Free Republic

[...] The local police department is stepping up enforcement at the retirement community and is targeting units involved with soliciting drug dealers and prostitutes, said Capitol Heights Police Deputy Chief Anthony Ayers Sr. "We have a few individuals that conducted in the activity themselves that are actually tenants, that are on drugs and allow the prostitutes to come into their rooms," Ayers said. "We tried to let them know that we're watching them to try and get them to slow it down." [...]

Senior Palestinian negotiator Nabil Shaath said Wednesday that the Palestinians' statehood bid at the United Nations is the only alternative to violence, stressing that the UN move will give the Palestinians the change to promote their rights. "The UN is the only alternative to violence," Shaath said during a press conference on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly."It will be very costly to us and the Israelis. Our new heroes are Gandhi, Mandela and Martin Luther King."

(excerpted) Authorities had been collecting marijuana plants on Round Mountain at the end of Rabbit Lane, according to a sheriff's report. "We could hear the rounds pass by and hit," Fontes said. Officers initially thought the shots came from the growers, Fontes said, but later discovered it was Speyrer who lived in a nearby home. According to the report, when officers noticed Spreyer in the area, they approached her and ordered her to get on the ground. Here's what the report states happened next: "Why do I have to get on the ground," the senior asked. "You shot at us,"...

House oversight committee chairman Rep. Darrell Issa, California Republican, will soon air a different side of Operation Fast and Furious: what Mexico-based U.S. law enforcement officials dealt with. Senior Justice Department leadership in Washington ignored concerns Mexico-based Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) officials raised about the program, according to assertions made as part of the congressional investigation. A House oversight committee hearing on Tuesday morning at 10 a.m. will examine effects Operation Fast and Furious had on “The Other Side of the Border.” Former ATF attaché to Mexico, Darren Gil told Congressional investigators that, when he became...

SENIORS TEXTING CODE : ATD - At The Doctors; BFF - Best Friend Fell; BTW - Bring the Wheelchair; BYOT - Bring Your Own Teeth; FWIW - Forgot Where I Was; GGPBL - Gotta Go Pacemaker Battery Low; GHA - Got Heartburn Again; IMHO - Is My Hearing-Aid On? LMDO - Laughing My Dentures Out; OMMR - On My Massage Recliner; ROFLACGU - Rolling On Floor Laughing And Can't Get Up. TTYL - Talk To You Louder

As if NPR needed any more problems: the news organization’s senior VP for development, Ron Schiller, was allegedly caught on film making some very unflattering remarks about Tea Partiers, Republicans, and Zionists, the Daily Caller reported this morning: A man who appears to be a National Public Radio senior executive, Ron Schiller, has been captured on camera savaging conservatives and the Tea Party movement. … In a new video released Tuesday morning by conservative filmmaker James O’Keefe, Schiller and Betsy Liley, NPR’s director of institutional giving, are seen meeting with two men who, unbeknownst to the NPR executives, are posing...

The average Social Security check is about $1,200. You can receive that payment while living anywhere in the world. In some countries, you can even have your Social Security check direct-deposited into your local bank account. Here are five places where you could retire on your Social Security income alone. Boquete, Panama. Panama offers super user-friendly options for foreign residency. Resident retirees receive a long list of benefits including discounts on everything from prescription medicines and in-country air travel to closing costs on the purchase of real estate. Granada, Nicaragua. Granada is ... home to a welcoming community of expat...

It's change grandma and grandpa believe in. Seniors are poised to vote at historic levels on Election Day. And it's bad news for Democrats. They support Republicans more than any other age group. Republicans are more likely to vote at every age this year. But it's older Republican voters--including GOP-leaning independents--who could create a generational tide. Young adults are not less likely to vote. Older adults are remarkably likely. Seniors and baby boomers are more engaged in the election and more enthusiastic about voting than pre-election polling has found since at least 1994... The trend is strongest among voters age...

Rabbi Aviner sends SPCA Israel letter, video explaining why according to halacha it is wrong to use chickens in pre-Kippur atonement rite. The Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Israel has received a significant halachic backing for this year’s annual campaign against the cruel use of chickens in the kapparot (atonement) ritual. Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, head of the capital’s Yeshivat Ateret Cohanim and rabbi of Beit El, not only provided SPCA Israel with a letter last week showing the faultiness of the rite, basing his arguments on some of the greatest arbitrators, but went on video to expound...

