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Posted on 03.18.10 by Thomas L. Knapp
Update, 03/19/10: Tap … tap … is the ChipIn meter broken? Nope. It’s stuck at $310, and we’re stuck at $365 in “Spring Fling” contributions toward our $1,000 goal. We did have a monthly “subscribing contributor” payment from long-time supporter DD, who also kicked in $100 for “Spring Fling” — thanks as always for your support, DD! — but on this short, reasonable-goal fundraiser, we are dead in the water. Folks, the quicker we get to $1,000, the quicker I can stop hectoring you. We’re coming up on 7 1/2 years of reliably bringing you the freedom movement’s daily newspaper; we need you to support it if you want it to be around for another 7 1/2 years. Please, click the ChipIn meter, or one of the “donate” buttons in the sidebar of most pages at rationalreview.com, and return a little value for value received - TLK We’ve been avoiding the “in your face” fundraising for awhile (since early last fall, in fact) but it’s time for a bump. For the last few months, our part-time editors have been taking home less than $100 a month; I’ve been working nearly full time for less than $200 a month. I’ll keep this short, sharp and sweet: Our goal is $1,000 in two weeks — that’s somewhere in the neighborhood of 15-20 cents per reader — after which we’ll revert to the more passive fundraising approach again. Please return value for value to the people who bring you the freedom movement’s daily newspaper. Yours in liberty, Filed under: Feature Articles and RRND News and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: AntiWar.Com Posted on 03.18.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “[A]t least seven Iraqis were killed and 10 more were wounded in the latest violence. Also, one U.S. soldier was killed in combat in Baghdad today.” (03/18/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/y93vsv4 Filed under: RRND News and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Azeri-Press Agency [Azerbaijan] Posted on 03.18.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “Operations to push the Taliban out of their Afghan stronghold of Kandahar are under way and will steadily build in the months ahead, military officials said Thursday, APA reports quoting AFP. The military and political efforts against the Taliban around Kandahar, Afghanistan’s third biggest city and the militia’s spiritual capital, are the next step in the US-led strategy to end a war now in its ninth year. NATO was also planning an anti-Taliban offensive in the north this year, a German general told German ARD public radio from Kabul.” (03/19/10) Link: http://en.apa.az/news.php?id=118287 Filed under: RRND News and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Los Angeles Times Posted on 03.18.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “A rocket launched from the Gaza Strip killed a Thai farmworker in southern Israel on Thursday, the first such fatality in the area in more than a year. The blast occurred in a clump of greenhouses in the farming community of Netiv Haasara, just north of Gaza. The 30-year-old victim was not immediately identified. Rocket and mortar fire into southern Israel from Gaza, which once occurred daily, has been dramatically reduced since the Israelis’ 22-day assault on the coastal strip at the end of 2008 and early last year. But in recent days, the number of attacks has increased, including five in a 48-hour period, military officials said.” (03/18/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/ykgtgm3 Filed under: RRND News | |
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Source: Los Angeles Times Posted on 03.18.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “Taking aim at the tobacco industry’s youth marketing machinery, the Food and Drug Administration Thursday outlawed free samples of cigarettes and banned the use of tobacco brand names on promotional gear and in the sponsorship of concerts and sporting events. The agency also added a federal ban on the sale of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products to people under 18, imposing a uniform standard on varying state restrictions already in place. … The new rules ‘will help our kids stay healthier by making it harder for tobacco companies to target them,’ said Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said at a press conference announcing the new marketing rules.” (03/18/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yb2ojwz Filed under: RRND News | |
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Source: ABC News Posted on 03.18.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “An Iraq war veteran and vocal opponent of the military’s Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy was arrested by police officers after chaining himself to the front gate of the White House, in apparent protest of that policy. Lt. Dan Choi, a gay Arab linguist whose case for possible discharge from the New York national guard is still under review, has long opposed this policy. A second soldier, James Pietrangelo II, a plaintiff in the case turned down in the Supreme Court last year, also chained himself with Choi to the White House gate and was arrested.” (03/18/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yzj9vzb Filed under: LAND News and RRND News | |
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Source: Tennessean Posted on 03.18.10 by Steve Trinward “State Sen. Brian Kelsey, R-Germantown, made a slight change to his proposed constitutional amendment to ban an income tax this morning, a move that will have the practical effect of delaying the Senate floor vote by about a week. Kelsey added language meant to clarify that the anti-income tax amendment trumps other tax provisions of the constitution and a statement that any taxes on the books as of Jan. 1, 2010, would not be affected by the amendment. The rules for amending the state constitution require three readings of the final version before the Senate can take a vote. The changes to the wording this morning reset the clock, meaning the vote cannot take place until next Wednesday at the earliest.” (03/18/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/ycphlgf Filed under: CANDi News and PND News and RRND News | |
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Source: Christian Science Monitor Posted on 03.18.10 by Steve Trinward “The dramatic shift in poll numbers in the California Senate race — a surge for former US Rep. Tom Campbell for the GOP nomination and a double-digit drop for Senator Barbara Boxer (D) since January — has serious national implications, according to political analysts. A California Field Poll released Thursday shows Mr. Campbell running ahead of businesswoman Carly Fiorina by six points and Assemblyman Chuck DeVore by 19 points among likely GOP primary election voters. Perhaps more important, say analysts, is that more voters now have an unfavorable than favorable view of the incumbent Ms. Boxer, and she is essentially tied when matched against Campbell (44 to 43 percent) or Ms. Fiorina (44 to 45 percent). Poll director Mark DiCamillo told the Sacramento Bee that ‘the tenor of political discourse’ has clearly changed in California since Republican Scott Brown registered an upset victory in the Massachusetts Senate race in January. Others agree.” (03/18/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yk9hhwb Filed under: CANDi News and PND News and RRND News | |
