Unprecedented July Cold – Arctic Sees Shortest Summer On Record
http://iceagenow.info/2013/08/unprecedented-july-cold-arctic-sees-shortest-summer-record/
“Normally the high Arctic has about 90 days above freezing. This year there was less than half that,” says Steven Goddard website.
In the first week of February 2012, the Big Three networks lunged to the defense of Planned Parenthood when the Susan G. Komen Foundation (very temporarily) withdrew its donation to abortion giant (about $680,000 the previous year). Network reporters whacked Komen, promoting “outrage and disappointment engulfing the Internet.”
But Mollie Hemingway of Get Religion pointed out that Planned Parenthood in Texas was recently forced to pay the state of Texas $4.3 million for Medicaid fraud. Where was the “outrage and disappointment” engulfing the media? The networks didn’t notice. Even the local newspaper coverage was terrible.
Hemingway noticed two small wire-service bulletins and ten reports from pro-life and Christian websites represented the media coverage.
Good for Reuters, I guess? Their story frames the fraud charge not as part of a national fraud problem for the abortion provider but as just the latest in a battle between Republican legislators and the abortion provider. But, again, at least they mentioned it. As for the Associated Press, their story is seven sentences long, includes no quotes, and could not be drier or less interesting if it tried.
It didn’t come up in my Google search but I thought I’d see about any stories in The Houston Chronicle. Well, that newsroom did report on it, sort of.
There’s a whopping four-paragraph story headlined “Planned Parenthood finalizes $4.3 million lawsuit settlement.” That was an update of the earlier story they ran — the seven-sentence AP story that said the settlement was $1.3 million. Way to put those local resources to work, fellas!
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Natl Sec Adv Susan E. Rice cleans a stain on VP Joe Biden's suitcoat today pic.twitter.com/WWCAVZhSBs
— petesouza (@petesouza) August 2, 2013
That’s a chart compiled by NPR based on House Ways & Means Committee data about groups whose names put them on the IRS “be on the lookout” list while applying for tax-exempt status. Despite claims that all sorts of groups were targeted, this suggests that the Tea Party and “patriot” groups really took it on the chin. “The analysis is the closest so far to an objective numerical accounting of how the groups were treated by the IRS,” writes NPR, which also quotes Dems and Reps complaining about bias in the investigation.
Recall that back in May, President Obama – who has not been implicated in the scandal – called the IRS’ behavior “intolerable and inexcusable.” More recently – last week – he called it a “phony scandal.”
The 2012 killing of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin has led to various rallies, boycotts, and even songs. Now, the NAACP is leading the way in an effort to force legal changes across the United States in an attempt to prevent another similar situation.
The NAACP created “Trayvon’s Law,” a series of legislative policies that aims to “end racial profiling, repeal stand your ground laws, form effective civil complaint review boards to provide oversight of police misconduct, improve training for community watch groups, mandate law enforcement to collect data on homicide cases involving non-whites, and address the school to prison pipeline,” NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Jealous explained in a statement according to AllHipHop.
“What happened to Trayvon Martin must never happen again,” Jealous said according to Jet Mag. “Trayvon’s Law will serve as the foundation for community advocates as they work to end laws and practices that contributed to his death and to create new policies that will prevent further tragedies.”
The Obama administration has granted members of Congress and their staffers an exemption from a provision of Obamacare that could have cost them thousands of dollars a year in added health insurance costs, according to Politico.
Congress currently allots itself generous health coverage through the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program. Nearly 75 percent of premiums are taken care of. But under Obamacare, our representatives and their worker bees will be thrown onto the health care exchanges like millions of Americans – without the FEHB subsidy. Fair is fair, right?
Well, just two days after Obama assured Democratic lawmakers he was on the case – though make no mistake, many Republicans want action too – the administration has ruled that while Congress must hit the exchanges, the subsidy for their insurance will continue.
It’s good to be the king. And it’s good to be the nobility too.
The woman charged with defacing portions of the Washington National Cathedral with green paint will be monitored by both federal immigration and local officials after her release from the D.C. Jail.
D.C. Superior Court Judge Frederick Sullivan on Friday ordered 58-year-old Jia M. Tian to wear a GPS monitoring bracelet and be released to a halfway house, where she would not be allowed to leave or have visitors, rather than staying in jail pending trial.
But because Ms. Tian is in the country illegally — she has a Chinese passport and was traveling on an expired visa when she was arrested — federal immigration officials will also keep an eye on her. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement planned to enroll Ms. Tian in a federal monitoring program while “she is in removal proceedings,” spokesman Brandon A. Montgomery said.
An ICE detainer placed on Ms. Tian was lifted after the judge’s ruling and she won’t be deported from the country before her court case is resolved, he said.
It was too early to tell Friday to what extent ICE officials would monitor Ms. Tian, with whom they had not yet met, but options could range from in-person meetings to phone calls to GPS monitoring.
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