The Mona Lisa painting is a magnet for millions of tourists who visit it in the Louvre in Paris every year. An Italian art committee has launched a campaign to return the most recognized image in art history back to Italy.
The National Committee for Historical, Cultural and Environmental Heritage and the Province of Florence have already collected 150,000 signatures on a petition for the return of Leonardo Da Vinci’s key painting in 2013.
The return would be of “high historical value, both symbolic and moral,” Committee President Silvano Vincenti told Italian news agency ANSA.
“The committee has officially submitted a request for a meeting with the new French Minister of Culture, Aurelie Filippetti. I am convinced that, thanks to the Minister’s Italian origins, she will not only respond positively to our request, she will understand its motives,” Vincenti was quoted as saying.
In 1911 the masterpiece by the Renaissance master was stolen from the Louvre and was recovered two years later in a hotel room in Florence.
Before it was returned to the Louvre, the Mona Lisa, called ‘La Gioconda’ in Italian, was briefly exhibited in the Uffizi Gallery and in Rome.
Diplomat’s family enslaved and regularly raped houseworker
After a Yemeni woman was enslaved and raped for three months by a US diplomat’s husband, a Virginia federal judge awarded the victim $3.3 million for the abuse that she suffered.
A State Department employee lured the Yemeni woman to move to Japan with her and her husband. After being promised $200 per month for cleaning a home in the US Embassy compound in Tokyo, the woman agreed to come along in December 2008.
Linda and Russell Howard even promised a raise – $300 a month with one day off every week. But instead, the live-in maid was repeatedly raped and forced to work more than 80 hours per week.
“At trial, plaintiff testified that Russell Howard raped her at least four times, and that he forced her to perform oral sex approximately ten times, and that he repeatedly sexually assaulted her,” US District Judge Liam O’Grady was quoted by the Courthouse News. “Plaintiff testified that Linda Howard was complicit in her husband’s sexual abuse, telling [the domestic worker] that she should gratify Russell Howard and make Russell happy.”
The victim said Russell had told her that the couple had hired previous domestic workers whom he had also raped, occasionally in form of a threesome. Those who refused to submit to sexual requests were immediately fired.
US jobs growth slows sharply. QE3 coming next week
The percentage of able-bodied Americans searching for jobs has hit a 30-year-low, and Wall Street now expects the US Federal Reserve to announce a new round of quantitative easing as early as next week.
The US Labor Department released their workforce statistics for August 2012 on Friday, and the figures are far from what economists had expected.
The Labor Department announced this week that while the unemployment rate last month dropped slightly to 8.1 percent, July’s figure was revised to show that fewer jobs, in fact, were added that month. For August, the US economy added 96,000 new jobs, a substantially smaller figure than predicted. The median statistic that Bloomberg found after surveying nearly 100 economists came to 130,000 new jobs.
Additionally, the participation rate — the labor force as a percent of the population as a whole — charted at 63.5 percent, the lowest figure the country has seen since September 1981.
House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner was quick to come down on the Obama White House over the latest news, releasing a statement on Friday that attacks US President Barack Obama and his “failed promises to get our economy moving again.”
“Wages are stagnant, gas prices and health care costs are up, our national debt has surpassed $16 trillion and millions of Americans remain out of work or underemployed,” Speaker Boehner said, only hours after President Obama accepted the Democratic Party’s nomination to run for reelection.
Desert Hot Springs, California (September 6, 2012) – The City of Desert Hot Springs is pleased to announce that after years of being a nuisance to our Code Enforcement Officers and our community, the substandard structure located at 66191 Desert View Avenue has been demolished and the property has been returned to a developable parcel.
The Riverside County Superior Court recently granted a warrant to clear this parcel of a blighted house that not only had numerous code violations, but was also once a known gathering spot for gang members.
Following the demolition, City Manager Rick Daniels said “The City progresses in cleaning up deteriorated and dilapidated buildings that cause blight and harm the home values in a neighborhood. The good and decent citizens expect this, and more, and the City will continue this effort. Let this be a warning to owners of dangerous buildings.”
