Grandmother facing jail over unpaid tolls

A Melbourne grandmother facing jail over years of unpaid bills for driving on toll roads says she is making a stand for "political reasons".

Julie Jones, 57, has refused to pay for the City Link tollways since they opened nine years ago after Victoria’s then premier Jeff Kennett privatised a section of the Tullamarine Freeway that had previously been free to all motorists, The Age reported.

A warrant will be issued for Mrs Jones' arrest unless she pays fines totalling $1336 by the end of the day.

"I will be jailed for refusing to pay a debt to a privately owned corporation, while business-people who fleece others out of tens of millions of dollars never face the threat of jail," Mrs Jones was quoted as saying.

She said she initially tried to avoid City Link, but one day found herself on a toll road and from then on thought "bugger it", the report said.

Quite disturbing really....

A politician has made (put legislation through) a previously paid for road (via taxes, etc) a PRIVATE road, in which now the public are paying for it again.

Bribery exists in ALL areas of politics.

Once scenario of bribery is NOT the good old envelope, BUT a CASH CARD, which can be given, and an amount of $1000 per day can be withdrawn, or $356,000 per year.

These laws CLEARLY benefit BIG BUSINESS, at the detriment of the public.

In essence CORPORATE FRAUD / GOVERNMENT FINANCIAL OPPRESSION.

The problem is it's not that just ONE grandmother should be NOT PAYING its ALL users should be NOT PAYING for that section used.

Cousins forgot he was a drug addict

Ben Cousins forgot he was a drug addict after being concussed in his long-awaited comeback match in the AFL.

Cousins, who returned to the field with Richmond in the NAB Cup last Thursday, received a heavy knock to the head late in the match.

Though the Tigers confirmed the next morning he'd spent the night in hospital, it was only today that the full extent of the injury scare was revealed.

"It was like a delayed concussion," Cousins said on Melbourne radio station Nova 100.

"I was re-living or I was brought attention to things that happened 18 months ago. "

"I had a couple of crazy calls, a lady was telling me you've spent 12 months out of the game, you're a drug addict and I said, what do you mean I'm a drug addict?"

"I got on the phone and rang a girl back in Perth, I said, real serious, am I a drug addict? I was devastated."

Cousins revealed he was addicted to drugs in 2007 after a string of controversies that ultimately led to his suspension from the game for one year.

"It was a big 12 hours I tell you, we had to fit a lot in, it was like This Is Your Life.

"A couple of people that had passed away, I had no recollection of that so I was re-living that for the first time, so it was traumatic."

Cousins did not say whose deaths he had forgotten, but it was also in 2007 that close friend and former Eagles star Chris Mainwaring died from a drug overdose.

It was reported at the time that Cousins visited Mainwaring twice on the night of his death, to provide emotional support and deliver food.

Richmond officials say medics have now given their star recruit the all-clear, confirming the memory lapse lasted almost four hours after the game.

Today's revelations also coincided with news that the 2005 Brownlow medallist has tested negative to illicit drugs after giving his first hair sample as part of the AFL's stringent drug testing regime.

Cousins provided the sample in January and it's believed it was taken to London for testing.

The first attempt at obtaining a hair sample from Cousins in November sparked widespread controversy when it was revealed he had shaved or waxed his body and could not provide the required 3cm follicle.

According to News Limited reports, Cousins has been drug tested an estimated 33 times since joining Richmond and returned a negative sample on each occasion.

ninemsn 4 Mar 2009

The fictitious writings in stories like this are just PURE GOLD. The general public is supposed to digest this diarrhea ??? Because he allegedly 'forgot' all is ok?

The reality are quite simple, another drug smacked LOSER, who flaunted it in EVERYONE'S face.

Facebook could be raising your cancer risk

Poke at your own risk: a British psychologist has warned that using social networking sites such as Facebook could raise your risk of having serious health problems.

Dr Aric Sigman says that by communicating with friends and family online, rather than face to face, we could be changing the way our genes work, leading to upset immune responses, hormone levels and arteries, as well as impaired mental performance

This could, in turn, increase the risk of cancer, heart disease, strokes and dementia, Dr Sigman claims.

In his paper published in the journal Biologist, Dr Sigman explains that interacting with others in the flesh causes biological reactions in the body, such as the production of the hormone oxytoxin, which promotes bonding.

He says that 209 “socially regulated” genes have been identified, including those involved in the immune system and responses to stress, and that there does “seem to be a [biological] difference between ‘real presence’ and the virtual variety”.

Since the use of electronic media has risen, there has been a documented reduction in the number of hours people spend taking to each other.

“I am worried about where all this is leading,” Dr Sigman told the Press Association.

“Social networking sites should allow is to embellish our social lives, but what we find is very different… These are not tools that enhance, these are tools that displace.”


What do you think of Dr Sigman’s theory? Does he have a point? Have your say in our forum (which has caused no known cancers to date).

ref: http://motherandbaby.com.au/ContentItem.aspx?ContentID=1253

Banks to continue to cash in on ATM fees despite new rules

Australian banks will continue to make money by charging customers more than they need to for using other bank’s ATM machines, despite changes designed to stop the practice.

From tomorrow, ‘interchange’ fees – the fee an ATM owner charges a bank for a customer transaction – will be abolished, allowing ATM owners to charge customers directly for the use of the machine if they disclose the fee up front.

According to Reserve Bank governor Glenn Stevens, the maximum cost to a bank of electronically processing a transaction done at another bank’s, or ‘foreign’, ATM is 10 cents, but most banks will still charge customers many times that.

“We cannot see any strong case for ‘foreign fees’,” Stevens said recently.

National Australia Bank has said it will charge 50 cents per transaction, Westpac and St George will charge 25 cents.

Commonwealth Bank and ANZ, however, will stop charging fees for using other ATMs and 115 credit unions and building societies have abolished the $2 fee they previously charged for foreign ATM use and will offer free access to 1400 ATMs.

However, if a bank has abolished foreign ATM fees it’s likely that will be recouped via other fees on a customer account. Banking insiders said that banks frequently offset lower fees on some account transactions, with higher fees on others.

While some customers will benefit from tomorrow’s changes, non-bank ATM operators – covering ATMs in locations like pubs, petrol stations and airports – will continue to charge a fee of around $2. However, under the new rules, banks cannot limit what the ATM owner charges the ATM user.

The banks own around 43 percent of Australia’s 26,000 ATMs.

According to Stevens, the cost per transaction for running an ATM is around 75 cents.

“It is true that it costs money to run an ATM. I think it is 75 cents a transaction. It does cost the owner money to run it and someone has to pay that,” he said.

Banks in many industrialised countries, including Ireland, the UK, Austria, Hong Kong and the Netherlands, do not charge customers for using other bank’s ATMs.

A public backlash in the UK over plans to charge fees resulted in customer ATM fees being removed all together in 1999. Now, each time a customer uses a rival bank’s ATM the bank covers the asscociated fee.

The Australian Bankers Association said customers should contact their bank for help in locating ATMs to minimise charges.

What happens tomorrow?

From tomorrow, if you use an ATM that is not owned by your bank the fee you are about to be charged will be displayed. You can the decide whether to pay the fee or cancel the transaction and use another ATM.

The fee will appear on your statement broken out into the fee charged by your bank and the fee charged by the ATM owner.

money.ninemsn 2 Mar 2009