Showing posts with label latest in news in america. Show all posts
Showing posts with label latest in news in america. Show all posts

Smallest Town In US Sold By Its Only Resident

A tiny town in Wyoming, advertising itself as the smallest in the US, has been sold by its only inhabitant in worldwide internet auction. Buford was purchased by an anonymous Vietnamese buyer after 11 minutes of frenzied bidding. 

The sale of the south eastern Wyoming town, which comes with a convenience store, gas station and a three-bedroom home, attracted online viewers and on-site bidders from 46 countries. The new owner flew to Wyoming for the auction, according to Williams & Williams, the auction house handling the sale. "Owning a piece of property in the US has been my dream," the Vietnamese businessman said in a statement. 

The 10-plus acres of land also includes a mobile phone tower and a car park that a lorry company uses to switch trailers at night. I'm happy and I'm sad all at once. Sole Buford resident Don Sammons Don Sammons, currently the town's only resident, moved with his wife from Los Angeles to the Buford area in 1980. In 1992, six years after his wife died, Mr Sammons purchased the town. The 61-year-old decided to auction off the Western hamlet to move to Colorado to be near his adult son.

 "I'm happy and I'm sad all at once," Mr Sammons said. "But I'm more happy than sad because this is all I wanted. I can continue and start the next chapter of my life." He added that he planned to go somewhere with sandy beaches and "maybe a palm tree" for a week or two before writing a book about his life in Buford. 

William & Williams executive Amy Bates said the firm had never seen the level of interest that accompanied the Buford auction. "It's the Wild West in the US. It's owning your town and getting away from it all," she said. The former railroad stop once was home to about 2,000 people but they started to move away after the train service ended.
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Coca-Cola drops its backing for vigilante pressure group

Coca-Cola has ended its relationship with a conservative pressure group that supports "Stand Your Ground" laws such as the one being used as a defence in the killing of an unarmed black teenager, Trayvon Martin, in Florida.

 The drinks company announced yesterday that it was cancelling its membership of the American Legislative Exchange Council (Alec). It said it had previously supported Alec only because of its opposition to "discriminatory food and beverage taxes". 

 The decision followed a rally in Trayvon's hometown of Sanford, Florida, last week, where civil rights leaders said they were considering economic boycotts of national companies that support Florida's controversial self-defence laws, which give increased leeway for people to shoot others they perceive to be a threat.

 Campaigners had claimed that Alec was behind a push for other states to adopt similar legislation. Trayvon, 17, was killed in February by George Zimmerman, 28, a white and Hispanic neighbourhood watch volunteer, who claims he acted in self-defence and has not been charged with a crime.
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‘Mamma I don’t want to die:’Desperate words of boy, four who was shot in the head

A four-year-old boy is in a coma after being shot in the head by a man who fired on a group of children playing. Holding his mother's hand in an ambulance after the shooting in Houston, Texas, on Saturday, Isaiah Nicholas repeatedly told her: 'Mamma, I don't want to die'. He was today said to be unconscious in a critical condition at the city's Hermann Memorial Children's Hospital, with his parents at his side. 

Houston Police Department said the suspect is known, but still at large. There were reports of an argument shortly before the shooting began. Lisa Ceasar, Isaiah's grandmother, said she heard arguing outside at about 5pm and walked out to her porch at the moment a man began firing, according to the Houston Chronicle.

 The 47-year-old said the man was aiming at the porch where she stood and a game room where six children, including Isaiah, were playing. She said: 'It all happened so fast, but I went into shock. 'I saw that man shooting up my house and the bullets flying.' Ms Ceasar ran inside and found Isaiah, her oldest grandson, with a gunshot wound to the head and his two-year-old brother, Adrian Nicholas, next to him covered in blood. 

The children and adults at Ms Ceasar's house in northeast Houston were just about to eat dinner, having ordered chicken. Along with three of her grandchildren, Ms Ceasar and her husband Robert were in the house as well as their daughter Rosharone Nicholas, whose friend brought her own three children. 

The daughter's friend reportedly left the home for quarter of an hour to go to a local shop and the suspect is said to have followed her back to the house, where an argument began.
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