Did Ayers’ mother believe Obama was a foreign student?
And was the young Obama convinced at the time – long before he even entered politics – that he was going to become president of the United States?
A retired U.S. Postal Service carrier who delivered mail to Tom and Mary Ayers in a Chicago suburb in the late 1980s and early 1990s and claims to have met Obama in front of the Ayers home emphatically says yes to all three questions.
Allen Hulton, who was commended for 39 years of honorable service with the USPS, has given a sworn affidavit to investigators commissioned by Maricopa County, Ariz., Sheriff Joe Arpaio to determine whether Obama is eligible for Arizona’s 2012 election ballot. Hulton has recorded about three hours of video interviews with WND.
Hulton says that in conversations with Mary Ayers while on his route he learned of the couple’s enthusiasm and support for a black foreign student. One bright, warm Chicagoland day, he recounts, he met the student who fit Mary Ayers’ description in front of the Ayers home in Glen Ellyn, Ill. That young man, Hulton is convinced, was Barack Obama.
Hulton delivered mail to the Ayers, who are both deceased, when he was stationed at the post office in Glen Ellyn, an upper-middle class suburb 25 miles west of downtown Chicago, from late 1986 to 1997. He was a USPS employee from March 28, 1962, through March 30, 2001. (Editor’s note: Although the Ayers family no longer lives there, WND is withholding the Glen Ellyn street address for the sake of the current residents’ privacy.)
“It was a beautiful neighborhood – one of the nicer routes any of the letter carriers would have liked to have had,” Hulton recalls. “It had some large and very beautiful homes.”
As WND reported yesterday, Obama’s relationship with Bill Ayers – whom he dismissed in a 2008 debate as “just a guy who lives in my neighborhood” – plagued him in the 2008 presidential campaign and could resurface in this year’s election, as many questions remain.
Over a period of years in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Hulton estimates he spoke with Mary Ayers about 18 to 20 times and once to Tom Ayers, who died in 2007. Mary Ayers died in 2000.
“Sometimes Mary would be out when I delivered the mail, and we would exchange a few words on occasion,” he says, recalling that she liked to talk about her family.
“One day, Mary came to the door when I came up to the house with the mail,” he remembers. “After a greeting, she started enthusiastically talking to me about this young black student they were helping out, and she referred to him as a foreign student.”
In what is likely the most heartwarming video you'll see all day, a Canada-based lesbian couple took to the ice of a hockey game during intermission for a crowd-thrilling marriage proposal.
As Yahoo Sports is reporting, a Toronto Maple Leafs fan named Alicia was escorted onto the ice wearing a blindfold. When the blindfold was removed, she looked up at the video scoreboard and read a message from her girlfriend, an Ottawa Senators fan named Christina.
The pair embraced before Christina got down on one knee and slid the engagement ring onto Alicia's hand. After the couple shared a kiss, the Senators mascot raised a sign that declared: "SHE SAID YES."
Feeling romantic? Check out some of our favorite same-sex kisses below:
U.S Navy Petty Officers Share Same-Sex Kiss
A Navy tradition caught up with the 2011 repeal of the U.S. military's "don't ask, don't tell" rule when Marissa Gaeta And Citlalic Snell, two U.S. naval petty officers, became the first to share the coveted "first kiss" on the pier after one of them returned from 80 days at sea.
President Obama's signature on an executive order that updates presidential authority to take control over national defense resources in time of emergency has legal minds arguing over whether the White House is trying to expand power or merely organize rules 18 years in the making.
The executive order, signed late Friday, revokes an earlier order put in place by President Bill Clinton in 1994 and says any other previously issued orders or rulings by previous presidents shall remain in effect unless they are inconsistent with the new order.
The purpose of the order, according to its contents, is to make sure the U.S. is prepared to mobilize technological and industrial resources "capable of meeting national defense requirements" and ensure "technological superiority of its national defense equipment in peacetime and in times of national emergency."
It orders Cabinet agencies to determine military and civilian staffing and evaluate access to resources like suppliers, materials, skilled labor and professional and technical personnel. It also is intended to ensure the U.S. government is prepared "in the event of a potential threat to the security of the United States."
The executive order gives the homeland security secretary authority to issue guidance to other department heads to establish and activate a National Defense Executive Reserve (NDER) composed of experts in the private and public sector -- though not full-time federal employees -- to fill executive positions in the federal government in the event of a national defense emergency.