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Source: Seattle Times Posted on 03.18.10 by Steve Trinward “Effective April 16, Walgreens drugstores across the state won’t take any new Medicaid patients, saying that filling their prescriptions is a money-losing proposition — the latest development in an ongoing dispute over Medicaid reimbursement. The company, which operates 121 stores in the state, will continue filling Medicaid prescriptions for current patients. In a news release, Walgreens said its decision to not take new Medicaid patients stemmed from a ‘continued reduction in reimbursement’ under the state’s Medicaid program, which reimburses it at less than the break-even point for 95 percent of brand-name medications dispensed to Medicaid patents.” (03/18/10) Link: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2011367936_walgreens18m.html Filed under: CANDi News and PND News and RRND News | |
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Source: Fox News Posted on 03.18.10 by Steve Trinward “A teacher at a failing Rhode Island school where he and all his colleagues were fired hung an effigy of President Barack Obama in his classroom, apparently in reaction to Obama’s support of extreme measures to ensure accountability in schools. The teachers union on Thursday condemned the effigy, discovered Monday in the teacher’s third-floor classroom at Central Falls High School, saying it was wrong and cannot be condoned under any circumstances. The effigy was found in the unidentified teacher’s classroom by Superintendent Frances Gallo, Nicole Shaffer of the Rhode Island Department of Education told The Associated Press. Shaffer said the department would not have any further comment.” (03/18/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yhrytxx Filed under: CANDi News and RRND News | |
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Source: Associated Press Posted on 03.18.10 by Steve Trinward “Voters in the upstate New York birthplace of the women’s rights movement have approved a proposal to dissolve their village government. Tuesday’s ballot proposal to merge the village of Seneca Falls into the surrounding town of the same name passed by a vote of 1,142 to 1,037. Absentee ballots still must be counted, but if the vote stands the nearly 180-year-old Finger Lakes village government will dissolve at the end of 2011. Supporters say dissolution will do away with costly duplication of governmental services and reduce property taxes. The village was the site of the first known women’s rights convention in 1848. It also claims to be the model for Bedford Falls, the mythical community depicted in the movie It’s a Wonderful Life.” [editor’s note: Take that, Mr. Potter! Today Seneca Falls, tomorrow … - SAT] (03/18/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/ykj9hsd Filed under: CANDi News and PND News and RRND News | |
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Source: Raw Story Posted on 03.18.10 by Steve Trinward “European researchers have taken the world a step closer to fictional wizard Harry Potter’s invisibility cape after they made an object disappear using a three-dimensional ‘cloak,’ a study published Thursday in the US-based journal Science showed. Scientists from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany and Imperial College London used the cloak, made using photonic crystals with a structure resembling piles of wood, to conceal a small bump on a gold surface, they wrote in Science. ‘It’s kind of like hiding a small object underneath a carpet — except this time the carpet also disappears,’ they said.” (03/18/10) Link: http://rawstory.com/2010/03/researchers-invisibility-cloak/ Filed under: CANDi News and PND News and RRND News | |
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Source: Boston Globe Posted on 03.18.10 by Steve Trinward “Two soccer teammates took the field on a recent Saturday afternoon: one made shot after shot while the other played goalie. The shooter, wearing a distinctive uniform dotted with colorful spots, had just taken a powerful kick when something went wrong. The call went out to stop practice — and to find a hot glue gun. ‘Something is hanging off,’ Svilen Kanev, a Harvard University sophomore and member of Robotic Futbol Club Cambridge, said as fellow students picked up the cylindrical black robot to administer first aid. When most people think about robotics and artificial intelligence what comes to mind are individual robots — whether it is one that vacuums the floor, a rover that explores Mars, or the computer that beats a human chess champion.” (03/18/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/ycuy35n Filed under: CANDi News and PND News and RRND News | |
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Source: USA Today Posted on 03.18.10 by R. Lee Wrights “An international fleet of warships is attacking and destroying Somali pirate vessels closer to the shores of East Africa and the new strategy, combined with more aggressive confrontations further out to sea, has dealt the brigands a setback, officials and experts said Thursday. The new tactics by the European Union naval force comes after Spain— which currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency, and whose fishing vessels are frequent pirate targets — encouraged more aggressive pursuit of pirates and the coalition obtained more aircraft and other military assets, said Rear Adm. Peter Hudson, the force commander.” (03/18/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/ygl8sp8 Filed under: RRND News | |
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Source: MSNBC Posted on 03.18.10 by R. Lee Wrights “Dozens of Iraqi journalists waited hours for results in Iraq’s election. What they finally got was a single CD containing all the information and instructions to make copies themselves, prompting a mad dash to the nearest Internet cafe where they paid $1.20 each to find out who was ahead in the ballot count. It was the latest example of the ongoing chaos in Iraq’s postelection count, which has fueled uncertainty and allegations of fraud. Questions about the vote’s validity could undermine U.S. ambitions to set a standard for democracy in the Middle East.” (03/18/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yhrzfo5 Filed under: RRND News | |
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Source: MSNBC Posted on 03.18.10 by R. Lee Wrights “Crouched on packed earth at a barricaded Marine encampment, the village elders issued their complaint: U.S. troops had killed an innocent 14-year-old boy. Secretly, the Marines didn’t believe them. No matter. They apologized, called the death a tragedy and promised to offer a condolence payment to the boy’s family. It’s all part of a strategy that sometimes involves swallowing their pride in an effort to persuade wavering Afghans to turn away from the Taliban.” (03/18/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yj9xzn5 Filed under: RRND News | |
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Source: Washington Examiner Posted on 03.18.10 by R. Lee Wrights “The deal looked simple enough: U.S. military equipment suppliers bribed an African defense minister’s salesmen to secure part of a $15 million gig to outfit a presidential guard. But the salesmen were actually FBI agents. And the operation resulted in what U.S. authorities in January called their biggest foreign bribery sting to date, netting 16 indictments and 22 arrests of small arms and military equipment makers.” (03/18/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yh4wh6u Filed under: RRND News | |
