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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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: USA Today Posted on 03.15.10 by Steve Trinward “Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan is restarting her campaign against wars in Iraq and Afghanistan today, setting up tents and teaching protest seminars near the Washington Monument. Dubbed ‘Camp OUT NOW,’ the protest is geared to pressure President Obama and Democrats, whom Sheehan says have abandoned the anti-war cause now that they have control of the White House and Congress. ‘Obama said there’d be one combat battalion coming home per month, and that has not happened,’ Sheehan says. ‘We still have significant troops in Iraq, and he’s ramped up in Afghanistan. I don’t think this is what people understood they were voting for. I think they were voting for a change.’” [editor’s note: It’ll be fascinating to watch the Obamaphile progressives dance around this one - SAT] (03/15/10) Link: http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2010-03-14-cindy-sheehan_N.htm Filed under: PND News and RRND News | |
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Source: Boston Globe Posted on 03.15.10 by Steve Trinward “Hingham boasts million-dollar estates along its scenic shoreline, stately antique houses on Main Street, and boutique shops around the town square. The median household income is nearly $113,000 a year, well above the state and national average, while unemployment is well below the statewide rate. Yet Massachusetts has long classified Hingham as ‘economically distressed.’ And Hingham is not the only unlikely-seeming hard luck case. … Though lawmakers originally created the Economic Development Incentive Program in 1993 to nudge businesses to invest in decaying cities and other areas scarred by poverty and unemployment, such as Fall River and Lawrence, the state has, over time, expanded the program to include almost any municipality that applies.” (03/15/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yhnzmr7 Filed under: CANDi News and PND News and RRND News | |
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Source: Christian Science Monitor Posted on 03.15.10 by Steve Trinward “In an ambitious bid to make high-speed Internet service faster, cheaper, and more widely available, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will unveil a ‘national broadband plan’ Tuesday that outlines a decade-long course to bring more Americans online. The plan that was mandated by Congress is not only an effort to increase the availability of fast Internet and boost speeds to 100 megabits per second (Mbps), about 20 times faster than the current average, but also to put the US on equal footing with nations where broadband adoption is much higher. But the broadband plan is already raising hackles among large telecoms, many of whom view it as a first step toward government regulation of the Internet.” (03/15/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yfcva3b Filed under: PND News and RRND News | |
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Source: Washington Post Posted on 03.15.10 by Steve Trinward “In North Dakota, where insurers can cover abortions if customers pay a separate premium, the state’s largest provider says it sells no abortion policies because no one has asked to buy one. Amid a high-stakes debate over abortion that could determine the fate of President Obama’s healthcare initiative, North Dakota’s law offers a test because it is much like the language favored by antiabortion lawmakers on Capitol Hill, notably Representative Bart Stupak, Democrat of Michigan. … Similar policies are in place in Kentucky, Missouri, Idaho, and Oklahoma.” (03/15/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yzq2f9c Filed under: CANDi News and PND News and RRND News | |
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Source: Fox News Posted on 03.14.10 by Steve Trinward “Golf clubs in hands or not, the kids of South Park are ready to take on Tiger Woods. Creators of the Comedy Central cartoon have long since proven that no subject is sacred to them. So for the opening of its 14th season on Wednesday, the troubled golfer encounters Stan, Kyle, Kenny and Cartman in their animated Colorado town. ‘It’s such an important issue in America right now — the sex addiction outbreak,’ Matt Stone, who makes the series with partner Trey Parker, said on Friday. ‘We’re all really concerned about him and hope he gets better.’ Sex addiction, the intersection of powerful men and willing women, late-night phone calls to the police and bad public relations gave them so much fodder they could have made an entire Tiger-centric season, Stone said.” (03/14/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/y97q3od Filed under: PND News and RRND News | |
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Source: Christian Science Monitor Posted on 03.14.10 by Steve Trinward “If the big ‘tea party’ protest in Atlanta last year had the trappings of a rock show, complete with a riding ‘Paul Revere,’ Saturday’s ‘coffee party’ get-together at Java Monkey cafe in nearby Decatur came off more like a well-attended poetry slam. A liberal-esque and pro-Obama answer to the conservative tea party movement, the coffee party kicked off in 370 locations across the US and the world (including Tokyo and Jakarta) in an attempt to brew some activism from cafes and salons and stir disaffected liberals into action. Hand-painted signs at Java Monkey ranged from pro-healthcare reform to ‘jobs for Americans.’ The crowd of about 40 — visibly more diverse than the average tea party gathering — included schoolteachers, a dreadlocked guy, young children, and even a visiting reporter from Le Monde.” (03/13/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yd3tbfb Filed under: PND News and RRND News | |
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Source: Associated Press Posted on 03.14.10 by Steve Trinward “Enough with the tweets, the blogs, the Internet searches. That’s the message being communicated by courts across the country as jurors using their portable electronic devices continue to cause mistrials, overturned convictions, and chaotic delays in court proceedings. Last year, a San Francisco Superior Court judge dismissed 600 potential jurors after several acknowledged going online to research the criminal case before them. Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon challenged her misdemeanor embezzlement conviction after discovering five jurors ‘friended’ one another on Facebook during the trial. And a federal judge in Florida declared a mistrial after eight jurors admitted Web surfing about a drug case.” (03/14/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yeg4sb9 Filed under: PND News and RRND News | |
