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25 May 2010 10:53

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World: Madagascar’s shaky government directly affecting the environment

  • cause In March 2009, 16-year-old (not really) Andry Rajoelina took over the island’s shaky, weakened government in a coup.
  • reaction Since then, the country’s huge, diverse rainforests have been cut down en masse for sake of huge profits. source
  • » Cha-ching!: The government has been reportedly turning a blind eye to the massive damage to the country’s rainforest because they’re reportedly taking in some of the ill-gotten profits. How much money are we talking? $167 million or more. For a nation like Madagascar, that’s huge.

25 May 2010 10:40

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Politics: The White House has lots of non-answer answers on Joe Sestak

  • I don’t think any questions will be left unanswered on this.
  • Senior Obama adviser David Axelrod • Not really answering the questions about the job the administration reportedly offered Joe Sestak to not run against Arlen Specter. While the administration has said the situation was legal and vetted by a lawyer, they’ve declined to give any further details. It’s a situation that’s giving Congress fits. They want an investigation of the situation, not assurances that it’s legal. source

25 May 2010 10:31

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U.S.: Immigration officials more proactive about nailing businesses

Man in center: “Hahahaha, yeah man, but seriously, do you have papers? I just got charged with a bunch of felonies for using illegal immigrants.” source

25 May 2010 10:13

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Biz: The paywall hits: The Times and Sunday Times now cost money

  • £1 the cost for an online copy of the paper each day
  • £2 the cost for a weekly subscription
    for the titles source
  • » The first two months are free: If nothing else, Rupert Murdoch’s charges for the Times and the Sunday times won’t hit users right away. This mirrors our experience with Newsday to some degree. The major difference? It costs around half as much. It’s $2.88 versus $5 per week.

25 May 2010 10:01

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Biz: The stock market’s looking pretty cruddy in early trading

  • -2.6% the decline of the Dow Jones industrial this morning
  • -2.8% the decline of the S&P 500 in early trading this morning
  • -2.9% the decline of the NASDAQ; all have had cruddy months source

25 May 2010 09:52

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World: Thailand decides to treat old prime minister like terrorist

  • Former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra reportedly funded the Red Shirt protests. And it wasn’t a modest amount, either – over ten weeks, Thaksin reportedly gave $1.5 million to the opposition efforts each day. So now he’s wanted on terrorism charges and could face the death penalty. He hasn’t had a super-charmed life of late – the government took $1.4 billion of his assets in February after an unfavorable high-court decision. The opposition isn’t backing down, either, as they attempted to impeach current PM Abhisit Vejjajiva. source