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Source: WPTZ 5 News Posted on 03.18.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “A recent increase in border patrol along side streets dividing Derby Line, Vt., and Stanstead, Canada, are causing confusion and animosity between locals and border patrol agents. The situation came to a head recently when a local man was arrested while walking down a street he said that he has walked down for years without a problem. ‘I walked over to Canada on a Saturday night around quarter to nine to get a pizza,’ Buzz Roy explained. Roy lives and works in Derby Line. He walked down Church Street to the nearest pizza shop, which happens to be in Canada, and said that to his surprise he was stopped by state police and told that crossing on Church Street is illegal. … Fed up by what he perceived as hostility from the officer, Roy walked down the street, crossing the border a second time. And then a third.” [editor’s note: The politicians and their enforcers take those imaginary lines on the ground and associated superstitions VERY seriously - TLK] (03/15/10) Link: http://www.wptz.com/news/22826310/detail.html Filed under: RRND News and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: San Jose Mercury News Posted on 03.18.10 by R. Lee Wrights “By early 2008, top U.S. military officials had become convinced that extremists planning attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq were making use of a Web site set up by the Saudi government and the CIA to uncover terrorist plots in the kingdom. ‘We knew we were going to be forced to shut this thing down,’ recalled one former civilian official, describing tense internal discussions in which military commanders argued that the site was putting Americans at risk. ‘CIA resented that,’ the former official said.” (03/18/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yz99n78 Filed under: RRND News | |
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Source: CNN Posted on 03.18.10 by R. Lee Wrights “A Chicago man charged in two international terror plots, including the 2008 attacks in Mumbai, India, pleaded guilty Thursday to a dozen counts against him and now will not face a trial. David Headley, 49, pleaded guilty in a federal court in Chicago to a dozen federal terrorism charges. Authorities said he scouted out targets for the terrorist attacks in Mumbai that killed more than 160 people and planned an attack on a Danish newspaper that published cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed.” (03/18/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/ybjfpbp Filed under: RRND News | |
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Source: El Paso Times Posted on 03.18.10 by R. Lee Wrights “A four-star general will testify at a pretrial hearing in the biggest criminal case against U.S. troops to arise from the Iraq war, a Marine Corps spokesman said Thursday. Gen. James Mattis is scheduled to address a military judge Monday on a defense motion to dismiss charges against Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich on grounds of undue command influence, said the spokesman, Lt. Col. David Griesmer.” (03/18/10) Link: http://www.elpasotimes.com/nationworld/ci_14703929 Filed under: RRND News | |
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Source: La Crosse Tribune Posted on 03.18.10 by R. Lee Wrights “U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and her Russian counterpart clashed openly Thursday over the planned launch this summer of Iran’s first, Russian-built nuclear power plant, highlighting a split in views over how to steer Iran away from nuclear weapons. Clinton did not criticize the long-delayed project directly but said the Obama administration is opposed to the timing of the nuclear plant’s startup.” (03/18/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yljrjwk Filed under: RRND News | |
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Source: ABC News Posted on 03.18.10 by R. Lee Wrights “Working for Uncle Sam comes with some great perks, like job stability, posh benefits packages, and in many cases, average salaries that are higher than what the same job pays in the private sector. That’s why Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, is irked that nearly 100,000 civilian federal employees owe the IRS $962 million in back taxes. He thinks they should pay up or be fired.” (03/18/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yf9l2gb Filed under: RRND News | |
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Source: Beat The Chip Posted on 03.18.10 by R. Lee Wrights “Two state employees, working for the Department of Motor Vehicles, have been arrested for knowingly using stolen personal information to issue driver’s licenses to convicted felons and sex offenders. The DMV employees allegedly had a deal with a guy known as the ‘License Man.’ Felons, sex offenders, even a fugitive featured on America’s Most Wanted, would pay him up to $10,000 to get a drivers license using someone else’s stolen identity.” (03/17/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yg2rawj Filed under: RRND News | |
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Source: Reuters Posted on 03.18.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “New York authorities, agencies, and local governments that pay public workers some of the highest salaries and benefits in the state must explain how they are calculated, the attorney general said on Thursday in a new bid to root out abuses. Pension payments to retirees in two funds that are funded by the state’s $129 billion Common Retirement Fund more than doubled to above $7.3 billion in 2009 from $3.5 billion in 1999, Democratic Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said in a statement. By working extra overtime before they retire, public workers can often increase their pension benefits. Cuomo, on a conference call, said that was a ’scam’ that had gone on for decades.” (03/18/10) Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1824431920100318 Filed under: RRND News and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: PC World Posted on 03.18.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “More than 100 car owners in and around Austin, Texas recently discovered that their cars wouldn’t start. Or that their horns wouldn’t stop honking — all night long. Or that their vehicle leases were suddenly (and luckily, temporarily) transferred to deceased rapper Tupac Shakur. All of these annoyances were thanks to a former collection agent for Austin-based car dealership Texas Auto Center, who is accused of taking revenge on his former employer by remotely disabling more than 100 customer cars. Twenty-year old Oscar Ramos-Lopez reportedly gained unauthorized access into the dealership’s remote vehicle immobilization system, which allowed him to stop customer vehicles from starting or cause their horns to honk continuously. Ramos-Lopez is also said to have deleted customer accounts and swapped celebrity names for the names of actual customers, according to a report by Austin NBC affiliate KXAN.” [editor’s note: Six scariest words … “the dealership’s remote vehicle immobilization system.” WTF? - TLK] (03/18/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yeo9oy2 Filed under: RRND News and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: CNN Posted on 03.17.10 by R. Lee Wrights “Idaho on Wednesday became the first state to pass a law saying no thanks to part of President Obama’s health care proposal. The Idaho Health Care Freedom Act says in part, ‘every person within the state of Idaho is and shall be free to choose or decline to choose any mode of securing health care services without penalty or threat of penalty.’” (03/17/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/y8wn8s7 Filed under: RRND News and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Business Week Posted on 03.17.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “Representative Dennis Kucinich, an Ohio Democrat, said he will switch sides to support legislation overhauling the U.S. health-care system, giving a boost to President Barack Obama’s top priority. Obama personally lobbied Kucinich during a trip to his Cleveland-area district two days ago. … Kucinich is the first lawmaker to commit to voting for the latest health-care bill after opposing a version that passed the House in November.” [editor’s note: Disappointing — Kucinich may be a socialist who favors “single-payer,” but he was correct and courageous in pointing out that ObamaCare as written is not much more than corporate welfare for insurance companies - TLK] (03/17/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/y86pc9e Filed under: PND News and RRND News | |