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Source: New York Times Posted on 03.14.10 by Steve Trinward “The Obama administration yesterday called for a broad overhaul of President George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind law, proposing to reshape divisive provisions that encouraged instructors to teach to tests, narrowed the curriculum, and labeled 1 in 3 American schools as failing. By announcing that he would send his education blueprint to Congress tomorrow, President Obama returned to a campaign promise to change the sprawling federal law that affects each of the nation’s 100,000 public schools. His plan strikes a balance, retaining some key features of the Bush-era law, including its requirement for annual reading and math tests, while proposing far-reaching changes.” (03/14/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yarmawd Filed under: PND News and RRND News | |
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Source: Boston Globe Posted on 03.14.10 by Steve Trinward “Residential recycling rates in Massachusetts have not budged in the past decade, even as environmental concerns have sparked ’sustainability’ movements and fueled markets for hybrid cars and green products. For years, environmentalists have preached the importance of recycling to relieve pressure on burgeoning landfills and reduce greenhouse gases released from decomposing trash. But to a startling degree, the refrain seems to have fallen on deaf ears. In 2008, according to preliminary statewide statistics, just over one-quarter of all residential trash was recycled, roughly the same percentage as 1997, according to a Globe review of figures kept by the state Department of Environmental Protection.” [editor’s note: One would note that this data comes from an allegedly “progressive” state that’s had mandatory bottle-recycling for over two decades; the hypocrisy reeks - SAT] (03/14/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/ye93bdx Filed under: CANDi News and PND News and RRND News | |
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Source: Associated Press Posted on 03.11.10 by Steve Trinward “Up to half the food aid intended for the millions of hungry people in Somalia is being diverted to corrupt contractors, radical Islamic militants, and local UN workers, according to a UN Security Council report. The report blames the problem on improper food distribution by the UN World Food Program in the African nation, which has been plagued by fighting and humanitarian suffering for nearly two decades, according to a UN diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity. It calls on UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to authorize an independent investigation of the Rome-based food agency’s operation in Somalia. Because of Somalia’s instability, transporters must truck food through roadblocks manned by an array of militias, insurgents, and bandits. Kidnappings and executions are common, and the insecurity makes it difficult for senior UN officials to travel to the country to check on procedures.” (03/11/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yhlw66w Filed under: PND News and RRND News | |
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Source: Boston Globe Posted on 03.11.10 by Steve Trinward “A bill that would ban the sale of sugary drinks and junk food in school vending machines and school stores is gaining momentum in the Legislature, as Massachusetts combats a troubling rise in childhood obesity rates. The House passed it in January, after nearly a decade of debate on similar bills that went nowhere. Now, Senate President Therese Murray has thrown her support behind the effort and is optimistic that members will embrace it in a scheduled Senate vote today. ‘We haven’t heard anything negative from members,’ Murray said in an interview. ‘Obviously, everyone is very alarmed about the high level of diabetes and obesity rates. It’s a crisis.’” (03/11/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yzrsrmo Filed under: PND News and RRND News | |
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Source: Arizona Republic Posted on 03.11.10 by Steve Trinward “Governors and education leaders on Wednesday proposed sweeping new school standards that could lead to students across the country using the same math and English textbooks and taking the same tests, replacing a patchwork of state and local systems in an attempt to raise student achievement nationwide. But states must first adopt the rigorous new Common Core State Standards, and implementing the standards on such a large scale won’t be easy. Two states, Texas and Alaska, have already refused to join the project, and everyone from state legislatures to the nation’s 10,000 local school boards and 3 million teachers could chime in with their opinions. Since No Child Left Behind became law in 2002, every state has been required to create a set of K-12 grade-level learning goals in math and English. Most often, state standards were developed by committees of teachers, and the quality varied from state to state.” [editor’s note: Having worked a seasonal job for the past near-decade, scoring the results of such “standards” (from about a dozen states), I’ve borne witness to the good, bad and VERY ugly of all of this - SAT] (03/11/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/ykkvy9y Filed under: CANDi News and PND News and RRND News | |
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Source: Space.Com Posted on 03.11.10 by Steve Trinward “Score one more for Einstein. A new study has confirmed his theory of general relativity works on extremely large scales. The study was one of the first rigorous tests of this theory of gravity beyond our solar system. The research found that even over vast scales of galaxies and clusters of galaxies, the equations of general relativity predict the way that mass pulls on other mass in the universe. The new work also helps rule out a competing theory of gravity that seeks to do away with the need for bizarre concepts like dark matter and dark energy that have irked some scientists. This research indicates those pesky ideas may be here to stay.” (03/10/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/ykjfy83 Filed under: CANDi News and PND News and RRND News | |
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Source: Yahoo! News Posted on 03.10.10 by Steve Trinward “House Democratic leaders announced Wednesday that they will ban the much-criticized practice of using annual spending bills to direct pet projects to companies that often return the favor with campaign contributions. Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., chairman of the Appropriations panel, told reporters that he hopes the step will mean 1,000 fewer earmarks and break the linkage between campaign contributions and earmarks that has sparked intense criticism and resulted in ethics probes of several lawmakers.” [editor’s note: Given that more than a few of the worst offenders in this practice are among their own ranks, this should be mighty interesting - SAT] (03/10/10) Link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100310/ap_on_bi_ge/us_congress_earmarks Filed under: CANDi News and PND News and RRND News | |
