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Top Stories
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FCC Proposes Broadband Internet for All Americans
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Wednesday, March 17, 2010
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The 21st century equivalent of a chicken-in-every-pot, the Federal Communications Commission’s is spearheading President Barack Obama’s proposal to make high-speed Internet service available to all Americans. The FCC unveiled its ambitious plan that will require billions of dollars to expand the nation’s telecommunications infrastructure and bring broadband services to those area ...
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FBI Forensic Analysts under Investigation for Falsifying Tests
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Tuesday, March 16, 2010
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Faulty, and in some cases falsified, forensic work by FBI experts has raised questions about the validity of 100 criminal cases in the District of Columbia since the mid-1970s.
A legal review was launched earlier this year after a DC court overturned the conviction of Donald E. Gates, who served 28 years in prison for a rape and murder he did not commit. FBI analyst Michael Malone, who te ...
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House Impeaches Judge Thomas Porteous…Only 15th in 207 Years
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Monday, March 15, 2010
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Not a single member of the House of Representatives objected to the impeachment of Judge G. Thomas Porteous, making him the 15th judge indicted by Congress since the founding of the country. Lawmakers voted 412-0, 410-0, 416-0 and 423-0 on the four articles of impeachment brought against Porteous, who serves on the U.S. District Court in New Orleans.
The 16-year veteran of the federal ben ...
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Unusual News
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Ohio Keeps Prisoner Alive So That He Can Be Executed
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Saturday, March 13, 2010
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Prison officials in Ohio prevented convicted killer Lawrence Reynolds from taking his own life, and are now nursing him back to health so they can execute him. Reynolds took an overdose of prescription drugs just prior to his execution date. After receiving medical care at St. Elizabeth Hospital in Youngstown, the 43-year-old inmate was placed in an isolation cell on suicide watch. Reynolds was co ...
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Montgomery and Stockton Tie for Most Obese Cities, Colorado Dominates Least Obese
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Saturday, March 13, 2010
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Americans could stand to lose a few pounds in parts of Alabama and California, while Colorado has demonstrated itself to be quite lean when it comes to obesity. Gallup and Healthways teamed up to examine body mass index data and figure out which parts of the United States have high and low obesity rates.
Montgomery, Alabama, and Stockton, California, tied for the most obese urban areas, a ...
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Gospel Label Delayed Album Release Because God Did Not Approve
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Thursday, March 11, 2010
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Gospel recording label Habakkuk Music delayed payment of a $30,000 advance to singer Isaiah D. Thomas because God had not told company executives when to proceed. Thomas is now suing Habakkuk and its owner, April Washington-Essex, who reportedly informed the singer when he inquired about his advance: “I have been seeking God about the timing of your next recording. To date, God has not ...
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Where is the Money Going?
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Federal Auditors Stop Billion-Dollar Army Contract for Blackwater/Xe
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Wednesday, March 17, 2010
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Denied the chance to bid on a lucrative security contract to train Afghanistan’s new police force, DynCorp International managed to convince the Government Accountability Office to halt the company’s rival—Xe (formerly Blackwater)—from moving forward with its no-bid work. Xe was given the $1 billion job of training new Afghan police when oversight of the program was switche ...
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Millionaires on the Rise Again
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Tuesday, March 16, 2010
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Last year may have been bad for a lot of American families struggling to survive the bad economic times, but the wealthy had no trouble rebounding from the 2008 downturn and expanding their ranks.
A survey conducted by the Spectrem Group found the number of millionaires in the U.S. grew by 16% in 2009. A millionaire is defined as someone with a net worth of $1 million, not including a pri ...
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Taxpayers Lose as Treasury Helps Midwest Banc Holdings
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Monday, March 15, 2010
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Deciding a big loss is better than a complete loss, the Department of the Treasury chose to buy shares of Midwest Banc Holdings at above market value in order to keep the ailing institution from sliding even further into trouble. The U.S. government will accept $84.8 million of preferred shares from Midwest Banc in exchange for $15.5 million of common shares resulting in an 80% loss for the Treasu ...
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Controversies
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Lieberman and Collins Try to Pass Bill Weakening FBI Whistleblower Protection
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Wednesday, March 17, 2010
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Legislation being fast-tracked through the U.S. Senate has been labeled a setback for protections guarding government employees who expose wrongdoing in the FBI and other national security operations.
According to the National Whistleblowers Center, the bill (S. 372) by Senators Joseph Lieberman (I-Connecticut) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) “will set whistleblower protections back 30 ...
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Obama Fights against Congressional Oversight of Spy Agencies
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Wednesday, March 17, 2010
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President Barack Obama is threatening to veto legislation that funds intelligence agencies unless Congress backs off on several fronts to expand oversight of the intelligence community.
For starters, lawmakers want to give the Government Accountability Office, which investigates most but not all federal offices, the authority to probe intelligence agencies. Currently, only the inspectors ...
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Wal-Mart Fires Employee with Cancer for Using Medical Marijuana
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Wednesday, March 17, 2010
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Suffering from sinus cancer and an inoperable brain tumor, Joseph Casias, 29, took the advice of his doctor and started using marijuana for medicinal purposes, which is permitted under state law in Michigan after it was approved by voters in 2008. But his employer, Walmart, still fired him after he tested positive for the drug on a routine drug test after he sprained his knee at work.