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Source: Fox News Posted on 03.17.10 by Steve Trinward “A Walmart employee with sinus cancer and an inoperable brain tumor who was fired for using medical marijuana will not be rehired, even though the company says it is ’sympathetic’ to his condition. Joseph Casias, 29, was fired in November from a Walmart store in Battle Creek, Mich., after marijuana was detected in a routine drug screening that he underwent after he sprained his knee at work. Casias, who was the store’s 2008 associate of the year, said he legally used marijuana to reduce pain associated with his disease and was never under the influence while at work.” (03/17/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yzjagvc Filed under: PND News and RRND News and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: AntiWar.Com Posted on 03.17.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “With final results from national elections expected later this week, an apparent dead heat between the two front-runners could signal months of political wrangling ahead. Meanwhile, at least three Iraqis were killed and 14 more were wounded in the latest attacks. Kurds spent the day commemorating the 1988 Halabja massacre, for which Chemical Ali was executed only this year. Also, U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown admitted misinforming the Chilcot Inquiry over defense spending for Iraq.” (03/17/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/ycq79um Filed under: RRND News and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: CNN Posted on 03.17.10 by R. Lee Wrights “A suspected al Qaeda member believed to have played a key role in a deadly December attack on CIA employees in Afghanistan appears to have been killed, a U.S. counterterrorism official told CNN Wednesday. Hussein al-Yemeni was the apparent victim of a strike last week in the Miran Shah area of Pakistan, said the official, who called al-Yemeni ‘a vicious and dangerous figure who saw himself as an up-and-comer in the terrorist world.’” (03/17/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yk9wn3j Filed under: RRND News and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Boston Globe Posted on 03.17.10 by Steve Trinward “Massachusetts Senate leaders indicated yesterday that they will push forward significant measures this year to control soaring health care costs in the state that probably will include caps on payments to hospitals and doctors. Legislators made their comments during the first day of high-profile state hearings being held to investigate why health care costs are rising so rapidly. Senate President Therese Murray, Democrat of Plymouth, told the audience at the University of Massachusetts Boston that state officials ‘must act quickly and decisively once the hearings are over’ and that ‘failure to act is not an option.’” (03/17/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yztuheu Filed under: CANDi News and PND News and RRND News | |
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Source: New York Times Posted on 03.17.10 by Steve Trinward “Whether it’s a correctly called a movement, a backlash, or political theater, state declarations of their rights [sic] — or in some cases denunciations of federal authority, amounting to the same thing — are on a roll. Governor Mike Rounds of South Dakota, a Republican, signed a bill into law Friday declaring that the federal regulation of firearms is invalid if a weapon is made and used in South Dakota. On Thursday, Wyoming’s governor, Dave Freudenthal, a Democrat, signed a similar bill for that state. The same day, Oklahoma’s House of Representatives approved a resolution that Oklahomans should be able to vote on a state constitutional amendment allowing them to opt out of the federal healthcare overhaul.” [editor’s note: And Tennessee has a similar bill on the floor, passing one body and under consideration in the other; stay tuned! - SAT] (03/17/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yjdv6t8 Filed under: CANDi News and PND News and RRND News | |
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Source: Christian Science Monitor Posted on 03.17.10 by Steve Trinward “Imagine if a computer could identify the weakest-link teachers — the ones who should be told it’s time to get out of the classroom. It’s not quite so simple, but a new policy in Houston allows teachers to be fired based on data that some experts say isolates a teacher’s effect on his or her students’ test-score gains. Reform advocates say school districts should improve teacher quality in part by using such ‘value added’ data. Dozens of districts, including Houston’s, have already incorporated the concept into ‘pay for performance’ systems. Education leaders in New York City and the District of Columbia are moving toward linking it to tenure or dismissals. But none has gone ahead as boldly as the Texas district.” [editor’s note: It shouldn’t be the only factor, but it should be considered (assuming, of course, that these standardized tests actually measure student competence, which is still at question) - SAT] (03/17/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/ylekey4 Filed under: CANDi News and PND News and RRND News | |
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Source: Bloomberg News Posted on 03.17.10 by Steve Trinward “The battle against AIDS will include a push to overturn laws that criminalize homosexuality in 85 nations, said the head of the coalition of UN agencies formed to fight the disease. Michel Sidibe of Mali, the executive director of UNAIDS, said transmission of the HIV virus that causes AIDS can be up to 10 times greater in countries with repressive laws against homosexuality compared with more open societies. Laws that criminalize homosexuality make it less likely that gays and lesbians will seek treatment, so fighting AIDS can become a ‘force for social transformation,’ he said. ‘We cannot accept the tyranny of the majority,’ Sidibe told reporters in New York on Monday.” [editor’s note: What’s this? Someone opposing “democracy?” Just because he’s NOT part of the 50.1% majority? - SAT] (03/17/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yfwmmxf Filed under: RRND News | |
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Source: Associated Press Posted on 03.17.10 by Steve Trinward “The ACLU of Vermont is suing the state after unsuccessfully seeking to find out whether police agencies are using cellphone tracking technology to keep tabs on people’s whereabouts. The state attorney general’s office refused public records requests by the ACLU seeking information about the practice, saying that information is exempt from public records statutes. So the ACLU filed suit Monday in Washington Superior Court, asking a judge to force the state to produce documents under the Public Records Act. ‘The attorney general’s behavior here is a real breach of trust,’ said Allen Gilbert, executive director. ‘The Public Records Act specifically requires public agencies to explain the factual basis for denying a request.’” (03/17/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yk8yn5h Filed under: LAND News and PND News and RRND News | |