(Sept. 7) -- Authorities in Alabama are trying to determine why an 81-year-old man made a bomb that detonated in his apartment at an 8-story-tall senior center, killing him. Residents of the Summer Manor Apartments in northeast Decatur were evacuated, but no injuries were reported. "It is kind of hard to say what his motives [were]," Decatur police Lt. Jonathan Green told AOL News today. He said the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has joined state and local agencies in the investigation. The bomb exploded at about 9:30 p.m. Monday, rocking the building, which is owned by...

Food bank mistakenly gives out dog foodPublished: July 18, 2010 at 2:39 PM CLEARWATER, Fla., July 18 (UPI) -- A food bank in Clearwater, Fla., distributed a can labeled as a "superfood" that turned out to be a can of dog food, the recipient said. On Social Security, retired Air Force veteran Frank Viscido made his weekly trip from his home in Largo to the Religious Community Services Food Bank in Clearwater for free food, The St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times reported. Viscido was given the can labeled, "Senior Holistic Superfood" by a volunteer who noticed he wanted products for better...

THE WHITE HOUSE, WASHINGTON, DC -- Senior White House officials acknowledged Wednesday afternoon that the new regime of UN Security Council sanctions against Iran “would not be sufficient” in and of itself to change the behavior of the Iranian government and convince its leaders to stop its nuclear weapons program. But, they emphasized, these sanctions are just the beginning – the “1” of a “1,2,3 punch,” as one senior White House official put it. The next step: on June 17 the European Council will meet and impose even stricter sanctions on Iran. Then Congress will pass additional tough sanctions, which...

--As I read her thesis I am persuaded that Alinsky "rules" were hijacked and abused by organized crime and union thugs to further their power over those his "rules" were meant to liberate. (Jo Nuvark) -- this document helps us understand Hillary Rodham Clinton. (snip) For the entirety of the Bill Clinton Presidency it was hidden from the general public. Why you ask? read for yourself …

Health Reform: The linchpin of ObamaCare 2.0 is that 31 million uninsured will be covered at little added cost. But in fact, White House estimates for low costs are based on little more than accounting tricks. The president's plan "puts our budget and economy on a more stable path by reducing the deficit by $100 billion over the next 10 years — and about $1 trillion over the second decade — by cutting government overspending and reining in waste, fraud and abuse," the White House says on its Web site. Sound too good to be true? It is. None of...

Garage Door The boss walked into the office one morning not knowing his zipper was down and his fly area wide open. His assistant walked up to him and said, 'This morning when you left your house, did you close your garage door?' The boss told her he knew he'd closed the garage door, and walked into his office puzzled by the question.. As he finished his paperwork, he suddenly noticed his fly was open, and zipped it up... He then understood his assistant's question about his 'garage door..' He headed out for a cup of coffee and paused by...

Many seniors worry health reform could hurt instead of help12. August 2009 16:37 "Democrats have a senior citizen problem," Politico reports. "Frustrated older Americans are packing the town halls on health care. They are incredibly passionate about their Medicare benefits. Polls show senior citizens largely disapprove of health care reform ideas so far. And of course, they vote — in larger numbers than any other demographic." For the most part, Democrats have focused on appealing to middle-class Americans and the uninsured, but at his New Hampshire town hall meeting on Tuesday, "President Barack Obama made a point to reach out...

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is one of the leading causes of blindness in adults, a growing problem as the population ages. Now a team of researchers at the University of Kentucky has raised hope for early detection and preventive treatment. Dr. Jayakrishna Ambati and colleague have discovered a biological marker for AMD, a receptor known as CCR3. They say it shows strong potential as a means for doctors to lesson the impact of the much-feared condition. The findings were reported in an article published online Sunday by the journal Nature. "This is a major paradigm shift in macular degeneration research,"...