Cas ...
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Opinion from the Left
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Give Haitian Garment Workers a Raise…to $5 a Day: Robert Naiman
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Friday, February 26, 2010
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If the United States really wants to help earthquake-ravaged and poverty-stricken Haiti, it can do more than just send emergency relief, says foreign policy analyst Robert Naiman. Washington
could use its influence to convince the Haitian government to raise the minimum wage for garment workers to at least $5 a day. As low as that sounds, such an increase would represent more than a 50% increase ...
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Dead Foreigners are Good for Ratings, but Not Dead Americans: Dave Lindroff
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Wednesday, February 17, 2010
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Bringing out someone else’s dead, as long as they’re from another country, is fine on network television, writes Dave Lindroff at The Public Record. But forget about it if the deceased are Americans, especially those in uniform fighting terrorists overseas.
Lindroff has taken exception to NBC’s decision last week to show, without reservation, the grisly footage of Notar ...
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Create a Non-Military Draft: William L. Hauser and Jerome Slater
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Saturday, January 23, 2010
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Military veterans William Hauser and Jerome Slater want to bring back the draft—the likes of which America has never experienced. Hauser, a retired Army colonel and Vietnam veteran, and Slater, professor emeritus of political science at SUNY Buffalo and former naval officer, argue the war against terrorism is going to be a long one, and the military today just isn’t large enough to mee ...
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Opinion from the Right
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Legalize the Selling of Bone Marrow: Steve Chapman
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Monday, March 15, 2010
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It is for good reason that there are laws on the books preventing people from buying and selling organs in the United States, writes Steve Chapman of the Chicago Tribune. But concerns about ghoulish markets developing around dying patients should not apply to those in need of bone marrow transplants to combat cancer.
Unlike livers or kidneys, which can’t be replaced by a donor, bone ...
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Education…Let Parents Choose: John Stossel
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Saturday, February 20, 2010
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Leaving education in the hands of the government has resulted in rising costs and flat-lining tests scores, notes Fox News television correspondent John Stossel, who wants to give parents the choice of sending their kids to private schools.
He says government spending on education has nearly doubled over the past 30 years, but hasn’t resulted in greater achievement by students. Furt ...
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Conservative Solutions to Health Care: R. Emmett Tyrell, Jr.
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Saturday, January 30, 2010
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R. Emmett Tyrell, Jr., founder and editor in chief of The American Spectator, has several conservative alternatives to the Democrats’ healthcare reform “monstrosity.” For starters, the expense of the American medical system, which has kept millions from accessing care, could be offset by allowing every citizen, except Medicare recipients and military personnel, to receive a refun ...
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U.S. and the World
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Afghan District Governor Pleads for U.S. Troops
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Saturday, March 13, 2010
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Adding tens of thousands of American troops to Afghanistan this year will still leave some provinces short on help, even in areas where the Taliban is well established. Abdul Qayoom Khan, governor of Zabul province, has begged for more U.S. soldiers to bolster what is only a thousand men guarding an area with about 300,000 Afghans belonging to more than twenty tribes. Zabul also shares a 40-mile s ...
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State Department Tour for Pakistan Legislators Falls Apart over Body Scanning
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Friday, March 12, 2010
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Six members of the legislature from Pakistan, invited to visit the United States by the State Deparatment, left the country early because they refused to go through additional screening at Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington, DC.
The delegation was planning to catch a domestic flight to New Orleans as part of their tour, but became insulted when two of them were pulled aside from ...
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Brazil, with Rare WTO Approval, Threatens U.S. with Trade Sanctions
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Wednesday, March 10, 2010
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After eight years of complaints, Brazil is now threatening to impose stiff trade sanctions against the United States over U.S. subsidizing of cotton production. Brazil has appealed to the World Trade Organization (WTO), which first ruled that the American subsidies were a violation of international law and then approved Brazil’s list of pending tariffs on U.S. exports.
A total of mo ...
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Appointments and Resignations
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Ambassador to Australia: Who is Jeff Bleich?
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Tuesday, February 16, 2010
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The government of Australia is got none other than an Elvis Presley-loving California lawyer and friend (and fundraiser) of President Barack Obama as the new American ambassador. Jeffrey Bleich was confirmed by the Senate November 11, 2009.
Bleich attended Amherst College in Massachusetts, earning a Bachelor of Arts in political science, magna cum laude, in 1983. He received a fellowship ...
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Deputy Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services: Who Is Janey Thornton?
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Tuesday, February 16, 2010
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On April 1, 2009, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, with the approval of President barack Obama, appointed Dr. Janey Thornton the next Deputy Undersecretary of Agriculture for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services. Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services administers programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly known as Food Stamps), the Food Program for Women, Infan ...
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Under Secretary of Agriculture for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services: Who is Jim Miller?
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Tuesday, February 16, 2010
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James W. “Jim” Miller, confirmed as under secretary of agriculture for farm and foreign agricultural services on April 2, 2009, is a longtime farmer from the state of Washington who also has lobbied on behalf of agricultural interests in Washington, DC.
Miller, 59, graduated from Washington State University, where he received a degree in business administration, with an emphas ...
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