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Source: Associated Press Posted on 03.10.10 by Steve Trinward “A tax squabble is forcing voters to decide next week whether to dissolve the boundaries of a central New York village known as the birthplace of women’s rights and the inspiration for a classic Christmas movie. The March 16 ballot question in Seneca Falls asks whether the 179-year-old village of 6,600 should be absorbed into the surrounding town of the same name. Even though the name won’t change, some residents expressed concern that a ‘yes’ vote could erode the village’s storied identity. Supporters say the ballot proposal would do away with a costly duplication of governmental services. The village was the site of the first known women’s rights convention, in 1848, and claims to be the model for Bedford Falls, the mythical community depicted in the 1946 movie It’s a Wonderful Life.” (03/10/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yj6otd7 Filed under: CANDi News and PND News and RRND News | |
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Source: Boston Globe Posted on 03.09.10 by Steve Trinward “Almost until the end, Mary Josephine Ray would take song requests, crooning traditional Acadian tunes from her childhood and Tin Pan Alley standards. From her New Hampshire nursing home, she played cribbage with a youthful zeal, tallying every point herself. At 106, she shrugged off hip replacement surgery like she had skinned her knee. She said the rosary, watched her soaps, and cheered on her beloved Red Sox. … Ray, who died in her sleep Sunday at the age of 114, had been widely acknowledged as the oldest person in the United States and the second-oldest person in the world. … [A] mother of two children who lived most of her life in Maine, also reveled in the attention that came with her advancing age. … [She] was just a few days younger than the oldest person in the world, Kama Chinen of Japan, who is 114 years and 303 days.” (03/09/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yz836q5 Filed under: CANDi News and PND News and RRND News | |
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Source: Associated Press Posted on 03.09.10 by Steve Trinward “Nicotine builds up gradually in smokers’ brains rather than spiking after each puff, according to a study that might help point to new ways to help people quit smoking. Dr. Jed E. Rose of Duke University reports in the online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that nicotine buildup in the brain is gradual over several minutes. Scientists have theorized there is a spike of nicotine about seven seconds after each puff, but almost no measurements had been taken until now, Rose said. ‘We were surprised to find that the rate of uptake was much different from what one commonly hears,’ said Rose, who directs the Duke Center for Nicotine and Smoking Cessation Research.” (03/09/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yfaubp7 Filed under: CANDi News and PND News and RRND News | |
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Source: Associated Press Posted on 03.08.10 by Steve Trinward “The police came with bullhorns to impoverished neighborhoods near the epicenter of Chile’s devastating earthquake, warning looters to return what they stole or face police raids. And so they did, depositing everything from mattresses to refrigerators and flat-screen TVs. It took 35 truckloads to recover it all. Together with looted merchandise recovered by police, the material is worth nearly $2 million, officers said. Touring a police gymnasium full of the recovered goods yesterday, President Michelle Bachelet called the looting one of ‘the other aftershocks of this tragic earthquake,’ and vowed that those responsible would feel the full weight of the law: prison terms of two to five years.” (03/08/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/ygf5dwh Filed under: PND News and RRND News | |
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Source: Tennessean Posted on 03.08.10 by Steve Trinward “The so-called complimentary breakfasts at many hotels in Tennessee have stirred the appetite of state revenue officials. The state wants to tax the lodging businesses for the food that they offer as free breakfasts as part of their room rate. The budget-strapped state hopes to get an estimated $1 to $2 million for its coffers from the sweet rolls, coffee and such that hotel patrons enjoy at no charge from the Smoky Mountains to Graceland. The proposal, pending in committees in the General Assembly, is to collect tax on the food at the prevailing sales tax rate in the county involved — up to 9.75 percent. State officials stress that the businesses would be taxed and not the hungry patrons.” [editor’s note: Cute! So the hotels get to eat the tax (or more likely add it to the room-rate?), or stop serving the freebies? - SAT] (03/08/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yl6elw4 Filed under: CANDi News and PND News and RRND News | |
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Source: Fox News Posted on 03.08.10 by Steve Trinward “Daniel Higgins doesn’t look like a Middle Eastern student, but officials say he routinely portrayed himself as one for almost a decade, getting paid up to $1,500 per student to attend their classes and take exams so they could keep their visas current and remain in the U.S. Officials say that records seized from Higgins’ home in Laguna Niguel, Calif., show that more than 100 students from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Lebanon, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates hired him to do their classwork and take their tests. Higgins, 46, pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit immigration fraud when he appeared in Orange County Superior Court in Santa Ana on Monday.” (03/08/10) Link: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,588485,00.html Filed under: CANDi News and PND News and RRND News | |