That includes employing consultants or other experts without compensation. The labor secretary can also begin training workers to help address national defense requirements.
The order scopes out the different roles of the National Security Council, Homeland Security Council and National Economic Council in advising the president -- giving the secretary of homeland security authority to provide for the central coordination of the plans and programs delegated under the order.
It also gives authority to the secretary of Commerce to determine how to get the industrial base to support the national defense and meet defense program needs. The Agriculture Department will take care of food resources while the Defense Department will handle water resources in addition to its military role. The heads of the Energy, Health and Human Services and Transportation departments also are responsible for their jurisdictions.
The order notes that unless determined otherwise by the president or his national security adviser, the authority "may be used only to support programs that have been determined in writing as necessary or appropriate to promote the national defense."
This order came on the heals of another presidential order a few days prior that reiterated the United States' "national emergency" stance toward Iran -- a rather routine measure that has been repeated every year since 1995 but that might have caused some confusion.
Several legal eagle bloggers say there's nothing to fear.
"There is enough that Obama actually does wrong without creating claims which do not hold up to scrutiny," wrote William Jacobson, associate clinical professor of law at Cornell Law School and blogger for the Legal Insurrection blog.
Britain's Got Talent is back on the road with the judges trawling the length and breadth of the UK in search of Britain's best talent.
Hosted by award-winning TV favourites Ant & Dec, the show sees the return of Simon Cowell, joined on the exciting new panel by actor and comedian David Walliams, singer, songwriter and dancer Alesha Dixon, and returning judge, Amanda Holden.
This year the winner will not only have the opportunity to perform at the 2012 Royal Variety Performance, they will also receive £500,000 - £250,000 of which will come from Simon Cowell's own pocket.
Judging by the pictures below, we can expect the unexpected on Britain's Got Talent, where anything goes, from dance troupes to acrobats, magicians to comedians and dancing dogs to mind-blowing contortionists. The show is open to any performer of any age, from any background, with any talent - all they need is a skill and star quality which they think will impress the Judges.
The FBI, the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Florida will investigate the killing of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed 17-year-old Florida high school student, who was shot by a self-appointed neighborhood watchman.
"The department will conduct a thorough and independent review of all of the evidence and take appropriate action at the conclusion of the investigation," a statement released by the Justice Department this evening said. "The department also is providing assistance to and cooperating with the state officials in their investigation into the incident."
George Zimmerman, who claimed self-defense in shooting Martin, has not been charged with any crime in the fatal shooting of the teenager on Feb. 26.
Outrage over the incident has only grown, as irregularities in the police investigation have been uncovered and 911 tapes released last week showed Zimmerman ignored a dispatcher's directive not to pursue the teen.
Zimmerman also blatantly violated major principles of the Neighborhood Watch manual, ABC News has learned.
The manual, from the National Neighborhood Watch Program, states: "It should be emphasized to members that they do not possess police powers, and they shall not carry weapons or pursue vehicles. They should also be cautioned to alert police or deputies when encountering strange activity. Members should never confront suspicious persons who could be armed and dangerous."
Yet Zimmerman made a nonemergency call to police and pursued him anyway, even though 911 dispatcher told him not to, before fatally shooting the teenager.
The Sanford, Fla., Police Department, relenting to massive public pressure, released parts of these 911 tapes pertaining to the shooting.
On the tapes, Zimmerman, claiming Martin looked intoxicated, says he saw the teenager cut through from the main street in the tidy Retreat at Twin Lakes, onto a path between two blocks of townhouses, and decided to gave chase. Zimmerman told a police dispatcher, "These a**holes, they always get away"
Dispatcher: "Are you following him?"
Dispatcher: "OK, we don't need you to do that."
Zimmerman didn't stop and ultimately confronted Martin, who was carrying a package of Skittles and a bottle of iced tea. The two allegedly scuffled. In a series of seven 911 calls, eyewitnesses reported that they heard a sort of howling. One caller said, "they're wrestling right in the back of my porch, one man is yelling help."
Then a gun shot rang out. The howling and yelling stopped.
Zimmerman wasn't arrested at the time, and ABC News has learned he was not given a drug or alcohol test that night -- standard in most homicide investigations.
Sweden was the first European country to introduce bank notes in 1661. Now it's come farther than most on the path toward getting rid of them.
"I can't see why we should be printing bank notes at all anymore," says Bjoern Ulvaeus, former member of 1970's pop group ABBA, and a vocal proponent for a world without cash.