BIRMINGHAM, Ala., June 3, 2009 – Military veterans competing in the National Veterans Golden Age Games each year have their own reasons for participating. Some come out for the camaraderie, while others come to socialize and catch up with old friends. Jonah Hicks, a 64-year-old Marine Corps and Vietnam War veteran, speeds around the track June 2, 2009, in Birmingham, Ala., as part of the cycling event at the 23rd Annual National Veterans Golden Age Games. DoD photo by Army Sgt. 1st Class Michael J. Carden  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. But others simply come to win. This...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraqi security forces supported by U.S. firepower killed a senior al Qaeda leader who made car bombs and ran Islamist militant cells throughout northern Iraq, the U.S. military said on Friday. A statement said the Iraqi army and members of a U.S.- backed Sunni Arab neighborhood patrol shot Abu Ghazwan as he hid in the grass near a house they were searching on Thursday in Tarmiya, north of Baghdad. The patrol had been attacked with guns and a bomb in the house. "While further searching the area, a (neighborhood patrol) member discovered a trail booby-trapped with grenades...

This is Halloween and Obama is trying to scare and fool us Senior Citizens. He is planning to kill Medicare, as we know it, and give us a SEVERELY MODIFIED old age health insurance plan. Obama would, for example, eliminate a certain number of surgical procedures costing ten of thousands of dollars each. The Democrats' idea is to reign in Medicare's costs at the expense of the Senior Citizens. First, Obama wants to take away our retirement plans like in Argentina. Now, he wants to compromise our health insurance coverage. This is a helluva way to treat people! My Fellow...

To the Alzheimer’s Disease jokes at My.BarackObama.com, over which the Obama campaign staff exercises editorial control, we add the following. The moderators whose job is to remove “objectionable” and “disrespectful” content from My.BarackObama.com had no problem with this statement, and (given the jokes about Alzheimer’s Disease and “senior moments”), it probably does reflect the campaign’s views of senior citizens. Note also that this is from the Headquarters Blog, and the blog owner has the power to remove commentary of this nature. He or she apparently considered it neither “offensive” nor “disrespectful.” In my honest opinion, Barack should focus on the...

The controversy is over a T-shirt that read "puschin' it to the limit" and on the back it reads "Class of .08 Seniors."

Police say a knife-wielding 82-year-old Royal Inland Hospital patient was tasered over the weekend after he refused to put down his weapon. “He did have a knife in his hand,” Kamloops RCMP Cpl. Scott Wilson said. “He wouldn’t put the knife down.” Wilson said Mounties received a call from hospital security early Saturday morning. “The call came in at 5:45 in the morning,” he said. “The call was that there was an irrational elderly male with a knife.” According to Wilson, officers were briefed by the security guard on duty before confronting the patient, whose name has been withheld. “They...

McCain has had several senior moments but he is after all very OLD. Now Hillary who is only 60 is having "senior moments" as she "recalls" her harrowing trip to Bosnia as sniper bullets were whizzing overhead, but such a gracefull lady that she is she stopped in the midst of this with daughter Chelsea by her side to give time to a 8 year old Bosnian girl. Wow what courage! The films show otherwise yet this is how you recall it. If you are already having a problem with dimentia at 60...will you know where the phone is at...

Senior Democrats mull Al Gore's nomination By Tim Shipman in Washington Last Updated: 2:23am BST 30/03/2008 Plans for Al Gore to take the Democratic presidential nomination as the saviour of a bitterly divided party are being actively discussed by senior figures and aides to the former vice-president. The bloody civil war between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama has left many Democrats convinced that neither can deliver a knockout blow to the other and that both have been so damaged that they risk losing November's election to the Republican nominee, John McCain. Former aides to Al Gore now believe he could...

Chapel Hill, N.C. — Police asked for help identifying a man in surveillance pictures whom they want to question in connection with the killing of Eve Carson, 22, a senior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Lt. Kevin Gunter, a spokesman for the Chapel Hill Police Department, called the man a suspect after the press conference Saturday morning. Police Chief Bill Curran described the photos as “the biggest break” and “strongest lead” in the case yet. Two photographs show a black man in his late teens or early 20s. He is riding in a sport-utility vehicle with...

chicagotribune.com Commentary Handout is just that no matter its name Dennis Byrne February 3, 2008 Like the Boy Scout who insists on helping an old lady cross the street when she wants to stay put, everyone seems determined to help out seniors, whether we need to do so or whether everyone can afford it. The list of all the entitlements, benefits and freebies larded onto the elderly is way too long to publish here, other than to mention they include, according to AARP, deals on travel, financial services, entertainment, computers, gifts and insurance. As if that weren't enough, Gov. Rod...