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Source: Reuters Posted on 03.08.10 by Steve Trinward “The Supreme Court said on Monday it would decide whether constitutional free-speech rights protected anti-gay protests by members of a Kansas church at funerals for U.S. military members killed in Iraq. The high court agreed to consider whether the protesters’ message and picketing was protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, even though it was a private family funeral. The justices said they would hear an appeal by Albert Snyder, the father of a Marine killed in Iraq in 2006. The family’s traditional funeral service was held at St. John’s Catholic Church in Westminster, Maryland. The funeral for Marine Lance Corporal Matthew Snyder drew picketing by members of the fundamentalist Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas.” [editor’s note: I can hardly wait to see how they squirrel their way around this one! - SAT] (03/08/10) Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6274T020100308 Filed under: PND News | |
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Source: Boston Globe Posted on 03.08.10 by Steve Trinward “Nearly 2,500 nursing home residents in Massachusetts were given powerful antipsychotic drugs last year that were not intended or recommended for their medical condition, a practice that is more common here than in most other states, according to a Globe analysis of federal data. Data collected by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services show that 28 percent of Massachusetts nursing home residents were given antipsychotics in 2009. Of that group, 22 percent — or 2,483 — did not have a medical condition that calls for such treatment. That rate was the 12th highest in the nation, according to the federal data. The use of such drugs is especially worrisome in nursing homes because a substantial number of residents suffer from dementia, a condition that puts them at greater risk of death when given antipsychotic medications.” (03/08/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/y8ot2q9 Filed under: PND News and RRND News | |
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Source: Fox News Posted on 03.07.10 by Steve Trinward “The possibility that President Obama could send the self-professed mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks to a military tribunal has earned him the highest insult from the left — that he’s another George W. Bush. A full-page ad in Sunday’s New York Times left no doubt as to how the American Civil Liberties Union feels about the possibility of the president reversing the decision to send Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his alleged co-conspirators to civilian court. ‘What will it be Mr. President?’ the ad asks in boldfaced type. ‘Change or more of the Same?’ In the middle of those words are four photos that show Obama’s face morphing into Bush’s.” (03/07/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yeqwmu6 Filed under: PND News and RRND News | |
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Source: Boston Globe Posted on 03.07.10 by Steve Trinward “Seven months after they were granted the authority by the Legislature, one in five Massachusetts communities has opted to boost its local meals tax, adding 15 cents to every $20 restaurant tab and generating several million dollars to bolster city and town budgets. Since the new year, Gloucester, Burlington, Lee, and now Beverly have enacted the additional 0.75 percent tax, with Beverly the 73d community to do so. And if their experience is like those in the first wave of communities to enact the tax last fall, the new levy should be even more lucrative than hoped. Most of those early adopters, from Cambridge to Taunton, collected more money than predicted for October, the first month diners were subject to the higher rate.” [editor’s note: If only this sort of “rebalancing” happened more widely; in Tennessee, the full 9%+ sales tax gets added to every grocery item, even the most basic subsistence foods - SAT] (03/07/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/ylogjpp Filed under: PND News and RRND News | |
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Source: Washington Post Posted on 03.07.10 by Steve Trinward “The District of Columbia will become the first city in the United States to distribute female condoms free, part of a project that will make 500,000 of them available in beauty salons, convenience stores and high schools in parts of the city with high HIV rates. City officials said the distribution could begin within the next three weeks in city wards where a study showed that large numbers of African-American heterosexuals engage in risky sexual behavior that could easily lead to infection. The move is an official acknowledgment of the futility of relying solely on the use of male condoms, which have been distributed citywide for nearly a decade, to stem the district’s epidemic of HIV and AIDS.” (03/07/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yjdmre3 Filed under: PND News and RRND News | |
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Source: Boston Globe Posted on 03.04.10 by Steve Trinward “Inside the front door to Central Falls High School, across the street from a boarded-up building, an archway is adorned with an unambiguous boast: ‘Through these halls pass the world’s best faculty and students.’ It is a motto that rings false for the local school board, which recently voted to fire all of the school’s staff in a stunning move that made Central Falls a lightning rod in the polarizing debate over improving the country’s education system. … The battle taking place in Rhode Island has resonated in Massachusetts, where state and local education leaders recently received legislative approval to take more drastic measures to improve schools, including forcing teachers to reapply for their jobs. Massachusetts officials are expected to release a list today of about three dozen underperforming schools.” (03/04/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/ydsvc7y Filed under: CANDi News and PND News and RRND News | |
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Source: Associated Press Posted on 03.04.10 by Steve Trinward “Captain Chesley ‘Sully’ Sullenberger has flown his final flight. The pilot who landed a US Airways plane safely on the Hudson River last January said yesterday that he is retiring after 30 years and plans to spend some of his time pressing for more flight safety. … Sullenberger officially retired at a private ceremony in Charlotte with fellow pilots and other US Airways employees. Sullenberger, 59, joined US Airways’ predecessor airline in 1980.” (03/04/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/ydlnfkw Filed under: CANDi News and PND News and RRND News | |
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Source: Fox News Posted on 03.04.10 by Steve Trinward “A leading condom manufacturer in Switzerland has created extra-small condoms for boys as young as 12 years old, the U.K.’s Daily Telegraph reported. The condom, called the Hotshot, was produced after family planning groups and the Swiss AIDS Federation campaigned to have the condoms made following several studies that showed adolescent boys were not using proper protection when engaging in intercourse. … A spokeswoman for the company, Lamprecht AG, said the United Kingdom would be a ‘top priority’ if they expanded abroad, especially since the U.K. has one of the highest rates of teen pregnancy in Europe. A standard condom has a diameter of 2 inches; the Hotshot’s is 1.7 inches.” [editor’s note: Beats the hell out of a gym-sock, or hiding the sheets from Mom! - SAT] (03/04/10) Link: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,587980,00.html Filed under: PND News and RRND News | |
