Typical? American Tourists Busted For Defacing Roman Colosseum

According to the U.K. Daily Mail, two American tourists have been arrested for carving initials into the Colosseum in Rome.  The Guardian does not say whether they were arrested.

The women, 21 and 25, carved a J and an N into a brick wall on the first floor of the west side of the Colosseum.  After carving the eight-inch high letters, the women posed together for a selfie.

The women – just two of the six million tourists that flock to the Colosseum every year – used a coin to engrave the letters, La Stampa reported.  Other tourists saw what had happened and alerted security.

Police charged the women with “aggravated damage on building of historical and artistic interest,” according to Republica.

After they were caught, the women apologized to Piazza Dante police and the police captain.

They said: ‘We apologize for what we did. We regret it but we did not imagine it was something so serious.

‘We’ll remember for a lifetime.’

The Guardian states that the section they carved on dates back to the 1800s – a key period of restoration.  A spokesman for the Special Superintendency for the Archaeological Heritage of Rome is quoted as saying: “It’s not an original wall but it’s nevertheless antique,” according to The Daily Mail.

With 6 million visitors annually and ever-increasing staff cuts, policing the site has become a major problem.

The Americans’ actions come a little over three months after a Russian tourist was caught carving a 25cm letter into the Colosseum. Busted, the 42-year-old was given a four-month suspended prison sentence and a €20,000 fine, although he has not paid the penalty due to lack of funds.

The Russian was reportedly the fifth tourist seen defacing the Colosseum in 2014. The others were from Australia, Brazil, and Canada, according to The Guardian.

The Colosseum was built in the first century AD and is a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization World Heritage Site.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2985434/California-tourists-arrested-carving-initials-Colosseum-Rome.html#ixzz3TuHeJD8C

Is A Montana State Representative Going The Wrong Way In Regards To Campaign Financing?

A Great Falls representative is proposing that candidates for the Montana Legislature be allowed to receive more money from political action committees.

Republican Rep. Steve Fitzpatrick introduced House Bill 502 in the House State Administration Committee Friday, according to the Great Falls Tribune. It would increase the amount that state Senate candidates can receive from PACs from $2,150 to $5,500, and the amount that House candidates can receive from $1,300 to $3,300.

Fitzpatrick said that politicians need more money to “reflect the increasing cost of running for office.”

“Campaigns are expensive, they cost a lot of money,” Fitzpatrick said. “Every time I have to return a PAC check, that just means it’s more pressure on me to go fundraise and ask people for more money.”

Mary Baker, the program supervisor for the commissioner of political practices, said a built-in inflation factor already adjusts the cap every year.

http://www.greatfallstribune.com/story/news/politics/2015/02/20/representative-proposes-higher-pac-contribution-limits/23740417/

Is Homegrown Terrorism Bigger In The U.S. Than Al-Qaeda?

Ring of Fire

Sources claim that since 9/11, right-wing extremists have killed more people on American soil than Islamic extremists.

Right-wing media outlets like to tell us that Americans are threatened by illegal immigrants and al-Qaeda, but according to research, American citizens are far more likely to be killed by a right-wing extremist than a terrorist group.

Mike Papantonio and Howard Nations discuss it.

More here:

http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2015/jan/08/sally-kohn/kohn-911-right-wing-extremists-killed-more-america/

AARP Smart Drivers Course For Seniors

Lynn Berry shows CNN an online driving course designed to help seniors stay safe behind the wheel.

CNN

Nurse’s Discharge Leaves Just One Ebola Case In U.S.

A nurse’s release Tuesday from an Atlanta hospital leaves a single person in the United States now battling Ebola, though she and others — including President Barack Obama — stressed the fight against the deadly virus isn’t over.

“While this is a day for celebration and gratitude, I ask that we not lose focus on the thousands of families who continue to labor under the burden of this disease in West Africa,” said 29-year-old Amber Vinson.

Smiling broadly and occasionally brushing aside tears, Vinson was surrounded by relatives as well as Emory doctors and nurses.

Nurse Nina Pham from Dallas, who also had Ebola, was released Oct. 24 from a National Institutes of Health hospital in Bethesda, Md.

Meanwhile, on Monday, Kaci Hickox traveled from New Jersey to Maine, where her boyfriend is a senior nursing student at the University of Maine at Fort Kent.  Hickox, who spent the weekend in a quarantine tent in New Jersey, said she never had Ebola symptoms and tested negative in a preliminary evaluation. She also sharply criticized New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo for ordering mandatory quarantines.

Hickox, told CNN that her “basic human rights have been violated,” and was released Monday, two days after testing negative for Ebola.  She was seemingly powerless to challenge her banishment to a quarantine tent in Newark.

The nurse’s treatment, as well as the quarantine policies of New York and New Jersey, have been criticized as heavy-handed.

Former Ebola patient Rick Sacra, a doctor infected in Liberia, likened the mandatory quarantine for returning health-care workers in New York and New Jersey to a “police state approach.”