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Source: USA Today Posted on 03.17.10 by R. Lee Wrights “Nations risk losing a window of opportunity to fix the global financial system in the wake of the credit crisis if they do not push reforms through soon, the head of the International Monetary Fund warned Wednesday. Stressing the need for cooperation, Dominique Strauss-Kahn also noted China’s currency, the renminbi, was undervalued but said he expected it would appreciate as China starts to rely more on domestic demand, helping to rebalance global surpluses and deficits.” (03/17/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yf4nkhr Filed under: RRND News | |
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Source: USA Today Posted on 03.17.10 by R. Lee Wrights “A majority of Americans are willing to accept cuts in mail delivery days to preserve the U.S. Postal Service, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll found. Yet older people, who use the mail most often, are more willing than younger Americans to reduce mail service from six days to five. The Postal Service plans to seek approval from the Postal Regulatory Commission and the Congress to stop mail delivery on Saturdays.” (03/17/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yg6zexk Filed under: RRND News | |
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Source: MSNBC Posted on 03.17.10 by R. Lee Wrights “The U.S. Marine Corps’ investigation of the February death of an Indiana Marine in Afghanistan concludes that he was fatally shot when an Afghan security contractor fired shots at a group of Marines. The Marine Corps’ report, obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press through a Freedom of Information Act request, says 24-year-old Lance Cpl. Joshua Birchfield of Westville was shot Feb. 19 when a security contractor working for a local company opened fire on a squad of Marines who had stopped in a dry riverbed during a combat foot patrol.” (03/17/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/ygrv5m5 Filed under: RRND News | |
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Source: MSNBC Posted on 03.17.10 by R. Lee Wrights “Companies that hire unemployed workers will get a temporary payroll tax holiday under a bill that easily won congressional approval Wednesday in what Democrats hope is just the first of several election-year measures aimed at boosting hiring. The 68-29 bipartisan vote in the Senate sent the legislation to the White House, where President Barack Obama was expected to sign it into law Thursday.” (03/17/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yktf7gj Filed under: RRND News | |
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Source: San Antonio Express-News Posted on 03.17.10 by R. Lee Wrights “The growing front in the war on terrorism may be no farther than Main Street. The terror cases that have emerged in the past week have one common characteristic: The suspects are all Americans. One is a woman who looked after the elderly in suburban Pennsylvania. Another a security guard from New Jersey. Altogether more than a dozen Americans have been captured or pursued for allegedly supporting jihad, or holy war, over the past two years.” (03/17/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yzdxmxl Filed under: RRND News | |
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Source: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Posted on 03.17.10 by R. Lee Wrights “A Pakistani court charged five Americans on Wednesday with planning terrorist attacks in the South Asian country and conspiring to wage war against nations allied with Pakistan, their defense lawyer said. The men — all Muslims from the Washington suburb of Alexandria, Virginia — pleaded innocent to a total of five charges, the most severe of which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison, defense lawyer Hasan Dastagir told The Associated Press.” (03/17/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yhrq34t Filed under: RRND News | |
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Source: ABC News Posted on 03.17.10 by R. Lee Wrights “A four month ‘Nightline’ investigation into Medicare fraud makes one thing perfectly clear: this is a crime that pays and pays and pays. The federal government admits that a staggering $60 billion is stolen from tax payers through Medicare scams every year. Some experts believe the number is more than twice that.” (03/17/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yf9opgh Filed under: RRND News | |
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Source: Press-Enterprise Posted on 03.17.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “Riverside County authorities announced the arrests of 30 members of the Vagos Motorcycle Club on Wednesday and alluded to possible ties to attacks on Hemet police. Before dawn Wednesday, 400 law enforcement officers from the district attorney’s office and Riverside County Gang Task Force targeted 73 locations belonging to members of the club, arrested during a sweep in 20 cities in Riverside County, mostly based in Hemet. The sweep was dubbed ‘Operation Everywhere’ and included arrests in Norco, Temecula, Banning, the Coachella Valley and Riverside.” (03/17/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/ycdr4hy Filed under: RRND News | |
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Source: CNN Posted on 03.17.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “A group of Catholic nuns is urging Congress to pass health care reform, breaking ranks with bishops who say the current bill does not do enough to block federal money from being used to fund abortions. … The nuns are siding with the Catholic Health Association, a group representing Catholic hospitals, which offered its support for reform earlier this week. Both groups are diverging from the powerful U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which stepped up its criticism of the bill in recent days. The president of the bishops conference, Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, said Monday that the bill’s language on abortion is not restrictive enough to satisfy Catholics.” (03/17/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yf8z9yn Filed under: RRND News and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: BBC News [UK] Posted on 03.17.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “Cuban police have arrested the wives and mothers of political dissidents at a demonstration in the capital, Havana. About 30 members of the ‘Ladies in White’ were stopped as they marched alongside the mother of a prisoner who died last month after a hunger strike. They were demanding the release of some 50 government critics who are still being held after mass arrests in 2003. … Wednesday’s protest was the third held this week by the Ladies in White (Las Damas de Blanca) to mark the anniversary of the crackdown in the one-party Communist state seven years ago.” (03/17/10) Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8573447.stm Filed under: LAND News and RRND News and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: ABC News Posted on 03.17.