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Source: Associated Press Posted on 03.04.10 by Steve Trinward “A promising Alzheimer’s disease drug that Pfizer Inc. and a partner are developing failed to work in a late-stage study, a startling disappointment after the potential blockbuster kept symptoms from worsening for a year in a prior test. Pfizer and partner Medivation Inc. said yesterday that the experimental drug, Dimebon, failed to meet its primary and secondary goals: improving thinking ability and overall daily function over six months in patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease.” (03/04/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yd9lud6 Filed under: PND News and RRND News | |
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Source: Associated Press Posted on 03.03.10 by Steve Trinward “The Supreme Court yesterday revived an $18 million settlement of a dispute involving payment to freelance writers for online use of their work. The high court overturned a lower court decision throwing out a settlement between freelancers, publishers, and database owners including Reed Elsevier Inc., educational publisher and owner of the LexisNexis information service. The proposed settlement covers freelancers who registered the copyright to their works as well as those who did not. The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in New York, had said courts generally do not have authority over infringement claims on works that are not copyrighted. Justice Clarence Thomas disagreed, writing that the lower court did have authority to approve the settlement.” (03/03/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yknewr8 Filed under: CANDi News and PND News and RRND News | |
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Source: Fox News Posted on 03.03.10 by Steve Trinward “George and Sharlee McNamee have a beautiful home, an ocean view and a bounty of children and grandchildren who invade their house every weekend. The breeze is fresh, the view is stunning and retired life in Corona Del Mar, Calif., is good. But the McNamees wake up every morning fighting for their rights. In this case, the freedom to use a picnic table, shed and shower in their own backyard. … For the last decade, George and Sharlee McNamee have been locked in legal battle with California regulators over the couple’s right to build improvements on their own property, which abuts a coastal zone.” (03/03/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yfhd492 Filed under: CANDi News and LAND News and PND News and RRND News | |
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Source: BBC News [UK] Posted on 03.03.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “More than 120 gay couples have received marriage licences in the US capital, Washington DC. The District of Columbia became the sixth US jurisdiction to allow same-sex unions after the Supreme Court threw out a last-minute legal challenge. Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont also issue same-sex licences. Many queued for hours outside Washington’s marriage bureau to be among the first to get their licences.” (03/04/10) Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8548760.stm Filed under: PND News and RRND News and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: San Jose Mercury News Posted on 03.02.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “Asserting that California needs ’someone with an insider’s knowledge but an outsider’s mind’ to pull the state out of its economic doldrums, state Attorney General Jerry Brown strode into the governor’s race Tuesday morning after taking months to make the inevitable official. … Brown, the son of former two-term Gov. Pat Brown, has served as secretary of state, governor, mayor of Oakland and state attorney general in a career that spans 40 years and three short-circuited runs for the presidency.” (03/02/10) Link: http://www.mercurynews.com/top-stories/ci_14498595 Filed under: PND News and RRND News | |
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Source: Tennessean Posted on 03.02.10 by Steve Trinward “The Cheatham County School Board agreed Monday to settle a lawsuit with the ACLU, which had claimed the school district promoted religion. The board voted 5-1 to accept the settlement agreement. Greg Horton, who cast the only no vote, said the settlement goes too far in requiring the surrendering of rights that are not his or anyone else’s to surrender or should have to surrender. He also believes that the settlement was what the ACLU demanded. In part, the settlement says school officials shall not ‘promote, advance, endorse, participate in or cause prayers during or in conjunction with school events for any school within the school district.’” (03/02/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yaln89l Filed under: CANDi News and PND News and RRND News | |
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Source: Christian Science Monitor Posted on 03.02.10 by Steve Trinward “With Monday’s resignation of Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D) of Hawaii to run for governor, Democrats are down to a 76-seat majority to move a historic [sic] healthcare reform bill through the House. On paper, it’s a formidable edge, especially with House rules that give strong powers to the majority. But Speaker Nancy Pelosi struggled to win passage of a House-drafted bill last November, winning by just two votes. The next vote — to muster a majority for a bill largely shaped in the Senate — could be even tougher, especially coming just months away from midterm elections expected to be punishing to Democrats.” (03/02/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yg82rw7 Filed under: PND News and RRND News | |
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Source: Associated Press Posted on 03.02.10 by Steve Trinward “Alcohol and marijuana use among teens is on the rise, ending a decade-long decline, a study being released today found. ‘I’m a little worried that we may be seeing the leading edge of a trend here,’ said Sean Clarkin, director of strategy at The Partnership for a Drug-Free America, which was releasing the study. ‘Historically, you do see the increase in recreational drugs before you see increases in some of the harder drugs.’ The annual survey found the number of teens in grades 9 through 12 who reported drinking alcohol in the last month rose 11 percent last year, with 39 percent — about 6.5 million teens — reporting alcohol use. That’s up from 35 percent, or about 5.8 million teens, in 2008. For marijuana, 25 percent of teens reported smoking marijuana in the last month, up from 19 percent.” (03/02/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yk9uza5 Filed under: PND News and RRND News | |