The contours of such a society are starting to take shape in this high-tech nation, frustrating those who prefer coins and bills over digital money.
In most Swedish cities, public buses don't accept cash; tickets are prepaid or purchased with a cell phone text message. A small but growing number of businesses only take cards, and some bank offices — which make money on electronic transactions — have stopped handling cash altogether.
"There are towns where it isn't at all possible anymore to enter a bank and use cash," complains Curt Persson, chairman of Sweden's National Pensioners' Organization.
He says that's a problem for elderly people in rural areas who don't have credit cards or don't know how to use them to withdraw cash.
The decline of cash is noticeable even in houses of worship, like the Carl Gustaf Church in Karlshamn, southern Sweden, where Vicar Johan Tyrberg recently installed a card reader to make it easier for worshippers to make offerings.
"People came up to me several times and said they didn't have cash but would still like to donate money," Tyrberg says.
Bills and coins represent only 3 percent of Sweden's economy, compared to an average of 9 percent in the eurozone and 7 percent in the U.S., according to the Bank for International Settlements, an umbrella organization for the world's central banks.
Three percent is still too much if you ask Ulvaeus. A cashless society may seem like an odd cause for someone who made a fortune on "Money, Money, Money" and other ABBA hits, but for Ulvaeus it's a matter of security.
After his son was robbed for the third time he started advocating a faster transition to a fully digital economy, if only to make life harder for thieves.
"If there were no cash, what would they do?" says Ulvaeus, 66.
The Swedish Bankers' Association says the shrinkage of the cash economy is already making an impact in crime statistics.
The number of bank robberies in Sweden plunged from 110 in 2008 to 16 in 2011 — the lowest level since it started keeping records 30 years ago. It says robberies of security transports are also down.
"Less cash in circulation makes things safer, both for the staff that handle cash, but also of course for the public," says Par Karlsson, a security expert at the organization.
The prevalence of electronic transactions — and the digital trail they generate — also helps explain why Sweden has less of a problem with graft than countries with a stronger cash culture, such as Italy or Greece, says economics professor Friedrich Schneider of the Johannes Kepler University in Austria.
The release of producer Michael Bay's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles big-screen reboot has already been announced for December 2013.
But while you might expect fans to be happy with the news there will soon be more Turtles films to watch, more Turtles toys to buy and more Turtles-branded fast food to scarf, it turns out the fans are actually furious.
(And yes, there really are still hardcore Turtles in the world.)
So why are the fans so hot and bothered in their half-shells? Because the Transformers director has announced that the Turtles will be aliens in the new film, not mutants.
Speaking at a Nickleodeon event at the Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York, Bay said: "When you see this movie, kids will believe one day that these turtles do exist, when we're done with this movie.
"These turtles are from an alien race, and they're going to be tough, edgy, funny and completely loveable."
Michael Bay talks Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles by stuffwelike
Aliens? Until now the Turtles were regular Earth turtles mutated into humanoids by green goo, which is what gave them their powers. For those who weren't nine years old in 1992, those powers basically comprise martial arts, the ability to make wisecracks and an obsession with pizza.
In any case, messing with one of the four words in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles hasn't gone down well.
Steps star Claire Richards joked she didn't plan to eat everything she makes as she was unveiled as the host of a new cookery slot on ITV's Lorraine.
The 34-year-old singer and mother-of-two - who is currently a size 16 after her latest weight-loss drive - will present Lorraine's Cake Club on the ITV1 morning show.
Claire, who has publicly slimmed down only to pile on the pounds three times said: "Apparently it's not a good idea for me to be hosting a cake club because clearly I'm going to eat everything! So silly."
The Tragedy singer - who has competed in Celebrity MasterChef in the past, revealed it was her dream to become a TV cook as she made an apple cake on the show.
Claire said: "It's a little dream come true, I can't believe it's finally happening. It's really exciting, I'm a bit nervous though.
"I did used to bake as a child all the time. On a Saturday I used to get all my ingredients, I used to put them in all my mum's bowls - which used to drive her mental because I'd dirty everything - and then I would pretend I was on a cooking show myself."
"Let's face it, who doesn't like cake? I think most of us like some kind of cake somewhere along the line."
Viewers are being asked to send in their own recipes in the hunt for Britain's best cake.
Claire said cooking was a great thing to do with her two young children Charlie, four, and two-year-old Daisy.