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “Birthers beware: Hawaii may start ignoring your repeated requests for proof that President Barack Obama was born here. As the state continues to receive e-mails seeking Obama’s birth certificate, the state House Judiciary Committee heard a bill Tuesday permitting government officials to ignore people who won’t give up. So-called ‘birthers’ claim Obama is ineligible to be president because, they argue, he was actually born outside the United States, and therefore doesn’t meet a constitutional requirement for being president.” (03/17/10) Link: http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=10121617 Filed under: RRND News and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Guardian [UK] Posted on 03.17.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “Nigeria’s acting president, Goodluck Jonathan, dissolved the cabinet today more than a month after taking over the highest office in Africa’s most populous country, the information minister said. ‘The acting president gives no reason for the dissolution,’ Dora Akunyili said. ‘There is no vacuum in the government as permanent secretaries will take charge.’ She said Jonathan would issue a statement soon on who will serve in the cabinet.” (03/17/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yz3f5na Filed under: RRND News and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Al Jazeera [Qatar] Posted on 03.17.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s prime minister, has threatened to expel thousands of illegal Armenian workers amid tensions over allegations that their people were victims of genocide under the Ottoman Empire. Resolutions voted recently in the United States and Sweden to brand the World War I killings as genocide undermined peace efforts with Armenia, Erdogan told the BBC Turkish service. Referring to about 100,000 Armenians working illegally in Turkey out of a total of 170,000 living there, Erdogan said: ‘Only 70,000 of them are Turkish citizens, but we are tolerating the remaining 100,000. If necessary, I may have to tell these 100,000 to go back to their country because they are not my citizens. I don’t have to keep them in my country.’” (02/17/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yb8n7af Filed under: RRND News and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: MarketWatch Posted on 03.17.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “Blockbuster Inc. shares plunged further into penny-stock territory Wednesday after the struggling home-video-rental company said in a regulatory filing that it will likely file for bankruptcy if it’s unable to address its debt load. Shares of Blockbuster fell 12 cents, or 29%, to 28 cents a share. The company’s market capitalization now totals about $34 million, or just a fraction of its fourth-quarter revenue of $1 billion. The company reported an operating loss of $394 million in the period.” (03/17/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/ybnonaf Filed under: RRND News | |
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Source: Washington Post Posted on 03.17.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, said Wednesday that the military would ‘certainly’ try to capture Osama bin Laden alive and ‘bring him to justice’ — contradicting remarks by a top Obama administration official. Attorney General Eric Holder told Congress on Tuesday that bin Laden would never go on trial in the United States because the chances of him being caught alive were ‘infinitesimal.’ … asked if the forces under his command had given up on trying to capture bin Laden alive, McChrystal said they had not.” (03/17/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yk795v2 Filed under: RRND News and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Fox News Posted on 03.17.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “A federal judge denied a request by former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich to push back his trial date, saying he has had plenty of time to prepare. … Mr. Blagojevich was arrested Dec. 9, 2008, on charges that he tried to sell the U.S. Senate seat vacated by President Barack Obama. He has pleaded not guilty to racketeering conspiracy and other charges.” (03/17/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/ybqjkjb Filed under: RRND News and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: CNN Posted on 03.17.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “A French police officer has died in a shootout with suspected members of the Basque separatist group ETA near Paris, the Spanish Interior Ministry said Wednesday. It is the first time a French police officer has been killed by ETA, a ministry spokeswoman added. ETA is blamed for more than 800 killings in its long fight for Basque independence and is listed as a terrorist organization by the European Union and the United States.” (03/17/10) Link: http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/03/17/france.eta.policeman/ Filed under: RRND News and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Foundation for Individual Rights in Education Posted on 03.17.10 by R. Lee Wrights “Late yesterday, in a striking victory for the First Amendment on campus, a federal district court in Texas ruled that a number of restrictions on students’ speech at Tarrant County College (TCC) are unconstitutional. In his decision, U.S. District Judge Terry R. Means found that TCC’s reliance on a policy prohibiting ‘disruptive activities’ to restrict students Clayton Smith and John Schwertz from holding an ‘empty holster’ protest violated the First Amendment.” (03/16/10) Link: http://www.thefire.org/article/11658.html Filed under: 2AM News and RRND News | |
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Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch Posted on 03.17.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “The city [of Washington, MO] will pay $100,000 to a former police officer who claimed he was fired because he criticized a police ticket-quota system. … At a Nov. 1, 2007, police staff meeting, [police chief Ken ]Hahn outlined new ‘performance standards’ for officers that required a ‘quota of arrests, written reports, tickets issued, warnings issued and self-initiated activities,’ the suit claimed. … The City Council voted to fire Messina in February 2008, after he criticized the alleged quota system on television.” [hat tip — Injustice News Feed] (03/17/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/y8v7xry Filed under: RRND News and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Wall Street Journal Posted on 03.16.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “U.S. stocks rose broadly Tuesday, with General Electric, Intel and Alcoa among the gainers, as the Federal Reserve reiterated its easy-money stance. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 43.83 points, or 0.41%, to 10685.98, marking its sixth-straight day higher. … The gains came after the Federal Reserve said the economy is continuing to improve. But in its policy statement, the Fed retained year-old language that short-term interest rates will remain ‘exceptionally low’ for an ‘extended period,’ which means at least several more months.” (03/16/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/y8dg3ek Filed under: RRND News | |
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Source: Marijuana Policy Project Posted on 03.16.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “This morning, the Marijuana Policy Project called upon shoppers across the country to join in a boycott of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., in order to protest the unjust and potentially unlawful firing of Joe Casias, a 29-year-old medical marijuana patient and sinus cancer survivor who suffers from an inoperable brain tumor. After dutifully working at a Wal-Mart in Battle Creek, Michigan, for five years, Casias was suddenly terminated because he tested positive for marijuana during a drug screening administered after he sprained his knee on the job.” (03/16/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yk6at45 Filed under: LAND News and PND News and RRND News | |