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Source: USA Today Posted on 03.01.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln’s road to reelection got tougher today. Lt. Gov. Bill Halter announced in a video that he will be running against Lincoln in the Democratic primary. … liberals started a Draft Bill Halter movement to encourage him to challenge Lincoln, who has angered the left with her right-of-center positions. Accountability Now, a liberal Political Action Committee cofounded by Firedoglake’s Jane Hamsher, claims credit for recruiting Halter — declaring him the group’s ‘first candidate.’” (03/01/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yahx8ho Filed under: PND News and RRND News and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Boston Globe Posted on 02.28.10 by Steve Trinward “With speculation mounting that US Representative William D. Delahunt will not seek reelection, Joseph P. Kennedy III, son of the former congressman and great-grandson of the Kennedy family patriarch, is eyeing a run to succeed him in the 10th Congressional District, senior Democratic sources say. The sources say that Kennedy, a 29-year-old assistant district attorney on the Cape considered by many to be the most promising member of his generation to extend the family’s political legacy, is not close to making any decisions and will not speak publicly until Delahunt announces whether he will seek another term. The discussions are taking place very privately among Kennedy family confidants. As Delahunt ponders his future and Democratic hopefuls eye a bid for his seat, Kennedy’s potential candidacy is weighing heavily on the field that is starting to take shape.” (02/27/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yeh8rtd Filed under: CANDi News and PND News and RRND News | |
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Source: Christian Science Monitor Posted on 02.28.10 by Steve Trinward “The challenge of the rogue gas pedal is apparently not unique to Toyota. In the five years ending last September, all of the six largest carmakers operating in the US marketplace had at least 50 complaints about unintended acceleration filed against them, according to Edmunds.com, a provider of auto industry information based in Santa Monica, Calif. Toyota had the most complaints: 532 during the five-year period, or 4.81 per 100,000 vehicles sold by the company or its Lexis or Scion brands. But some other carmakers also drew numerous complaints, according to the analysis of data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).” (02/27/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yhha34p Filed under: PND News and RRND News | |
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Source: BBC News [UK] Posted on 02.28.10 by Steve Trinward “The controversial leader of the African National Congress’s youth wing divides opinion, for some he is a symbol of the corruption for which the ANC is becoming notorious. He is 28, a little overweight, impeccably dressed, and rather fond of referring to himself with the royal ‘we.’ He is also, without doubt, the most divisive, the most ridiculed, and for some, the most alarming public figure in South Africa today. Julius Malema is president of the youth league of the ruling party. Not the most powerful of jobs, you might think. But Mr Malema has a genius for publicity, a knack for articulating the anger of millions of impoverished South Africans, and an unnerving ability to give offence.” (02/27/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/ylxyodh Filed under: PND News and RRND News | |
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Source: New York Times Posted on 02.26.10 by Steve Trinward “In a rare case of state involvement in nuclear regulation, the Vermont Senate voted 26 to 4 yesterday to block a license extension for the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant, citing radioactive leaks, misstatements in testimony by plant officials, and other problems. Unless the chamber reverses itself, it would be the first time in more than 20 years that the public or its representatives decided to close a reactor. The vote was taken barely more than a week after President Obama declared a new era of rebirth for the nation’s nuclear industry, announcing federal loan guarantees of $8.3 billion to ensure the construction of a twin-reactor plant near Augusta, Ga.” (02/25/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/ydtyx2v Filed under: PND News and RRND News | |
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Source: Boston Globe Posted on 02.24.10 by Steve Trinward “The Supreme Court’s watershed decision on campaign finance, lamented by critics who say it gives undue influence to corporations, could strengthen the very advocacy groups that oppose the ruling. In a nod to free speech, the court last month gave businesses and unions the power to spend as much money as they wish on political advertisements that endorse or oppose candidates. Under the ruling, the spenders can’t give directly to a candidate, but they can give to an advocacy group that in turn produces such advertisements - providing a potential source of money for groups that have traditionally survived on individual donations. But one question lingers: Will those organizations, particularly liberal ones openly critical of the court ruling, seek money from corporate sources? Or will they sit on the sidelines and risk losing influence?” (02/24/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yjh6gqo Filed under: PND News and RRND News | |
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Source: Think Progress Posted on 02.24.10 by Steve Trinward “After trying to reach out to football fans by airing an ad during the Super Bowl, Focus on the Family is now targeting college sports. This week, LGBT blogs reported that NCAA.com was running a Focus on the Family banner advertisement. The site has now pulled the ‘Celebrate Family. Celebrate Life’ ad, citing concerns by NCAA members over Focus on the Family’s homophobic positions. … [NCAA spokesman Bob] Williams said … the decision to pull the ad was based not on the message but on the messenger.” (02/24/10) Link: http://thinkprogress.org/2010/02/24/ncaa-focus-ad/ Filed under: PND News and RRND News | |
