Headlines Monday 19th May

Things are more expensive than ever for 'working families'
Kevin Rudd has huffed and puffed about improving the cost of living, but thing now are worse than ever, according to Alan Jones.
===
Swan's $535m Medicare budget bungle
Treasury has reportedly underestimated the cost of changes to the Medicare levy by more than half a billion dollars, leaving a massive hole in the federal budget. -Still being valiantly defended by the ABC who make the claim that the Conservatives are divided in some way. - ed
===
Mokbel due to appeal in court on Tuesday
Returned fugitive Tony Mokbel will appear before Melbourne Magistrates' Court on Tuesday after spending his first night in an Australian jail since fleeing the country two years ago.
===
Calls for NSW police to be issued with more Tasers
Issuing an extra 229 taser stun-guns to NSW’s Police is a 'drop in the ocean' according to the Opposition with calls to increase their availability. - One hopes that police will use these tasers and patrol more regularly than they have. - ed
===
Violent pubs told shape up or shut down
The most violent pubs and clubs in New South Wales have been ordered to show why they should not be shut down. - of course if Police supervised adequately - ed
===
Child porn, pirate DVDs confiscated from Sydney market
A man's being questioned by Police after 3000 DVDs were seized from four stalls at a market at Campsie in Sydney’s southwest. -the children need to be found and protected, too. - ed
===
Households reject Budget
PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd's "working families" Budget has failed to impress many of its targets, an exclusive opinion survey has found.

Nearly 70 per cent of households with children fear they will end up being worse off or are unsure about the Budget, Galaxy Research found in weekend polling.

A third of households with children - 31 per cent - believe they will be better off from last Tuesday's Budget, while 25 per cent said they would be worse off and 44 per cent were uncommitted.

Just 23 per cent of all voters said they would be better off and a third said they would be worse off.

And more than a third of those earning under $70,000 a year said they thought their finances would suffer.

The biggest worriers were older Australians, pointing to Budget disappointment among pensioners.

Some 41 per cent of those aged over 50 were pessimistic about the Budget.

Another indication pensioners are unhappy was the Budget's poor response from households without children, 37 per cent of them saying it would not make them better off.
===
Cops call for more brawn on the beat
COPS want height and weight restrictions re-introduced to their employment criteria to create a tougher police force.
===
Mokbel betrayer set for record $1m reward
ONE of Mokbel's former trusted associates is set to collect $1 million for helping police catch him.
===
Death penalty for archbishop murder
Article from: Agence France-PresseFont size: + - Send this article: Print Email
A MAN involved in the murder of Chaldean Catholic archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul in March has been sentenced to death, the government said overnight.
===
Attention Media Junkies! Beware the rent-a-quote
Our press is being increasingly flooded with rent-a-quotes, 'experts' with ideological agendas who are wheeled out as authorities on their chosen field. Don't buy it, says Tim Brunero.
===
Police bypass Taser safety report
The NSW government is to go ahead and arm police with Taser stun guns even before a state ombudsman's report into their safety has been completed.
===
Woolworths skirts predatory pricing issue
Woolworths has admitted using planning laws and a form of predatory pricing to knock out competition with its supermarkets. Jason Morrison is at the inquiry.
===
Couple lured to their deaths in bodies in barrels murder
A court's heard three people lured a couple to a South Coast home before watching them die and then burning their bodies in 44-gallon drums.
===
Detectives seeking motive behind today's stabbing murder
Detectives are trying to find a motive behind the stabbing murder of a woman in Sydney's southwest this morning. Laura Tunstall is at the scene.
===
Reading, writing and all things irrelevant
SCHOOLS are drowning in a sea of worthy but non-essential subjects peddled by misguided people, writes Bruce McDougall.