BAY SHORE, N.Y. - A tire iron-wielding man who police said was looking to mug a senior citizen probably thought he had found an easy target — that is, until the 74-year-old fought back. Bruce Ferraro had no idea someone was following him as he walked out of a department store at the South Shore Mall on Saturday and got into his car, police said. But then a man pounded on Ferraro's window and demanded cash. "Ferraro says, 'What, are you kidding me?' and he actually gets out of the car," said Det. Sgt. Thomas Groneman, of the Suffolk County...

Health and Public Policy: Older Auto Drivers Safer Than You Think By John E. Carey July 19, 2007Let’s talk about older automobile drivers. Maybe it’s your Mom or Dad or Uncle Sam that shows signs of driving too slowly, running into things or having other difficulties handling a car.What do you do and what are your responsibilities?I’ve faced this dilemma three or four times already and here’s what experts say.Researchers at the Rand Institute for Social Justice found during a recent study a few interesting facts.–Young drivers between 15 and 24 years old are three times as likely to cause car...

JEREMY HARMON/Daily Herald Betty Perry, 70, stands in her front yard in Orem and talks about her experience earlier in the day with an Orem police officer Friday, July 6, 2007. An officer stopped to talk to her about her dead lawn, the situation escalated when Perry refused to give her name to the officer and tried to go back in her house to call her son. Perry fell, getting various cuts on her body, and was taken to jail. Betty Perry's dry lawn is seen at her home in Orem Friday, July 6, 2007. Betty Perry's dry, desolate...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 23, 2006 – A coalition air strike Dec. 19 in Afghanistan’s Helmand province killed a senior member of the Taliban’s inner circle, military officials reported today. Credible intelligence led coalition forces to Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Osmani’s location near the border with Pakistan, officials said. His vehicle, traveling in a deserted area, was destroyed by the air strike, instantly killing him and two unidentified associates. "Osmani was in the top ring of the Taliban leadership and he was also a close associate of Osama bin Laden and Gulbuddin Hekmatyr," said Army Col. Tom Collins, a coalition spokesman. "His...

For Harold Ford Sr., this campaign season has been a family affair. He's worked to drum up votes for his son Jake's bid as an independent to represent the 9th Congressional District. Ford Sr. is also a volunteer in his oldest son Harold Jr.'s Democratic U.S. Senate campaign and has offered advice on voter turnout and campaign tactics. "He (Sr.) knows the last three months of strategy better than anyone, and he (Jr.) trusts his father," said Ford Jr.'s campaign adviser, Robert Sepucha. During several local events for Ford Jr., the elder Ford plugged Jake's candidacy, said Shelby County Democratic...

Faced with a noon deadline, former state senator John Ford kept himself out of jail by making a court-ordered child-support payment of $4,597 at 11:13 this morning at Juvenile Court. Ford, 64, got his monthly payments reduced this week by 40 percent, but Referee Harold Horne also ordered him to make a purge payment or be held in contempt for falling behind in his child support obligations. By Thursday Ford had paid $8,500, but Horne said he would be jailed by noon today if Ford did not make another payment of $4,597. Juvenile Court Clerk Steve Stamson said Ford paid...

KABUL, Afghanistan, Aug. 24, 2006 – Senior enlisted leaders from Pakistan, Afghanistan and the United States met for the first time this week to share insights between their respective armed forces and future interoperability. Army Command Sgt. Maj. Daniel Wood, Combined Forces Command Afghanistan’s senior enlisted leader, talks with senior NCOs from the Afghan National Army and Pakistani armed forces at Kabul International Airport Aug. 22, shortly before the beginning of the first meeting between senior NCOs of the three nations. Photo by Tech. Sgt. Matt Summers, USAF  '(Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. “Building a relationship between these...