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Source: Christian Science Monitor Posted on 02.24.10 by Steve Trinward “After several incidents of misbehavior in Afghanistan involving the military contractor Blackwater and its employees, US lawmakers are moving to provide greater oversight of an industry that, while key to American military success, may also be undermining the mission there. Even as US forces in Afghanistan operate under orders to protect Afghan civilians, erring on the side of caution and even holding their fire rather than risk harming them while fighting Taliban insurgents, concern is mounting that civilian contractors operate under a different set of rules — or simply don’t follow the rules…. Other lawmakers this week introduced legislation to prevent the American military from ‘outsourcing’ security missions to contractors.” (02/24/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yclf4bd Filed under: CANDi News and PND News | |
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Source: CBS News Posted on 02.23.10 by Steve Trinward “Rhode Island Education Commissioner Deborah Gist has approved a school district’s plan to fire all its teachers. All 88 teachers at Central Falls High School are expected to receive their pink slips on Tuesday, reports CBS affiliate WPRI in Providence. Central Falls, Rhode Island has long been among the state’s most troubled school districts — 90 percent of the students live in poverty, reports CBS News correspondent Jim Axelrod. … Central Falls Superintendent Fran Gallo has proposed laying off all teachers at the school as part of a ‘turnaround’ model for the school. That high school and five other schools in Providence have been identified by the state as chronically low-performing and must make major changes to avoid being closed.” (02/23/10) Link: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/02/23/national/main6235551.shtml Filed under: CANDi News and PND News and RRND News | |
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Source: Christian Science Monitor Posted on 02.23.10 by Steve Trinward “It costs more to send your child to kindergarten in Beijing today than it does to put him or her through college. … As China becomes a competitive market-oriented economy with a growing middle class, parents say that to get good jobs, their children need a good education. As in the US and Japan, the stressful race to get into the best universities now starts with entry into the ‘right’ kindergarten. … It is almost impossible, according to parents and teachers, to find a reputable kindergarten in Beijing that charges less than 1,000 renminbi ($150) a month, which is a quarter of an average salary in the capital. … By comparison, tuition and accommodation at Peking University, the country’s best, costs only about 700 renminbi ($102) a month, thanks to heavy government subsidies.” [editor’s note: How nice to see the “yuppification of China” being just as distorting as it was here - SAT] (02/23/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yfvlj6o Filed under: PND News and RRND News | |
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Source: Tennessean Posted on 02.23.10 by Steve Trinward “Ole Miss students voted Tuesday to find a replacement for the Colonel Reb mascot. Nearly 75 percent of participating students (2,510 of 3,366 votes) voted in favor of beginning a student-led initiative to create a new representative for the Ole Miss Rebels, according to the Daily Mississippian. Colonel Reb — a caricature of a white plantation owner — was dumped in a 2003 effort to distance the school from Old South stereotypes. It’s been without a mascot ever since. Since then, the teams have been without an on-field mascot. The vote on Tuesday determined whether the process would begin to find a successor to Colonel Reb, an old Southern gent with a cane and floppy hat. Some of his diehard fans had been campaigning against the move.” (02/23/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yhxu2y2 Filed under: PND News and RRND News | |
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Source: Christian Science Monitor Posted on 02.22.10 by Steve Trinward “The Supreme Court is set to examine whether of a piece of the USAPATRIOT Act… violates constitutional protections of free speech and association. On Tuesday, the high court will hear oral argument in a case challenging what some critics say is a version of modern-day McCarthyism: prosecuting people for who they associate with rather than any personal criminal conduct. The law makes it a crime to provide ‘material support’ to a known terrorist organization. It is designed to isolate terrorists by making it more difficult for them to receive assistance, services, and recruits.” (02/22/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/ydcqljp Filed under: CANDi News and LAND News and PND News | |
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Source: Raw Story Posted on 02.22.10 by Steve Trinward “Long a fixture among young people, use of the country’s most popular illicit drug is now growing among the AARP set, as the massive generation of baby boomers who came of age in the 1960s and ’70s grows older. The number of people aged 50 and older reporting marijuana use in the prior year went up from 1.9 percent to 2.9 percent from 2002 to 2008, according to surveys from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. The rise was most dramatic among 55- to 59-year-olds, whose reported marijuana use more than tripled from 1.6 percent in 2002 to 5.1 percent.” (02/22/10) Link: http://rawstory.com/2010/02/pot-seniors-rises-baby-boomers-age/ Filed under: PND News and RRND News | |
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Source: Associated Press Posted on 02.22.10 by Steve Trinward “The Obama administration has developed a five-year blueprint for rescuing the Great Lakes, a sprawling ecosystem plagued by toxic contamination, shrinking wildlife habitat and invasive species. The plan envisions spending more than $2.2 billion for long-awaited repairs after a century of damage to the lakes, which hold 20 percent of the world’s fresh water. Lisa Jackson, head of the Environmental Protection Agency, presented the plan at a conference yesterday in Washington. … Among the goals is a ‘zero tolerance policy’ toward future invasions by foreign species, including the Asian carp, a huge, ravenous fish that has overrun portions of the Mississippi River system and is threatening to enter Lake Michigan.” (02/22/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yjbeptz Filed under: PND News and RRND News | |