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Source: AntiWar.Com Posted on 03.16.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “A pair of bombs, each one affixed to a bus, exploded in Mussayab, killing eight people and wounding 11 others. In Baghdad, a bomb that exploded near Mustansiriya University wounded three policemen. Two people were wounded by a blast in Karrada. A blast wounded three people in a southern neighborhood. In Mosul, gunmen killed a woman and her daughter in Tal al-Rumman. A policeman was killed in a separate shooting. Six suspects were captured. A gunman using a silencer killed a soldier. The body of a policeman was discovered in Shurqat.” (03/16/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/y9m56gg Filed under: RRND News and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Guardian [UK] Posted on 03.16.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “A soldier seriously wounded by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan last month has died of his injuries at Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham. … The soldier’s death brings to 273 the number of British forces or MoD civilians who have died while serving in Afghanistan since October 2001: 240 as a result of enemy action, and 33 from illness or non-combat injuries.” (03/16/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/ycbp9zv Filed under: RRND News and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Daily Times [Pakistan] Posted on 03.16.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “US drones fired four missiles at a house in North Waziristan on Tuesday, 40 kilometres west of the agency headquarters near the Pak-Afghan border, [allegedly] killing 10 Taliban. The airstrike occurred around 12:45pm in Manzarkhel village located in Dattakhel tehsil. … it was not clear who was targeted in the strike in the Dattakhel region, two officials said on condition of anonymity. An unknown number of people were injured.” (03/17/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yc9n43n Filed under: RRND News and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: CNN Posted on 03.16.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “Reports of sexual assaults among U.S. military service members rose 11 percent last year, according to a study released by the Pentagon on Tuesday. Some 3,230 reports of sexual assaults across all of the services were made during fiscal year 2009, which ended on September 30, 2009. That was up from the fiscal year 2008 number of 2,923 sexual assaults reported.” (03/16/10) Link: http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/03/16/military.sexual.assaults/ Filed under: RRND News | |
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Source: Reuters Posted on 03.16.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “The U.S. government is pulling $50 million in funding from a problematic ‘virtual fence’ meant to secure stretches of the Mexico border and is freezing additional funding for the project pending review, authorities said on Tuesday. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said an allocation of $50 million in funds made under the Recovery Act would be taken away from the ill-starred SBInet program, which seeks to mesh video cameras, radar, sensors and other technologies into a high-tech system to detect smugglers. Napolitano said the project, which started in 2006 and was being developed by Boeing Co, has been beset by technical problems, missed deadlines and cost overruns.” (03/16/10) Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1611556120100317 Filed under: RRND News | |
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Source: Fox News Posted on 03.16.10 by Steve Trinward “When President Obama took office, he famously aspired to be the leader in administrative transparency, but now he finds himself struggling to enforce it within his own government. In fiscal year 2009, 17 major governmental agencies refused to release information, claiming legal exemptions, 466,872 times, an increase of nearly 50 percent from the previous year, according to a review of requests conducted by The Associated Press. In 2008, the government refused 312,683 requests made under the Freedom of Information Act, AP reported. The AP examined the 2008 and 2009 budget year FOIA reports from the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Justice, Labor, State, Transportation, Treasury and Veterans Affairs; the Environmental Protection Agency; and the Federal Reserve Board.” (03/16/10) Link: http://whitehouse.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/03/16/chasing-transparency/ Filed under: CANDi News and PND News and RRND News and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Washington Post Posted on 03.16.10 by Steve Trinward “Twice in recent years, House Appropriations Committee chairman David R. Obey helped obtain earmarks totaling $3.2 million for a home-state university to study how to make military jet fuel from plants. Standing behind that nonprofit work, however, is a for-profit Chicago firm that often partners with universities to reap part of their earmark benefits. Similar collaborations between private companies and nonprofits will pose tricky questions under a policy intended to end earmarks to profit-making firms, which Obey, a Democrat of Wisconsin, helped shepherd through the House Democratic caucus last week. That new rule was widely touted as a crackdown, but in reality it could leave untouched almost 90 percent of typical earmarks.” [editor’s note: Suspiciously like the money laundering they put people in jail for otherwise? - SAT] (03/16/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yhfp3ex Filed under: CANDi News and PND News and RRND News | |
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Source: Tennessean Posted on 03.16.10 by Steve Trinward “A House committee on Tuesday delayed a vote on legislation that would require abortion clinics in Tennessee to post anti-coercion signs because of concerns from some lawmakers. The state House Health and Human Resources Committee decided to put off the vote for a week to give lawmakers more time to review the measure sponsored Rep. Susan Lynn. The Mt. Juliet Republican said she was expecting House Bill 3301 to move forward. … Any type of coercion to have an abortion is prohibited under current law. Lynn said some women may not know that and the sign simply spells out what’s in the law. … But some lawmakers question the impact such a measure would have on individuals who are underage.” [editor’s note: While advocating “anti-coercion signs” would seem to be a pro-liberty move, it’s anything but that in this case! - SAT] (03/16/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/ykxwanl Filed under: CANDi News and PND News and RRND News | |
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Source: Associated Press Posted on 03.16.10 by Steve Trinward “A year after kicking the habit, smokers’ arteries showed signs of reversing a problem that can set the stage for heart disease, according to the first big study to test this. The improvement came even though smokers gained an average of 9 pounds after they quit, researchers found. Their levels of so-called good cholesterol improved, too. ‘A lot of people are afraid to quit smoking because they’re afraid to gain weight,’ said the study’s leader, Dr. James Stein, a University of Wisconsin-Madison cardiologist. The new research shows these people gain a health benefit even though they pick up pounds that hopefully can be shed once they have gotten used to not smoking, he said.” (03/16/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yjpmpno Filed under: CANDi News and PND News and RRND News | |