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Coalition forces successfully targeted and detained two senior al-Qaida in Iraq leaders and three other suspected terrorists during multiple raids in central and northern Iraq on the morning of July 29. A recent detainee provided information that led the security forces to one of the terrorists, a top leader for the Al Dhuluiyah area. The targeted individual was reportedly the main planner for the attack against Peshmerga forces at a checkpoint in Al Dhuluiya in May 2006. Credible intelligence also ties the terrorist leader to other al-Qaida leaders in the area. In a separate raid, security forces...

A court has upheld the jaywalking ticket issued to an 82-year-old Sunland woman who slowly crossed a busy boulevard, but waived the $114 fine - a Solomonic compromise in a case that drew outrage from around the world. Mayvis Coyle of Sunland captured the attention of senior-citizens advocates - and pedestrians everywhere - after she was ticketed Feb. 15 for crossing busy Foothill Boulevard against a light. At the time, she was loaded down with groceries and walking with the help of a cane. Superior Court Commissioner Jeffrey Harkavy of San Fernando issued his ruling June 20 after reading written...

BALTIMORE - A long-standing feud over house rules at a seniors' high rise led one octogenarian resident to shoot and kill another, police said. The shooting on Monday apparently occurred after an 86-year-old desk clerk at the building refused to allow an 80-year-old resident's granddaughter to board an elevator without a visitor's pass, police said. Thomas Batty, 86, was shot once in the head as he sat behind the front desk, and Clyde Lewis, 80, was charged with murder. Both lived on the building's 12th floor. A bail hearing for Lewis was set for Tuesday afternoon. Police Officer Troy Harris...

Morris Rappaport, 91, is armed with something new to get him through hurricane season, which last year spawned 100 mph-plus winds, ripping off roofs and leaving thousands of seniors in his Delray Beach retirement community scared and miserable. It's a slim paper card designed to hang on a door. One side, florescent lime green, is labeled, "OK." The other, colored hot pink, reads "HELP." "This is a little obvious," Rappaport said, smiling as he flipped the card from side to side. But he agreed it might be a simple solution to a serious problem: Some of the 13,000 residents of...

BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan, May 27, 2006 – Coalition forces killed five extremists in a precision strike yesterday evening on an isolated insurgent training facility near the village of Qal'a Sak, in Helmand province. Qal'a Sak village is near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. Among those killed were key senior leaders of the Taliban network who had conducted attacks against coalition and Afghan forces, Afghan officials, and civilians. The extremists were also responsible for the proliferation of materials used in improvised-explosive-device construction and employment that often resulted in deaths and injuries to numerous innocent citizens, U.S. officials said in a statement. "This...

WASHINGTON, May 9, 2006 – Spouses of the military's senior enlisted leaders gathered here today to learn about each service's program for wounded troops and to share ideas for the future. Marine Gunnery Sgt. J.A. Burks, a representative for the Marine for Life program, speaks to the spouses of senior enlisted leaders during a conference at the Pentagon, May 9. Photo by Sgt. Sara Wood, USA  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The wives of the senior enlisted leaders from the combatant commands and the service senior enlisted advisors met at the Pentagon in conjunction with their husbands' conference,...

THE career of President Vladimir Putin of Russia was built at least in part on a lie, according to US researchers. A new study of an economics thesis written by Putin in the mid-1990s has revealed that large chunks of it were copied from an American text. Putin was labelled a plagiarist yesterday after a pair of researchers at the Brookings Institution, a Washington DC think tank, established that the Russian president’s academic credentials were based on a dissertation he had lifted in part verbatim from the Russian translation of a management study written by two professors at the University...

MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. (March 2, 2006) -- A LaCygne, Kan. native was awarded the nation’s fourth highest distinction given for valor and meritorious service during a ceremony here March 1. Brig. Gen. Joseph J. McMenamin, 2nd Marine Division’s assistant commander, presented the Bronze Star Medal to Sgt. Maj. Ricky D. James, citing James’ superior leadership during his unit’s deployment to Iraq from January through June 2005. The 43-year-old James served as the senior enlisted man for 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment as they conducted six months worth of counterinsurgency operations in and around Fallujah. The unit arrived...

