Both candidates have been launching waves of robocalls, tough mailers and matching attack ads, spending an estimated hundreds of thousands of dollars a day.

Obama on Monday was scheduled to make his final stops in McKeesport and Pittsburgh, where Clinton has been strong.

Clinton was set to campaign in Philadelphia, following rallies in Scranton, Pittsburgh and Harrisburg.

Obama has outspent his rival in Pennsylvania, thanks in part to his hefty fundraising.

He raised $41 million in March, compared with Clinton’s $20 million, according to the latest campaign finance reports.

In March, Obama spent about $31 million on his presidential campaign, compared with Clinton’s $22 million.

Clinton began April in debt, according to financial reports filed over the weekend with the Federal Election Commission. She had about $32 million cash on hand, but only $9 million of that total represents funds that can be spent in the primary races.

Meanwhile, Obama has $51 million cash on hand, with $42.5 million that can be spent in the primaries, according to reports.

At least $23 million of the money Clinton had in the bank was set aside for the general election, compared with $8 million set aside by Obama.

The reports also showed Clinton owes more than $10 million, meaning she was in the red even before stepping up TV advertising in Pennsylvania.

The numbers are what they are, Clinton adviser Howard Wolfson said on a conference call with reporters.

The money continues to come in strongly. We had a very good month, last month of fundraising. … We are continuing to have a good month this month.

He also said, We will of course be honoring the debt in the coming weeks and months.

Tuesday’s contest brings an end to a six-week primary hiatus. With 158 delegates at stake, the Pennsylvania primary is the largest remaining Democratic contest. Watch how the candidates are making their final pitches

Clinton told supporters Sunday in the historic steel-mill town of Bethlehem that last week’s bruising debate and the candidates’ recent disputes over health care proposals showed you the choice that you had.

I am offering leadership you can count on. You know where I stand, you have known what I have done, and you know what I will do, the senator from New York said.

Clinton said Obama has misrepresented her plan for universal health care in a barrage of mailers and television ads.

We need to try to achieve universal health care, not create political opposition to universal health care, she said. That is what the Republicans do, not what Democrats do.

Obama, who has campaigned on messages of change and unity, acknowledged Sunday that his campaign has elbowed back a few times in response to criticism from Clinton and her supporters.

When I hear Sen. Clinton’s campaign say they’re going to throw the ‘kitchen sink’ strategy at us, and they try to manufacture or exploit fake controversies instead of talking about what is important for the American people … then I’m thinking, ‘Well, you learned the wrong lessons from those Republicans who are going after you in the same way,’ the senator from Illinois said during a town hall-style event in Reading.

Obama has criticized Clinton’s plans for a health care mandate, which would require individuals to purchase insurance and requires insurance companies to offer coverage to anyone who applies.

Clinton has said that Obama’s plan, which would create a national health insurance program but would not mandate individual coverage, would leave up to 15 million Americans uncovered.

Obama on Sunday said that any of the three leading presidential candidates — including Republican rival Sen. John McCain — would be better than President Bush.

Either Democrat would be better than John McCain, he said in Reading. And all three of us would be better than George Bush.

In the past, Obama has equated a McCain presidency to a third Bush term.

Clinton shot back, saying, We need a nominee who is going to take on John McCain, not cheer him on.

Obama leads Clinton in the overall delegate count, 1,644 to 1,498, while Clinton has a slight edge over Obama in superdelegates, 248 to 246.

Clinton has seen her double-digit lead in Pennsylvania shrink to 7 percentage points, according to the most recent Pennsylvania Democratic poll of polls, an average of campaign surveys.

About 7 percent of the state’s Democratic voters say they are undecided, the surveys found

The poll of polls consists of three surveys: Zogby (April 19-20), Suffolk University (April 19-20) and Quinnipiac (April 18-20).
found here.

Former champion Ferrero wins in Monte Carlo

MONTE CARLO, Monaco — Two-time former champion Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain rallied to beat Michael Llodra of France 6-7 6-1 6-1 in the opening round of the Monte Carlo Masters on Monday.

Llodra missed a chance to tie at 2-2 in the third set, wasting two break points with unforced errors.

The 13th-seeded Ferrero never looked troubled after that and won the match with a lob after drawing Llodra to the net with a drop shot.

Ferrero, the 2002 and ‘03 champion, next plays Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia, who upset French ninth seed Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-4 2-6 6-3.

Ferrero’s 10th-seeded compatriot Carlos Moya — who won both the Monte Carlo and French Open in 1998 — was upset 6-3 1-6 6-3 by Sam Querrey of the United States.

The 20-year-old Querrey, who won his first career title at Las Vegas on hard courts last month, will play either unseeded Italian Andreas Seppi or Argentina’s Agustin Calleri in the second round.

In other action on Monday, Mario Ancic of Croatia beat Ivo Minar of the Czech Republic 6-3 6-4 to earn a second round clash with second seed Rafael Nadal of Spain.

Nadal, the reigning French Open champion, is renowned as the best clay court player in the world.

Roger Federer, fresh from his Estoril Open success on Sunday, is top seed at the prestigious Masters Series tournament.

Britain’s Andy Murray, who had never previously won a match in Monte Carlo, also reached the second round by seeing off Spaniard Feliciano Lopez 7-6 6-4.

The first thing you need to work on is the patience, and I did that today, said Murray, who has hired two-time French Open finalist Alex Corretja for the clay-court season.

Today I didn’t play all that aggressive. I was trying to keep the ball high and deep.

The Scottish 14th seed will next play either Italy’s Filippo Volandri, who beat Frenchman Nicolas Mahut 6-2 6-3.