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Source: Boston Globe Posted on 02.22.10 by Steve Trinward “Army superiors were warned about the radicalization of Major Nidal Malik Hasan years before he allegedly massacred 13 soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas, but did not act in part because they valued the rare diversity of having a Muslim psychiatrist, military investigators wrote in previously undisclosed reports. An obvious ‘problem child’ spouting extremist views, Hasan made numerous statements that were not protected by the First Amendment and were grounds for discharge by violating his military oath, investigators found. Examples of Hasan’s radical behavior have previously been disclosed in press accounts based on interviews with unnamed Army officials, including his defense of suicide bombings and assertions that Islamic law took priority over his allegiance to the United States. But the Pentagon’s careful documentation of individual episodes dating back to 2005 and the subsequent inaction of his superiors have not been made public before.” (02/22/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yjqyvof Filed under: PND News and RRND News | |
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Source: Tennessean Posted on 02.21.10 by Steve Trinward “A Springfield-based group selling allegedly illegal health-insurance policies has collected more than $14 million from consumers over the past two years, and now is under investigation in a number of states, including Tennessee. Insurance regulators say the total amount of premiums collected for the policies could top $100 million, and at least 12,400 people nationwide are believed to have bought the policies so far. At least 20 states’ insurance regulators have issued or are working on cease-and-desist orders to try to stop the sale of the health policies, which are being marketed by two businesses controlled by Springfield resident Bart Posey. None of the principals or businesses involved is licensed to sell insurance, the state regulators say.” (02/21/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yk8cc2u Filed under: PND News and RRND News | |
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Source: Bloomberg News Posted on 02.21.10 by Steve Trinward “Safety reviewers at the Food and Drug Administration urged the agency to take GlaxoSmithKline PLC’s diabetes drug Avandia off the market in 2008 because they said it was causing 500 additional heart attacks per month. Two US senators say they want to know why the medicine remains on pharmacy shelves. A report released yesterday by Max Baucus and Charles Grassley said Glaxo knew Avandia may cause heart damage several years before a study documented the risk and the company pressed doctors to retract warnings about side effects. Baucus, chair of the Senate Finance Committee, and Grassley, the committee’s ranking Republican, are pressing the FDA for answers by March 4. A 2007 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine linked Avandia to a 43 percent increased risk of heart attack.” (02/21/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yaf364e Filed under: CANDi News and PND News and RRND News | |
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Source: Fox News Posted on 02.21.10 by Steve Trinward “A suburban Philadelphia school district accused of secretly switching on laptop computer webcams inside students’ homes says it never used webcam images to monitor or discipline students and believes one of its administrators has been ‘unfairly portrayed and unjustly attacked.’ The Lower Merion School District, in response to a suit filed by a student, has acknowledged that webcams were remotely activated 42 times in the past 14 months, but only to find missing, lost or stolen laptops — which the district noted would include ‘a loaner computer that, against regulations, might be taken off campus.’” (02/21/10) Link: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,587073,00.html Filed under: CANDi News and LAND News and PND News and RRND News | |
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Source: CNN News Posted on 02.18.10 by Steve Trinward “Nearly 180 Department of Homeland Security weapons were lost — some falling into the hands of criminals — after officers left them in restrooms, vehicles and other public places, according to an inspector general report. The officers, with Customs and Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ‘did not always sufficiently safeguard their firearms and, as a result, lost a significant number of firearms’ between fiscal year 2006 and fiscal year 2008, the report said. In all, 243 firearms were lost in both agencies during that period, according to the January report from Inspector General Richard Skinner. … 74 percent, or 179 guns, were lost ‘because officers did not properly secure them,’ the report said.” [editor’s note: There, there, now don’t you feel safer with these bozos in chaarge? - SAT] (02/18/10) Link: http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/02/18/government.guns/index.html Filed under: PND News and RRND News | |
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Source: Boston Globe Posted on 02.18.10 by Steve Trinward “It’s no revelation that women have smashed the stereotypes embodied by Harriet Nelson and June Cleaver. New research is showing that women are not only contributing more to the household bottom line — they are increasingly the larger, sometimes even the sole, breadwinner. And for the first time in US history, women are about to outnumber men in the workforce — and, according to some projections, within two decades women will outnumber men as the home’s major breadwinner. Just as women entering the workforce required a big adjustment in the attitudes that for generations defined marriages, another big adjustment is needed now with wives earning more on average than their husbands. If it was dying before, the idea of families having a ‘traditional breadwinner’ seems officially dead.” [editor’s note: High time, if you ask me! - SAT] (02/18/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yzegms2 Filed under: CANDi News and PND News and RRND News and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Christian Science Monitor Posted on 02.18.10 by Steve Trinward “At the core of state budget problems in the US is something that goes beyond the recent recession: poorly managed pension systems for public employees. That’s the conclusion of an in-depth analysis released Thursday by the Pew Center on the States in Washington. The unfunded liabilities exceed $1 trillion and could force difficult choices upon many states, the nonprofit research group said. The problem is not a new one, but it has grown worse in the past year. And, on a day when President Obama called for a new commission to propose fixes to the federal budget, it’s a reminder that Congress doesn’t have a monopoly on the idea of making promises without figuring out how to pay for them. ‘To a significant degree, the $1 trillion gap reflects states’ own policy choices and lack of discipline,’ the Pew Center report concludes.” (02/18/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yeyxmp6 Filed under: CANDi News and PND News | |
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