The regular meeting of the Desert Hot Springs City Council was held at the Carl May Center on Tuesday evening, September 4, 2012.
Highlights were presentations to and installation of police officers, the appointment of Max Lieberman to the Community and Cultural Affairs Commission, and the naming of the “Aquatic Center” for John Furbee.
Police Chief Kate Singer presided over the badge pinning and swearing in of three police sergeants and two police officers, and the oath of office was administered by Deputy City Clerk Jerryl Soriano. The sergeants are Phil Ham, Jose Guerroero and Brad Ramos. This marks the first time there has been a full complement of sergeants on the police force. The two additional officers joining the force are Larry Gaines and Jerry Martinez.
The next presentation was the Cal-ID Golden Bear Awards, given to those officers who have successfully identified in a year’s time at least five fingerprints that came up with matches, leading to identification of suspects. It was mentioned that Desert Hot Springs leads other police forces in the number of such hits.
Receiving the award this year were: Officer Mike Chilmer, Detective Eddie Cole, Officer Daniel Brazeal, Officer Rene Olague SRO, Tom Pittenger, CSO and Terry Sherman CSI. Terry has received this award several years in a row, and has personally made more hits than some entire police forces!
The city council ratified Councilman Adam Sanchez’s appointment to fill a vacancy on the Community and Cultural Affairs Commission (CCAC) for an unexpired term ending in January 2014. Out of numerous applicants, Adam recommended and the council unanimously approved the appointment of Max Liebermann. Sanchez noted that one of the contributing factors was Max’s experience in parades. Sanchez is hoping to see a resumption of a Christmas Parade in Desert Hot Springs.
Rudy Acosta, the Health and Wellness Center Construction Manager, spoke on behalf of the Desert Hot Springs Health and Wellness Center in recommending the naming of the soon to open aquatic center at the DHS Community Health and Wellness Center the “John H. Furbee Aquatic Center” in honor of his significant contribution – not only to this project, but many other worthy causes in Desert Hot Springs over the years.
Approved unanimously by the council, John received a hug from Mayor Parks and a standing ovation from the crowd.
Addressing the council, Furbee graciously and humbly pointed out that he was but one player in the “orchestra” of people that have labored over the years to make this a reality. In particular, he pointed out City Manager Rick Daniels, “apart from whom it would never have happened.”
The next time a tourist snaps a picture of the famous Hollywood sign, their photo won’t be the only item added to the annals. The LAPD considers photography a suspicious activity, and trying to take certain shots may add a page to your personal file.
A memo released last month by Police Chief Charlie Bucks re-categorizes certain behaviors — including photo shoots in public spots — to constitute suspicious activity, which is enough to have cops file a report, open an investigation and forward any further information about a suspect to the federal authorities — all over just an itchy shutter finger.
In an interdepartmental statement dispatched on August 16, Beck writes, “Taking pictures or videos of facilities/buildings, infrastructures or protected sites in a manner that would arouse suspicion in a reasonable person” is enough of a red flag to have authorities file a suspicious activity report, or SAR. According to departmental policies, those SAR files are then sent into a Consolidated Crime and Analysis Database (CCAD), where they are occasionally added to a Crime Analysis Mapping System (CAMS) for further investigation. From there, intelligence can be stored in a Information Sharing Environment (ISE) Suspicious Activity Reporting (SAR) Shared Space and accessed at fusion centers across the country, such as the LA area’s Joint Regional Intelligence Center, where other intel is interpreted, dissected and divulged by agencies like the FBI and the US Department of Homeland Security.
In a 2010 evaluation conducted by the US Justice Department, the DoJ writes, “Ultimately, the ISE-SAR EE, through the use of the Shared Spaces concept, provides a solution for law enforcement agencies to share terrorism-related suspicious activity information, while continuing to maintain control of their data through a distributed model of information sharing.”(.pdf)
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