The ESL Free Press

Break for Memorial Day

We will not publish on May 31st, Memorial Day.

To learn more about this U.S. holiday, read Thursday's posts on it.

Enjoy your weekend.

The Editor

Links to May 28th's Top News Stories

China says it has not decided if North Korea really sank the South Korean ship Cheonan. A North Korean general says South Korea faked the sinking. Read more.

Japan's Consumer Affairs Minister has lost her job for refusing to sign a statement. The statement says Japan should make a new agreement with the U.S. to keep many Marines on Okinawa. Read more.

A train went off its tracks in West Bengal, India, killing at least 80 people. Police say Maoist rebels had put a bomb on the train. Read and watch.

French lacemakers are glad tennis champion Venus Williams is wearing lace when she plays. Read more.

U.S. Wants Military Exercise to Make Korea More Stable

The head of the U.S. military says his country is holding exercises with South Korea to help control the situation there and make it more stable. They are not meant to add to the tension with North Korea.

Admiral Mike Mullen says South Korea will practice preventing another attack like the sinking of the Cheonan. Investigators have decided this was done by North Korea.

The Cheonan sank on March 26th. Forty-six South Korean sailors were killed.

Mullen says, "North Korea is predictable in one sense: that it is unpredictable . . ."

source

printable:Download U.S. Wants Military Exercise to Make Korea More Stable.pdf (20.7K)

The "Enemy"

Specialist Kevin Pemberton is a U.S. soldier whose job is to act like the enemy.

Pemberton works at Fort Polk, Louisiana, where soldiers practice to fight in Afghanistan. There are 22 "villages" there, with people pretending to be Afghans. Pemberton blends in with them and tries to carry out "suicide bombings". The other soldiers don't always catch him.

Photo by Donna Miles

source

Group Charged Government for Unneeded Treatments

A doctor in California has been sentenced to 30 months in prison. Xinming Fu was the last member of a group of 17 people guilty of health care fraud.

The group included six doctors. Members paid the owners of care homes to let them talk to people living there -- seniors and the mentally ill. Then they arranged respiratory (breathing) tests for them. The tests were not needed, not done the right way, or not done at all. But the group charged Medicare (a program which pays health costs for the elderly and others) for the tests.

Members got people to agree to the tests by offering them snacks and cigarettes. Sometimes, people were away in a hospital -- but the group still charged for a test at the care home.  

This case took six years to finish.

source

printable:Download Group Charged Government for Unneeded Treatments.pdf (21.1K)

This week's quiz

Find the answers in today's posts. A link to a printable version is at the end.

1. What do Americans remember on Memorial Day?

2. How many major hurricanes are expected this year?

3. Why didn't Hosam Smadi's bomb go off?

4. Find one spelling (or other) mistake in the fake FBI letter.

5. What is happening in Gaza?

Download Quiz 5-27-10.pdf (18.3K)

Dallas Bomber Pleads Guilty

Hosam Maher Husein Smadi pleaded guilty on Wednesday to trying to bomb an office building in Dallas, Texas.

In September 2009, Smadi drove a truck to the building. The truck contained a homemade bomb. He left it in the parking garage and turned on its timer.

Smadi then met with another person who drove him away. From a distance, he tried to set off the bomb with his cell phone.

There were two things he didn't know. First, though the bomb was real, it was inert (not working). Second, the person "helping" him was really a government agent.

The court says Smadi acted alone, not as a member of a terrorist group.

Smadi, who is 19, could be sent to prison for life. Since he agreed to plead guilty, he may get 30 years instead.

source

printable:Download Dallas Bomber Pleads Guilty.pdf (19.9K)

Scammers Pose As FBI

Below is a fake e-mail that says it is from the FBI. It says you can have a large amount of money -- if you pay a fee.

The FBI does not send e-mails to anyone who has not asked for them. This one uses the name of a real agent. But people should not be fooled by that.

Memorial Day: May 31st, 2010

A U.S. government official once asked a group of children if they knew what Memorial Day was. They said, "That's the day the pool opens."

It is true that many Americans think of Memorial Day as the beginning of summer. But it means more than that.

"Memorial" comes from the same root as "memory". This is a day to remember Americans who died in wars.

The video below shows a Memorial Day ceremony in Atlanta, Georgia. Most American towns have similar ceremonies.

The celebrations are not all sad. Many towns also have parades on Memorial Day. People often begin their summer activities, like swimming, barbecues, and gardening.

printable: Download Memorial Day_ May 31st, 2010.pdf (18.9K)

Video: Memorial Day Ceremony in Atlanta, USA