Police Log This is a true account recorded in the Police Log of Sarasota, Florida... An elderly Florida lady did her shopping and, upon returning to her car, found four males in the act of leaving with her vehicle. She dropped her shopping bags and drew her handgun, proceeding to scream at the top of her voice, "I have a gun, and I know how to use it! Get out of the car!" The four men didn't wait for a second invitation. They got out and ran like mad. The lady, somewhat shaken, then proceeded to load her shopping bags...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Gunmen wearing Iraqi army uniforms broke into the home of a senior Sunni leader on Wednesday and killed him, his three sons and his son-in-law on the outskirts of Baghdad, his brother and an interior ministry official said. Khadim Sarhid al-Hemaiyem was the leader of the Sunni Batta tribe and the brother of a parliamentary candidate in the Dec. 15 election, the official, Maj. Falah al-Mohammedawi said. Another of the slain man's brothers said the family has been attacked before. "A group of gunmen with Iraqi army uniforms and vehicles broke into my brother's house in the...

NABLUS, West Bank - Israeli troops killed a senior Hamas militant in an overnight arrest raid Monday, Palestinian medical officials and neighbors of the man said. Troops arrived at the home of Amjad Hanawi, 34, Hamas' top military commander in the northern West Bank, shortly after midnight, according to the accounts. The soldiers ordered Hanawi's family out of the house. While most members came out of the house, Hanawi refused and tried to escape. He was shot as he tried to climb a fence. The neighbors claimed that army dogs attacked several family members. Hamas members drove through the streets...

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Militants pulled a deputy provincial governor from his car and shot him dead and killed a former district chief while he prayed in a mosque in the latest attacks on supporters of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, officials said Saturday. Namatullah Yusuf Zai, southern Nimroz province's deputy governor, was driving to Kabul on Friday to attend a meeting on peace and reconciliation when militants stopped his car and killed him, Gov. Ghulam Dustaqir said. He blamed Taliban rebels for the attack. Hours later, two insurgents walked into a mosque in neighboring Helmand province and shot a former local...

smFairTax is a service mark of Americans For Fair Taxation. A FairTaxsm White Paper The impact of the FairTax on seniors • The FairTax ensures Social Security’s soundness by funding it with a progressive, broad-based national retail sales tax, rather than the current regressive, narrow payroll tax. • The FairTax rebate zeros the retail taxation of necessities, up to povertylevel spending, for seniors. • The FairTax repeals the taxation of Social Security benefits and adjusts Social Security indexing to protect seniors. • The FairTax ends all record keeping and income tax filings of any kind for seniors, totally insulating them...

WASHINGTON (Army News Service, October 12, 2005) – “Our two armies stand shoulder-to-shoulder in the war on terror.” This was one of the messages given by one of the United Kingdom’s most senior military officers in a presentation titled “A Coalition Perspective on Current Operations.” Gen. Sir Richard Dannatt, the commander-in-chief, Land Command, British Army, presented the first of four 2005 Kermit Roosevelt Lectures in the United States to a large Pentagon audience Oct. 11. His lecture tour continues with talks at the U.S. Military Academy, the U.S. Army War College and the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College....

(IsraelNN.com) Channel 10 TV on Friday night will air its video footage depicting Negev police commander Brigadier-General Miso Shacham. Speaking to the area border police commander, Shacham is recorded instructing his forces to beat anyone who breaks away from the Kfar Maimon group, seeking to enter Gush Katif. He called for the indiscriminate use of the water cannon, giving him authority to do so without hesitation or approval, as well as telling him to use batons and “hit them hard, blows to the lower extremities to teach them a lesson”. The documented footage includes a fair share of vulgarities and...

Massachusetts has begun paying family members to house and care for their frail older relatives in an effort to keep them out of nursing homes and save the state money. The program pays $1,500 a month to caregivers to make it more feasible for family members to provide round-the-clock care to a senior who needs extensive help with everyday tasks, such as eating, bathing, dressing, and using the toilet. It has enrolled 21 seniors since beginning on a trial basis in March, and will expand this fall to as many as 80 low-income seniors or disabled people, funded by $2...