Kristof Vliegen of Belgium defeated Fabrice Santoro of France 7-6 6-1 to set up a clash with French seventh seed Richard Gasquet, who had a first-round bye.

Olivier Rochus, who like his compatriot Vliegen came through the qualifiers, led 6-1 3-0 against Tommy Haas before the unseeded German retired with an injured right shoulder.

Every time you start playing on clay, you have to do more than you are used to, Haas said. I just feel like the shoulder is really nagging again.

The reward for Rochus is a second-round clash with Argentine sixth seed David Nalbandian.
found here.

Probe: Terror suspect ‘fled via toilet window’

SINGAPORE (AP) — An unsecured bathroom window and complacent guards allowed a top terror suspect to flee a high-security prison in February, Singapore’s deputy prime minister said Monday.

In announcing the results of a probe into the embarrassing escape, Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng said Mas Selamat Kastari, who allegedly once plotted to hijack an airplane and crash it into the city-state’s international airport, had planned his February 27 escape over time.

Speaking in Parliament, Wong said Mas Selamat climbed out of a ventilation window of a toilet cubicle before a scheduled weekly visit with his family. The window did not have a grill on it, Wong said.

In my view, the security weakness of this window is the single most crucial factor which enabled Mas Selamat to escape, said Wong, who is also home affairs minister.

The investigation found that Mas Selamat had 11 minutes to escape, between the time he was taken to the bathroom and when guards raised the alert, he said.

Wong said Mas Selamat used this time to shave and enter a urinal cubicle — closing the door behind him. In the cubicle, he turned on a tap, flipped his trousers over the concrete ledge above the urinal cubicle door, and escaped through the window, he said.

Wong said there was no video recording of the escape because closed-circuit television coverage of the area was being upgraded at the time.

The escape triggered a monthlong nationwide manhunt in which police, special operations officers, elite Gurkha guards and soldiers combed the island nation’s forests. Border security was tightened.

Wong said the probe found no evidence suggesting that it was an inside job, but said the guards should have kept Mas Selamat in sight by preventing him from closing the cubicle door.

Complacency, for whatever reason … had crept into the operating culture at the detention center, Wong said.

Wong said the officers responsible for Mas Selamat’s escape would be disciplined, penalized and replaced.

Security breaches are rare in tightly controlled Singapore, an island nation of 4.5 million people that is a 45-minute boat ride from Indonesia where Mas Selamat is alleged to have links with the Jemaah Islamiyah terror network, blamed for a series of attacks that have killed more than 250 people since 2002.

In response to lawmakers’ questions, Wong said authorities believed Mas Selamat had not managed to flee the country, and that there is a risk the fugitive would launch a retaliative attack on the city-state.

We consider him to be a key trigger in the terrorist network, he said. If he could leave Singapore and connect back with his (Jemaah Islamiyah) friends, they could well launch a revenge attack

Mas Selamat is said to be the former commander of the local arm of the Jemaah Islamiyah.
found here.

ACLU weighs in on Texas polygamist custody case

SAN ANGELO, Texas (CNN) — The Texas branch of the American Civil Liberties Union said it was concerned that the basic rights of the children and mothers connected to a Texas polygamist ranch were violated during a recent raid and custody hearing.

At the hearing Friday, Judge Barbara Walther ordered 416 children connected to the YFZ (Yearning For Zion) ranch kept in state custody.

Walther made her ruling after two days of testimony at the hearing, which was aimed at determining whether child welfare authorities properly removed the children from the sect’s Texas ranch. The judge said she found sufficient evidence for Texas Child Protective Services to retain custody of the children.

The ACLU said it had a representative at the court hearing and the organization was concerned about human rights violations.

While we acknowledge that Judge Walther’s task may be unprecedented in Texas judicial history, we question whether the current proceedings adequately protect the fundamental rights of the mothers and children, Terri Burke, executive director of the ACLU of Texas, said in a written statement.

As this situation continues to unfold, we are concerned that the constitutional rights that all Americans rely upon and cherish — that we are secure in our homes, that we may worship as we please and hold our places of worship sacred, and that we may be with our children absent evidence of imminent danger — have been threatened, Burke said.

The group’s courtroom observer, Lisa Graybill, added: We recognize that this balancing act is difficult, but we are concerned that government may not be complying with the Constitution or the laws of Texas in the execution of its mandate, from how the raids were conducted to whether the current process protects basic rights.

The ACLU statement did not list any specific instances of human rights or constitutional violations, and ACLU representatives did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

Child Protective Services spokeswoman Marleigh Meisner said her department is in the process of finding temporary placement for all the children. What we did was warranted and in the best interest of the children, she said. This is not about religion — this is about keeping children safe from abuse.

The hearing stems from an April 4 raid of the ranch, which authorities said was triggered by phone calls in late March from a 16-year-old officials referred to as Sarah. The caller said she had been beaten and forced to become a man’s spiritual wife.

On Thursday, child protection supervisor Angie Voss testified that she and other investigators encountered several pregnant teenagers at the YFZ ranch, which is in Eldorado, Texas, about 40 miles outside San Angelo. The girls called each other sister wives, Voss said, and believed it was acceptable to be spiritually united with a man at any age. It was the belief that no age was too young to be married, she said.

Members of the ranch have denied the girl, supposedly named Sarah Jessop Barlow, exists, and authorities have yet to find the caller. However, Texas Rangers are pursuing a Colorado woman as a person of interest regarding the phone calls that touched off the raid.

Authorities on Friday said a search of Rozita Swinton’s home in Colorado Springs resulted in evidence that possibly links her to phone calls made about the YFZ ranch. Swinton, 33, has been charged in Colorado with false reporting to authorities, but police said that the arrest was not directly related to the Texas case.
found here.