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Source: Boston Globe Posted on 03.16.10 by Steve Trinward “Newly released documents from a major insurer detail how certain hospitals and doctors are paid dramatically more than others for the same types of services, sometimes as much as three times higher. The vast inequalities emerged in documents filed by Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Inc., the second largest health insurer in Massachusetts, before the start today of state hearings investigating why health care costs are rising so rapidly. Written testimony from Harvard Pilgrim discloses which of the hospitals and physician groups in its network are the best paid and which are paid the worst. The hospitals that commanded the highest fees for inpatient care in 2008 include powerhouses like Children’s Hospital Boston, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and the major Partners Healthcare hospitals, Massachusetts General and Brigham and Women’s, according to the insurer.” (03/16/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yjn8v6j Filed under: CANDi News and PND News and RRND News | |
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Source: Wall Street Journal Posted on 03.16.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “Party leaders are assuring wavering Democrats that passage of a sweeping health-care plan will help them in the midterm elections, despite Republican warnings that supporting the bill is political suicide. A new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll indicates that 48% of voters consider the bill a bad idea and 36% a good idea, but several other recent polls have showed the margin much closer. And individual elements of the plan, such as requiring insurers to accept customers with existing illnesses, have broad support, Democrats note.” (03/16/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/y8hsarg Filed under: RRND News and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Denver Business Journal Posted on 03.16.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “Business owners, holster those guns: Colorado’s ‘Make My Day’ law still does not apply to the state’s workplaces. For the fifth consecutive year, a legislative committee defeated an attempt Monday to broaden the homeowner self-defense protections to places of business. This time, it was the House Judiciary Committee that shot down House Bill 1094, sponsored by Rep. Cory Gardner, R-Yuma, by a vote of 6-5. The Make My Day law, passed in 1985, gives homeowners immunity from prosecution if they use deadly force on an intruder who has entered their dwelling place illegally and who they believe could use physical force against them.” (03/16/10) Link: http://denver.bizjournals.com/denver/stories/2010/03/15/daily14.html Filed under: 2AM News and RRND News and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Christian Science Monitor Posted on 03.16.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “The Obama administration does not expect to capture Osama Bin Laden alive. Attorney General Eric Holder told a House appropriations subcommittee on Tuesday that the possibility of catching the Al Qaeda leader alive is ‘infinitesimal.’ … The exchange came amid a barrage of questioning by Republican lawmakers critical of what they suggested was a lackluster approach to terrorism by an Obama administration that they say views the Al Qaeda challenge more as crime fighting than war fighting.” (03/16/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yfu7zjh Filed under: RRND News and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer Posted on 03.16.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “An outspoken advocate for medical marijuana was wounded early Monday but managed to shoot a burglar at a Kirkland house where he grew pot legally. … About 4:45 a.m. Monday, a woman called 911 saying there were intruders in the house and that her boyfriend was shot, a sheriff’s office spokesman said. Responding deputies were preparing to go onto the property when dispatchers received another call from a man saying he’d been shot — a man later identified as a robbery suspect.” (03/15/10) Link: http://www2.seattlepi.com/articles/416644.html Filed under: 2AM News and RRND News and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: NBC Bay Area Posted on 03.16.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “A group that promotes traditional marriage [sic] is funding a[n] ad campaign against republican U.S. Senate candidate Tom Campbell. The anti-Campbell ad is a direct result of Campbell’s support of gay marriage. Campbell openly opposed Proposition 8, the 2008 ballot initiative that banned gay marriage in California. … That view didn’t sit well with the Washington, D.C.-based National Organization for Marriage [sic] in 2008. And the group’s memory is apparently alive and well two years later. It began running the 30-second television ad Monday in Republican-leaning areas of California.” (03/16/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yeuj4w7 Filed under: RRND News and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Reuters Posted on 03.16.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “Crowds of protesters damned President Felipe Calderon’s military crackdown on drug cartels as he flew to Mexico’s most violent city on Tuesday, three days after gunmen killed two Americans and a Mexican linked to the local U.S. consulate. Hundreds of demonstrators held signs reading ‘government assassins’ as Calderon arrived with U.S. Ambassador Carlos Pascual to meet officials and try to reassure Mexicans and Washington that his army-led crackdown on drug gangs is the best way to curb their violent turf wars.” (03/16/10) Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE62F52220100316 Filed under: RRND News and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Sydney Morning Herald [Australia] Posted on 03.16.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “The former Sri Lankan army chief and presidential candidate General Sarath Fonseka appeared before a military court in Colombo yesterday charged with taking part in politics while in uniform. His supporters demonstrated on the streets of the capital. The general faces a separate court martial today for violating military procurement rules. General Fonseka was arrested last month after he unsuccessfully challenged the President, Mahinda Rajapaksa, in national elections.” (03/17/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yjcaaup Filed under: RRND News | |
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Source: Newark Star-Ledger Posted on 03.16.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “A state appellate panel today ruled New Jersey’s secretary of state must accept a petition a citizens group filed to recall U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez. The court stayed with its decision to allow Menendez (D-N.J.) to appeal its ruling. NJ Tea Parties United and the Sussex County Tea Party have said they want Menendez, (D-N.J.) recalled from office because he votes for too much government spending. … Menendez lawyer Marc Elias argued that the petition drive should be halted because voters do not have the right to recall a federal lawmaker under the U.S. Constitution.” (03/16/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/y8ptcck Filed under: RRND News and Twitter-Worthy | |
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